Christian Moerlein Oktoberfest

Formerly brewed at Lion Brewery, Inc.
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania USA

This is an authentic malty Oktoberfest/Marzen/Vienna-style lager. I’ve enjoyed it from the bottle and on tap. Color is amber. The head is frothy and long-lasting. Rich malt flavors abound (true to the style) with a noticeable flavor of alcohol. This one has a kick! Hops are subdued but they come through in all the right places. I have it on good authority that next fall, this seasonal beer will be available in 12-oz. bottles instead of 7-ounce. This brand is primarily found in Greater Cincinnati.

I like that this is a bit darker and thicker than traditional marzen. It’s also got a strong hops presence. Almost like a holiday brew to honest, but I like it.

Bottle. Pours coppery with a fairly dense head. Smells grainy and sweet corn malty. Some hops present as well. Tastes sweet with the different malts, cereal grains, maybe even nutty, and then some bittering from the decent amount of hops. Long sweet aftertaste. Pretty good.

7 oz bottle. Pours a deep amber with thin tan head that dissipated quickly. Aroma is yeasty with a hint of spices. Nice mixture of hops and caramel malts, although a bit sweet. Not bad though.

From a bottle - This one poured a reddish brown liquid with a light tan, very quickly diminishing thin head and a sweet malt aroma. This truely is an Oktoberfest marzen, and its malty flavor is strong with caramel like sweetness and some complex, spicy undertones. All in all, another fine beer from the Christian Moerlein folks! --- Oh, and just for general info, Christian Moerlein was an old Cincinnati pre-prohibition brewer with a repudation for top-quality beer, and his formulas were (68 years later) reproduced by the Hudepohl Brewing Company - which later merged with Schoenling Brewing - and it’s Moerlein’s likeness on every bottle.

12 oz. Nice looking copper coloured beer, with a small tan head, leaves nice lacing. Quite good malt driven aromas, caramel, slightly hopped. Nice semi-bitter malts mostly, get almost creamy near the end, then a qyuick finish with an after taste of hops. Ok on the palte, could be a wee bit thicker. Overall not a bad little beer.

7 oz. bottle. Lovely dark amber with a small, white head. Aroma is big and eveloping, with lots of malt and caramel with some slight alcohol astrigency. Flavor is a bit off-putting; lots of malts and caramel, but unfortunately something offensive is also in here, and I think it’s the alcohol, which is disappointing because this doesn’t have any warmth of a high-alcohol beer (although I don’t have the numbers); it may just be that there are far, far too much hops for the style. Medium-bodied and sticky. Different; not bad.

Hey! This is good! The Sky Blue label on the bottle reads Octoberfest... so I expected a Hefeweizen type of brew. The beer pours pumpkin orange with a big frothy head. Not much aroma other than a few wisps of hops. Flavor was a typical Hefe spice crossed with a Pale Lager. A very slight aftertaste was malt with just a trace of clove. It works really well. Many of these could be consumed in a setting. It took 3 bottles to fill my stein. I enjoyed this beer and would drink it again.