Leinenkugels Oktoberfest

Brewed by Leinenkugel Brewing Company (MillerCoors)
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin USA

Bottle. Pours clear light amber with a 2 finger beige head that leaves decent lacing. The nose is sweet malt, fruit and grain. The taste is grassy hops, grain, caramel malt and light citrus. Medium mouthfeel. Not bad

Pours a brownish amber with an off white head. Aroma is faint caramel malt and metal. Flavor is sweet, grainy malt, metallic bitterness, very thin and watery.

12 oz. - The Wine Source. Amber gold, creamy off white head. Soft toasted caramel aromas with underlying metellaic-like tones. Flavor is one in the same with an added touch of earth. Light bodied, medium carbonation, soft sweet finish. Take the metallic notes away and you might have something...

Pours crisp medium amber with a 1-2 finger beige head that hjas great retention and leaves some decent lacing. Aroma is light bready malt, dried corn, just a little caramel and some herbal notes. Flavor is stale bread crust, herbal notes, some metallic notes, more dried corn, light fruity/apple notes and some sweet caramel malt, which oddly doesn’t seem to present itself much until near the finish. Finish is light herbal hops, mineral and corn. Palate is very light bodied, way over carbonated, and overly dry throughout. Not very good, tastes just like a macro lager with a little caramel color/ cola flavor thrown in, which I suspect it is. Lame. I swear that I used to like this stuff, either my palate has changed significantly, or they have raped the recipe in the last 5-6 years, probably both.

This is truly a bad beer, made worse by higher expectations. I thought Leinenkugel had been a good beer in the past but if sure isn’t now. This is a watery tasteless mess. While not quite in the class of Bud Light it is clearly the team picture. It pours a pretty clear medium amber. There is very little aroma. I can’t taste much malt and only a little hops. WHile it doesn’t say so I am sure there are fillers in it. I started to get disappointed until I looked it up and found that it’s now from Miller-Coors. So it’s my own fault I drank two and plan to dump the rest down the drain.

Bottle. Beautiful amber color and active head on the pour. Aroma was weak, though it carried hints of macro-brew. Flavor is very much corn/macro--too sweet and yet too weak at the same time. No body to speak of. It’s not offensive or anything; it’s barely there at all. Too bad this beer couldn’t live up to its appearance.

Bottle from Sam’s, consumed in my perverse sampling of too many marzens... there are plenty of mediocre-to-bad ones out there, and this falls closer to bad. Pour is promising: bright amber with one-finger off-white head. Faint whiff seems promising enough, too: caramel malt and bread... but inhale a little deeper, and there’s some bad sour/metallic/wet cardboard/dog aromas lurking in there. Even notes of alcohol. Reminds me a bit of how the first beer I ever tried smelled (Milwaukee’s Best Light) smelled. Gross, but only if you inhale too deeply. More obvious on taste. Some evil lurks under the surface of this otherwise okay enough beer.

Bottle, served in a lager glass. Certainly looks the part of an Oktoberfest, a brilliantly clear amber with a thin off-white head. Smells malty and caramely with a hint of noble hops. The flavor is a bit off however due to the presence of DMS. The malt caramel flavor and DMS combine to give it a caramel popcorn characteristic. Bitterness is slightly harsh and intrusive as well. Not a terrible O-fest but not a great one either. One of the better beers from Leininkugels.