Oktoberfest Taste Test

Me at Oktoberfest in Helen, Georgia. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

I know, I know. Oktoberfest is a German thing. But my birthday was Wednesday, and the themed party extended from last weekend to this weekend.

We started with a quick weekend trip to Helen, Georgia, a Southern mountain town that converted itself into an Alpine village. This marks the 45th year the hamlet has hosted its own Oktoberfest, and the wife and I never really need an excuse to party.

All over Helen, you will find German-style biergartens and restaurants. We gorged ourselves on German food, especially at the Old Bavaria Inn, which has a nice assortment of rare German beers in the bottle. We also sampled Oktoberfest beers from Erdinger, Hofbräu, Paulaner, and Warsteiner,

As I’ve mentioned, I am a big fan of Oktoberfest/Märzen beers. So to complete my birthday celebration, my wife and I planned a huge German feast and a special Oktoberfest blind taste test this weekend.

We invited a few of our best beer-drinking friends to help us out. Why do we need help you may ask? Well, we had 19 Oktoberfest beers to sample, pitting German beers against their American counterparts.

Yes, 19! Crazy, right? Here they are in all their glory.

All 19 Oktoberfest beers. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

Here’s the German list.

• Ayinger Oktober Fest-Märzen
• Erdinger Festweiße
• Hofbräu Oktoberfest
• Paulaner Oktoberfest Märzen 
• Spaten Oktoberfest
• Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier

And here’s the USA list.

• Ballast Point Brewing Dead Ringer Oktoberfest
• Blue Pants Brewery Oktoberfest
• Foothills Brewing Oktoberfest
• Goose Island Beer Company Oktoberfest
• Harpoon Brewery Oktoberfest
• Highland Brewing Company Clawhammer Oktoberfest
• Leinenkugel Brewing Company Oktoberfest
• Olde Hickory Brewery Oktoberfest
• Red Hare Brewing Hasenpfeffer Oktoberfest
• Samuel Adams OktoberFest
• Shiner Brewery Oktoberfest
• Sierra Nevada Brewing Company Oktoberfest
• Victory Brewing Company Festbier

We broke the beers up into three random flights of 6, 6, and 7. I had four tasters: two hop-head women and two malt-maniac men. The Germans and Americans were mixed freely in each flight, leading up to a final five-beer heat.

The top five finalists were Ballast Point Dead Ringer, Foothills Oktoberfest, Highland Clawhammer, Leinenkugel Oktoberfest, and Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier.

And the winner was Asheville, North Carolina’s own Highland Brewing Company Clawhammer Oktoberfest!

Frankly, I was a little surprised that the Germans did not fair better. Ballast Point Dead Ringer Oktoberfest came in a close second. So congrats all around.

Now, as your trusted beer journalist and social scientist, I remained an objective observer for this experiment. However, I couldn’t help getting in on the fun. It was my birthday after all.

My wife, Rhiannon, in Helen, Georgia, for Oktoberfest. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

Bonus points; I asked my wife to run the experiment for me. My results are dubious since the beers by this time had begun to warm. I can’t vouch for my taste test at all, but here are my results anyway.

My top five were: Ballast Point, Erdinger, Foothills, Samuel Adams, and Shiner. My overall winner was Samuel Adams Oktoberfest. Again, take that one with a grain of salt.

Beer Review: Corsendonk Pater Dubbel Ale

Corsendonk Pater Dubbel Ale with goblet. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

Well, it is finally here. The wife and I are heading out tomorrow for Oktoberfest in Helen, Georgia. Beers, beer cheese, and beer brats!

As I mentioned in my last post, while I love Belgian beers the most, I do enjoy a great German beer from time to time. Ayinger‘s Celebrator Doppelbock is probably my favorite German beer, and it is as close to a Belgian quad as a German beer gets. Moreover, you get a little plastic goat charm you can put on your Christmas tree.

Also, as I mentioned before, my consumption of German beers and German style beers increases during the fall. But I managed to squeeze in another Belgian before heading out of town.

My first beer review on this blog was a Corsendonk. So I figured it was time to revisit these abbey beers, named for a priory in Oud-Turnhout, Belgium, and brewed by Brasserie Du Bocq in Purnode, Belgium. My selection was the Pater Dubbel Ale.

Smell: Spicy, musty, tangy.

Corsendonk Pater Dubbel Ale poured into goblet. Copyright 2015 by Andrew Dunn.

Sight: This beer pours a deep, dark brown. It’s almost black with a big creamy latte head.

Taste: Pater Dubbel has a sweet malt flavor, firm bitters, and a dry spiciness. There’s a bit of caramel here. There is also a rather pronounced metallic flavor with the first sip that lingers.

Alcohol: For a double, this is pretty low at 6.5 percent. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though.

Overall: It’s not a bad brew. I like the back end better than the start. That metallic flavor, which I find in almost all Corsendonks I’ve ever tried, is really off putting though.

Bottom line: You can normally find a bottle of Corsendonk in the shops for around $4-$5, which isn’t a bad price. Bars often have it for about $8-$9. I’d say try it. It’s a classic. And frankly, the bottles are cool.