Beer Review: Spaten Oktoberfest
As you can probably tell by the length of this list, I'm a strong believer in beer diversity. I love going to bars with a good beer selection (especially a lot of seasonals) because it's a great chance to try new beers without buying an entire six pack. No one likes getting stuck with five more crappy beers. While out last Friday, I had the chance to sample the taps at a decent bar. They had all of the usual suspects but also many microbrews and seasonals. I tried a few beers, including the Spaten Oktoberfest. I plan on reviewing them all over the course of the week, but I'll tackle the Spaten first. This Oktoberfest had a brown-bronze color. It's a shade darker than the Leine's Oktoberfest. There was a decent amount of head that managed to hang around longer than I expected. The aroma is rich and full. It smells mostly like malts with some hops detectable as well. The flavors are also fairly rich. The breadiness of the malts dominates the flavor. A surprising but complimentary sweet caramel is also detectable. It's a good balance. The flavors seem weighty, but the beer actually has a pretty light mouthfeel. It's highly drinkable. The crisp finish helps that too. This was probably my favorite Oktoberfest of the year so far. I look forward to having another.
