Octoberfest…Oktoberfest…Festbier… who knows

For the past three years Iʻve bought lots of Oktoberfest (Octoberfest, Festbier, Marzen et al) brews to review. Did I review them. Nada. But I did enjoy them. This year Iʻve decided to actually review  a few.

Ahh. The memories. But first I wanted to talk about Ocktoberfest. The inter-web tells us that this is a 16-day German beer festival that occurs in late September/early October. You can Google the rest of the history and Ocktobefest vs Octoberfest vs. Festbier vs Marzen. Too confusing. But here in the states… it comes in late July…. thatʻs when the brews start heading out. Iʻve bought cases, mini-kegs, singles… all hit the shelves in August. Ah, more to that story.

I remember Founders (Octoberfest and Ultimate Oktoberfest), Wild Leap, Bells. Reformation, Sam Adams, Bold Monk, Victory, Warsteiner, Edmundʻs Oast and a slew of others. 

Warsteiner….that kinda triggers me.  In August I decided to prep early for an Ocktoberfest dinner our church was holding… in October. Costco had Warsteiner 24-packs on sale. I decided I would help the cause and make sure we had some real Ocktoberfest brew. My last church would have Bud or such for Ocktoberfest. A travesty.  Knowing the good stuff would be gone way before October got here I bought 3 cases. It was in the $20ish price range. I also bought one mini-keg of Breckenridge and two mini-kegs of Hofbrau Oktoberfest. Plus there was three 6-packs of Athletic Brewingʻs NA Ocktoberfest. I was ready. 

I have to admit, according to the timestamp on my iPhone,  I sampled the Warsteiner on August 18. I also tried some of the Founders Ultimate Oktoberfest about the same time. Damn, it was good.

On Sept. 22nd, 2 days short of my 69th, I celebrated riding my bike 69 miles with a Victory Festbier, a single I had bought.  It was great. Of course after riding 69 miles anything would taste great.

I was set to make sure our churchʻs Oktoberfest dinner would have some great beer. On September 27th a bitch named Helene paid a visit. I donʻt even know where to start…. or finish on that one. We were blessed in that the house was intact. But the 15 trees, most supplied by my neighbors, left my yard a real … er … mess. That was Friday. On Monday I finally grabbed one of the traveling tree crews out of Atlanta that descended on the area. I had tried the locals but no one was calling back. They were too busy with the rich folks up on the hill… or their own families. Mrs. Dan had met a crew on Saturday and was pushing me to get this done quick before the county came to pick up the damage. She had already gotten a price, $11,000. I was skeptical. She said “they have a crane and they are doing work for a neighbor.” The joke was on her. The county picked up in December, and these guys didnʻt have a crane, the one she saw belonged to another crew and they didnʻt work across the street, that was an uncle who looked hispanic.  

They spoke fairly good english. And they did have a business license in Atlanta and was highly rated. They were honest in how much damage they would do to the backyard with their Bobcat. I opted for them to do the front and side yard. I had spent too much on landscaping the backyard. Couldnʻt do much more damage in the front or the side yard. Eliminating the backyard lowered it to a more reasonable $6,000 for 5 large trees. They showed at 8:00 and were done by noon.  I was amazed at what they accomplished in less than 4 hours. I asked the owner if his crew liked “Cerveza”? “Si” was the reply. So one case of Warsteiner was delivered and immediately unpacked and placed in the big cooler on their truck. Later when they passed through the neighborhood I asked them how they liked the beer and I got thumbs up all around.

I donated the second case to …. Iʻm scratching my head on that one. Someone drank it. Wasnʻt me.

The third case was slowly consumed, by me, over the fall. One Hofbrau mini-keg was given to some friends at church who love beer and the other graced our HOA Christmas party. The Breckenridge was donated to the church vestry Christmas party (which I attended and enjoyed). 

Ironically the week after Helene hit I made it over to the church and found all of the pre-made Oktoberfest food in the freezer. It had suffered the same consequences that everyone else had suffered.  Tons of frozen food thawed in September heat with no electricity. It was painful to throw out. Oh, and the Ocktoberfest Dinner was canceled. Glad I hadnʻt bought my tickets yet.

So, new year. Iʻve decided to try again. And tonight I review the first one…I bought a six of Wild Leap Ocktoberfest. It looks just like the can they produced last year. The label says “A traditional Ocktoberfest-style lager featuring four of our favorite German malts and hopped with Herkules and Perle hops. This Oktoberfest is a smooth amber larger with a medium body and slight sweet caramel notes.” 

Perfect description. It is a beautiful amber. Nice medium body and ever so sweet. I was tempted to just buy one since I donʻt need to be buying and drinking a six of every Ocktoberbest, Festbrier, Marzen…  or whatever you want to call them. This is actually my third one of the six. Nice way to end the day. Not too heavy, definitely not light. 

And as I finished this little tome I took a look at the born on date. 08/05/2024. Damn, Toast sold me year-old beer. The can looks like last yearʻs because it is last yearʻs. I know these havenʻt been sitting in their main cooler for a year because Iʻm always looking at their Wild Leap. They had it stored somewhere and put it back in the main section.  Wild Leap doesnʻt even mention Ocktoberfest on their website under current brews. Maybe they didnʻt make it this year. 

 Oh hell, still tasted good.