Zero Gravity Oktoberfest

Review Date 9/17/2023 By John Staradumsky

  Style: Oktoberfest   Brewery: Zero Gravity   Country: USA   State: Vermont   $ Per OZ: $.18 (B)   ABV: 5.4%

Hello, Zero Gravity Brewing of Burlington, Vermont! I don’t think I’ve met you before. Well, not until recently anyway. Back in May I drank the tasty Zero Gravity Irish Cream Porter. I took tasting notes as I am wont to do, but haven’t fleshed them out to a posted review yet. I will do that eventually, but for now, I will instead tell you about the second beer from this brewery I have tried, Zero Gravity Oktoberfest.

First of all, hats off to Zero Gravity for their economy of naming in a world where I am quite sure that we will soon run out of unique beer names, if we haven’t already. No, “Zero Gravity Drunken Leprechaun Irish Cream Porter” or “Zero Gravity Dancing Bavarian Oktoberfest” here. Not at all. The names are short and to the point. It is the very model of eponymy in beer.

That is not to say that Zero Gravity names all their beers this way (they don’t). but they do name some of them this way. As Chuck Triplett likes to say, if a brewery does not tell you what style the beer is, he won’t buy it. No worries there Chuck with these two.

Well, mostly anyway. There are really two types of Oktoberfest, Märzen (the original style) and Festbier, the lighter bodied beer served at Oktoberfest in Munich today. Zero Gravity’s version is in the classic Märzen style. As it was late August and the first wave of Oktoberfest brews were arriving on store shelves, I was shopping for some with Half Time beverage. Zero Gravity Oktoberfest was one of the ones I bought.

From the can label:

German malts and hops along with a long lagering give this beer impeccable drinkability. The superb malt flavor is balanced by just a hint of hop bitterness.

PROST!

Ingredients from the website:

MALT Pilsner, German Vienna, Munich I, Munich II

HOPS Tettnang, Hallertau Mittelfruh

Zero Gravity Oktoberfest has an alcohol content of 5.4% by volume and 26 IBUs.  I paid $4.49 for my pint can from Half Time Beverage. Total Wine sells it for $11.49 for a 4-pack of pint cans, and better still $16.99 for a 12-pack of 12-ounce cans. My can is stamped CANNED ON 07/19/23.

Zero Gravity Oktoberfest pours to a bright orange amber color with a thick fluffy white head and a nose of soft toasty nutty malt. Taking a sip, the beer offers up more of that toasted nutty malt in the palate along with some caramel. It finishes balanced with a kiss of grassy bitter hops.

A tasty, if not exceptional, Märzen, I might like more malt here myself, but I enjoyed the beer as it is and would buy it again. Half star tacked on for the bargain basement price where you can get it in 12-packs.

Glad I tried it?  T