Surley Brewing Company Oktoberfest

This one’s light and crisp, invoking the late autumn nights in Minnesota.

ABV: 6.0%

Origin: Minneapolis, Minn

Style: Oktoberfest

His thoughts:

This beer is surprisingly light and crisp for an Oktoberfest. While the malt is there, it’s not center stage. And it’s even less present when drinking from a glass instead of the can.

(Disclaimer - I finished an extremely malty beer only 20 minutes before opening this one.)

I am very much enjoying the tightly carbonated, light – almost summerweight - version of an Oktoberfest. It’s definitely one for early in the season when the afternoon sun is still warm.

it’s so drinkable, I could have three.

Her thoughts:

Before I begin, I feel the need to say the following: If you’ve read the “About Us” section you already know that my husband and I did not spend a single day of our lives in any kind of beer tasting school, nor have we even made beer in a homebrew kit – I don’t think my recent infatuation with making kombucha counts…or can it?

We are merely beer lovers with over 20 years of beer drinking experience (the legal years), and over time we have become especially fond of seasonals, especially German style Marzen beers. It could be that we were married at this time of year and have celebrated our anniversaries (11 of them this year coming) sipping these malty, mildly hoppy tasty treats, or that we love Autumn, and the Marzen style is like the first taste of the season; leading us toward our favorite holiday – we mean Halloween of course! 

Whatever the reason, this couldn’t be a better time to start this blog with our favorite seasonal of all the seasons. –All that to say, be gentle and stay lighthearted. We are here for fun and to share our experience. We welcome yours in turn.

Now on to reviewing the Surley Brewing Company’s Oktoberfest…

This beer had a nice malt-forward aroma in the glass that suggested it was going to be on the sweeter side of the spectrum, but it surprised with being light, toasty, and clean tasting. While it did have a nice sweetness, it was on the back end and left your mouth with a hint of caramelly yum after each sip.

As I drank this beer, it was oddly reminiscent of Labatt Blue, a major favorite of my twenties. If you are not familiar with it, Labatt Blue is a Canadian pilsner so I realize it must seem like my taste buds are broken. While it uses different hops, malts, and barleys, that I believe are native (or at least grown in Canada) I think it’s the malty sweet finish of the Surley that made me nostalgic. This got me to Googling to find out that a pilsner is a kind of lager, which I didn’t know. Fascinating stuff! Let’s learn together, shall we? 😊 It is such because it uses a specific type of yeast that ferments at the bottom of the brew and can withstand cooler temperatures. At any rate, you beer fans probably already knew that, but I thought I would share in case you also found that interesting.

My least favorite thing about this beer was the heavy carbonation. It almost burned my tongue a bit. It was surprising for a beer and was more like a soda. Even in the glass after it sat a few minutes, it was still pretty ‘soda-esque.’ In the can, it was just too much for me and the flavors were almost non-extistent. This is not one I would take to a backyard party and drink from a can, but in a glass it is a nice tasting Oktoberfest and worth a try.