Coney Island Freaktoberfest

Shmaltz Brewing Company
Brewed at Olde Saratoga Brewing (Mendocino Brewing Co.)
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
San Francisco, California USA

Courtesy of Sea-Bastian. Pours an un-expected clear cherry red with hues of garnet and topped off by a red to pink foam head. The aroma is sweet sugary red cotton candy, sweet malts and faint caramelization. The taste is thick and sweet with malts, some vague noble hoppiness and more sweetness from sugary sweet malts. I do get some roastiness in there too keeping it somewhat interesting. It ends dry with lingering tingle of hoppiness. Overall a little too sweet for my tastes. Could use just a little more of that mild roastiness for added balance.

bottle - This beer pours reddish-orange with a one finger pink head. Seriously. It’s pink. It smells malty with maybe some mild fruity hops in there. The flavor is mostly sweet caramel with just a touch of fruit and a somewhat odd grainy flavor. There’s a little hops and a medium body. It’s okay, but not worth seeking out unless you just really like the bottle.

Eh, the color of this is scary enough, but the taste doesnt do much either. Very bland and tasteless, except for a wet cardboard thing going on. Pass on this

22oz bottle courtesy Ian. This beer definitely wins on appearance for the name, pours a blood red with a thin white head. Starts to go downhill after that. Aroma is almost non existent, just some bread dough and hint of fruit. Taste is malty and fruit tart. Didn’t really know us out.

22 oz bottle. I don’t care if the beer has an artificial color to it. For a Halloween beer - it suits the mood perfectly. Closing your eyes, this beer is practically no different than any other lager-type micro-beverage out there. Not bad in the least, but not horrid and certainly the flavor did not seem to be affected by the coloring.

Yep, interesting pour for sure, bright red, pink/orange head. Sweet up front, malty, but not that toasty/nutty malt that you normally get, sort of more fruitiness and more candy-like. I thought about this a bit, was it the color that tricks the brain into this? might be. Finish had a lingering bitterness, a bit stronger then a typical marzen, sort of chalky and almost herbal quality to it.

Pours a blood red with a pink head, this freakshow is using food coloring for sure. Aroma of malts, hops, caramel, fruit and spices. Flavor is caramel, hops, spices, malts, some earthiness and a bitter finish. That said this brew is a bit off balance, and it’s best feature is it’s freakish color. It’s best feature is it’s blood red color, but once the gimmick wears off this is just another average oktoberfest beer.

22 oz. bottle from Wine Warehouse. Clear deep red pour with an, um, red head. Hoppy aroma with some grain characteristics. Very grainy taste with an odd fruity hop character. Medium body.