Jack Of All Brews Octoberfest Wrap-Up

Hey folks,  here's a quick recap on the Jack Of All Brews homebrew club October meeting!  See every once in a while I use this blog for official club business!

As always we started the meeting with the club responsibility statement to make sure members drink responsibly.

Dave and Sarah have been finishing their basement and discovered untold piles of brewerania treasures hidden in those unplumbed depths.  They brought some of these riches to the meeting for us to look at and buy.  I got outbid on the massive solid glass Hamm's glass...Several of these items are still for sale on the JAB facebook group so send Dave a message if you are interested.  I thought the old posters, steins and wooden cases made great set dressing for our Octoberfest celebrations!

JAB Brewcred for the past month:  Byggvir's Big Beer Cup (Renfest!!) medals included 4 first place and one third for your's truly.  Josh Welch took a medal for his famous (he won a mash paddle with that one) brown ale as well!

Upcoming events:

1) Hoppy Halloween in Fargo.  Sj, myself, Tyrone, and Annette are going up for the festivities this year.  Anyone else going to Fargo??  Entry is still open and if you get them into Midwest or Northern Brewer by the 16th they'll pick it up and drive it up for you!

2) Primary Fermenters/JAB bulk cider buy at MN Harvest Orchard in Jordan October 25. Here is the link to the facebook event.  Sign up and pay on the google doc linked on that.   Festivities at Tim Roets' almost open brewery after the cider...  https://www.facebook.com/events/533757170116064/

3) Next JAB meeting is at my place again on my birthday November 13th!  Mash paddle style is wood aged beer, so dust off those old bottles and bring them in for us to try!  I know I've got a couple!

4) December meeting plans:  Anyone else want to host this one?  December is no mash paddle, just a big pot luck with homebrews.  We always do a secret beer gift exchange as well.

Mash Paddle:  This month's mash paddle was for Octoberfest beers.  Bryan Budahn was an overachiever and did an extract and all-grain version!  Overall we liked the extract version the most (strange right?) and Bryan took home the coveted Golden Mash Paddle for the month.

The happy victor!  

Because we had an extra prize we also had a secondary contest between the other homebrews of the night.  The winner was Joe Lushine for his brown ale!

Then we had bratwurst feast, and a ton of commercial Octoberfest beers.  Octoberfeast!!!  We sampled German as well as American versions galore.  My personal least favorite was the watery skunk anal gland leakage that was Hofbrau.  Second on that list was the musty basement rotten cork tasting Sprecher Octoberfest.  My top three in order were Ayinger, Waconia Brewing, Town Hall.  I had a great night and hope everyone else did too!  What were your favorites or least favorites from the incredible line-up of beers??

Octoberfest updates

Despite my lack of daily posts, I have continued in my quest to have an Octoberfest/fest/marzen/fall seasonal beer each day this month!  Here is a quick run-down of the last week or so.  I have been too busy to give a huge write-up on each so you will have to settle with a cool picture and a rating.  I think you will survive!

1) Surlyfest:  One of the more interesting versions of the style I've had this month.  Not a traditional version, but what do you expect from a brewery called Surly?  It has a nice body and malty taste, but a spicy and bitter edge that makes it end quite dry and a little astringent.  They use rye and a fair amount of hops for this one, which certainly explains the flavor and mouthfeel I'm getting.  Not bad at all:  2 of 5 as an Octoberfest, but 3.5 of 5 as a nice beer.

2) New Belgium Red Hoptober:  Another quasi-Octoberfest.   I get a nice malty backbone to this, but a large amount of American citrus hops make it taste more like an American Amber.  Beautiful red color though.  Pretty much the same score as the Surlyfest.

3) Left Hand Octoberfest:  I've never had this beer before, and the brewery is known for ales, so I had no idea what to expect.  A pretty classic tasting Festbier with a perfect balance.  4 of 5.

4) New Glarus Staghorn Octoberfest:  Probably the best American example I've had so far.  Malt bomb, but ends dry enough to keep you wanting more.  Complex malty and toasty flavors.
4.5 of 5.

Brewclub and Octoberfest update

On the second Friday of the month Jack Of All Brews has its monthly meeting, and this month I hosted in my basement bar.  We had a great mix of some of our old-school members and new arrivals to mix things up a little.  The weather was wonderful and we were able to spread out onto my patio and light a fire in the firepit.  My firewood has been sitting around waiting for a fire for so long it went up like a torch! 

We had a huge list of homebrewed beer and mead to try, including some of the winning brews from the Byggvir and State Fair competitions.  It was incredibly hard to pick a winner and the two runner's-up were a Galaxy IPA and a Stone Ruination Clone both by Aaron.  The winner of the monthly Golden Mash Paddle was Andrew G. for a Framboise that was as good as any commercial examples I've ever had. 

Next month is Octoberfests and Fest celebration at Tim's place, since I'll be in Belgium! 

I have still been working my way through Octoberfests for the month:

1) Great Lakes Octoberfest: 
Not bad, but more one-dimentional than I expected from them.  They do an amazing Dortmunder Export, and I thought this could use more malt complexity than I found.  Still a nice beer.  3.5 of 5.

2) Schell's Octoberfest:
Served from tap into a leather mug at the MN Renaissance Festival.  Subtle taste of...leather!  Quite refreshing on a dusty 85 degree day at the fest.  I do have a bottle of this that I can try untainted later, but for now I'll count this as a 3.5 of 5.  Oh and yellow jacket wasps really love Schell's as well!

Continuing my quest to have many Octoberfest beers this month...

Things have been crazy busy this last weekend, between me getting Migraine From Hell (TM) and work stuff I have not been keeping up with my writing.  So here is a quick update that should catch me up on my daily Octoberfest experiment.

Beer #8:  Erdinger Octoberfest.   
This one was not what I expected at all!  From the print on the label this one is actually a wheat beer, so it really isn't a true Octoberfest style beer.  With all the strange takes on the style available nowadays, I'll count it.
Appearance: Slightly cloudy, light gold in color with a huge white head that lasts for days.
Aroma: Malty sweetness, spicy hop or even wheat character, some hints of lemon.
Flavor: A medium mouthfeel, ends fairly dry and lager-like.  Some malty sweetness with a bit of spiciness.  Not a lot going on here.  Not a clean lager, not a clovey wheat beer.
Overall:  Not a fantastic beer.  Sj and I thought it was bleh.
Rating: 2 of 5

Beer #9:  Shiner Oktoberfest.

Appearance:  A very classic looking label with, unfortunately, a twist-off top.  Pours deep amber with excellent clarity.  Thick white head lasts for a very long time.
Aroma: Strong malt aroma with a crisp lager character and a note of German hop.
Flavor:  Sweet malt, but layers of flavor here that taste of warm baking bread and sticky-rolls.  Some bitterness present to balance the sweet, but not overwhelming.  Balance much more to the malty.  Ends with an almost doughy dryness.
Overall: Quite a surprise for me!  Based on Shiner's Bock not really being a bock, I didn't have high hopes for this one, but was shocked by how good it was.  The complexity of flavor and mouthfeel on this was great.  So far this is my favorite O-Fest this year.
Rating: 4.5 of 5

Beer #10: Two Brothers Atom Smasher.
Appearance: Nearly orange in color with a thick off-white head made of fine bubbles.
Aroma: Malty and sugary sweet.  Almost like a cinnamon bun rolled around with vanilla and Smarties candies.  Very subtle hop aroma.
Flavor: Like most of these beers, malty sweetness up front with a fairly full mouthfeel.  Flavors of vanilla, pear and cherry pit.  The malty flavor is fairly one-dimensional, lacking the layers of toast and bread I like in the best of these beers.  Ends dry and nearly tannic and astringent.
Overall:  This one is actually aged in large oak barrels.  This technique certainly adds some interesting flavors, but I think the oak hurts the finish of this beer.  Not a classic, but an unusual version of the style.
Rating: 3 of 5

More Octoberfests!

Sorry about the radio silence...I'm still plugging my way through the daily Octoberfest beers!  On Thursday I couldn't drink, so I caught up on that Friday.  We took a trip to The Happy Gnome for a wonderful meal with a huge selection of beers to choose from.  We shared a plate of the Foie Gras and Duck meatballs in mushroom cream sauce with truffle...man can Scott Brink chef the hell out of food!  I then had the wild boar chops and perhaps ate more than my fill.

I paired this wonderful dish with the Widmer OKTO, and the combination was quite nice.  This particular beer is deep gold to amber in color with a large fluffy white head made of fine bubbles.  The aroma was pleasant malty sweetness.  In flavor it struck me as a maltiness with a fairly strong bittering component.  I tasted warm toasted bread and an almost oaty flavor as it warmed up a bit.  The end was dry and just under my threshold for astringency.  Overall, very nice.  A 3 out of 5 for me.

This is what it looked like while the sun was still out!

Feeling that I was probably failing in my quest to have two of these beers on this day, but not being able to pass up a Goose Island Dominique from 2011, we headed home.  However, on the way home we discovered, via social media, that my good friend Dave had just tapped his homebrewed octoberfest and was relaxing out by his fire pit.  By the time we made it there, it was quite dark, but there was a cheery fire across the yard beckoning us closer with the hopes of good conversation and homebrew.  I was served a very pretty and clear orange beer in it's proper glass German stein.  I was pleased with the malty aroma and a hint of spicy hop.  The flavor was complex with layers of malt and bread and a subtle hint of cooked apple.  Bittering was spot-on making this end not too sweet, not too bitter.  I think the only thing that detracted was that slight apple flavor.   I know that this beer spent five months lagering, so it wasn't young.  I'd guess that came from yeast that needed a bigger starter.  I'm splitting hairs here, because I actually liked this one better than the Widmer I had earlier in the day!  Rating 3.5 of 5.  Thanks for sharing, Dave!  And we had a great time talking and hanging out!

Yesterday I was all cued up to head out for Summit's Backyard Bash and drink my fill of Octoberfest with a bunch of my friends.  This was not meant to be.  I ended up with the worst migraine I've had in years, losing vision and most of my insides.  Not a great day.  So I spent most of the day in bed and missed a great time.  Grrrr.  Traitorous brain.  I'll just have to catch up on my fest biers today!

Octoberfest Day 5: Spaten

Not much going on in my beer world yesterday, but I did try my 5th Octoberfest of the month, right on schedule.  This time I went old-school with one of the classic German beers with the unwieldy name of:  Spaten Oktoberfestbier/Oktoberfest Ur-Marzen. 
Aroma:  Redolent of dead skunk basking on the hot asphault along highway 494 at mid-day in summertime.  A mild sweetness wafts out over the skunk-funk.
Appearance:  Poured from a green bottle, this has a deep gold to light amber color with a fine white head that fades quickly.
Flavor:  Crisp lager character with a fairly light to thin body.  Some sweet malt, but very one-note with no complexity or toasted notes at all.  Firm Euro-Skunk flavor really overwhelms anything else in this beer.  I might pick up a slight flowery hop flavor in the finish.  Some bitterness present, but the skunkiness really accentuates this and makes the beer end astringent.
Overall:  This one was a big disappointment to me.  I was hoping for that classic malty decocted goodness, and instead got an astringent and funky blech beer that I couldn't finish.  Why do so many European beers use crappy green bottles that allow skunking of beer?  Do they feel that we American's expect that yummy "imported" flavor and aroma in our beers?  Do they serve them that way back in Germany?  If you translate Spaten from German, does it mean "The viscous and pungent fluid gently expressed from the pulsating anal glands of the Palawan Stink Badger?"
Rating: 2 out of 5.  I have still had worse beers...

The Octoberfest/Marzen experiment begins

For the month of September, I will be attempting to have an Octoberfest/Marzen/Festbeer each day.  For those few days that I can't have a beer because of work schedule, I'll try to have two the next day!
I now have a pretty good stock of beers, but if any of you find some cool ones or hard to find in Minnesota specimens, let me know!  I did manage to track down some of the BJCP preferred commercial examples of the style including Paulaner, Ayinger, Hacker-Pschorr, Victory Festbier, Spaten, and Sam Adams.  It will be interesting to compare these to the other versions I come across.

For September 1st I just happened to be having lunch at the Edina Grill with my lovely wife and her mother.  They have changed the tap list since last time I was there, and now only serve Minnesota beers on tap!  So Summit Octoberfest becomes the first beer on my list.  I was pleasantly surprised to have my beer served at correct temperature in a new sweet Summit glass.  Oh and my mother-in-law managed to get these wicked glasses for us to take home too...

Aroma: Not a lot going on here.  Subtle malty notes and a little floral hop.
Color:  Gold to very light Amber color with fine white head that fades fairly quickly.
Flavor:  Somewhat sharp bitterness and lager crispness that belies the malty nature of this style.  Fairly strong noble hop flavors and a distinct balance to the bitter side of things.  Ends with a fleeting malty taste then fades to a very dry finish.
Overall:  Not a bad beer by any means and would be easy to drink quite a few of them.  This version seems too hoppy and dry and lacks some of that malty smoothness I'm expecting.  Still, a very good beer to pair with banana waffles topped with praline sauce!

Today also happens to be my 11th wedding anniversary and we will be be having an excellent dinner at Terra Waconia to celebrate!   I can not believe that my wonderful wife has tolerated all my home brewing, beer collecting, and other assorted shenanigans for this long.  Raise a pint of something beery and help toast us to 11 more years of this wedded bliss!