Les Trois Mousquetaires Oktoberfest 2007

Formerly brewed at Les Trois Mousquetaires
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Brossard, Canada

750ml corked bottle: This is one of my favorite styles so indulge me while I fawn over this fine example. The Look: Color and cap are perfect to style: glowing red-amber orange lightly hazed with a massive frothy off-white cap that lasts and laces up the stein. Aroma: Big Munich malt breadiness over woody-herbal nobles, very subtle spiciness some earthy notes..perfect nose to this. The delivery: Big chew on fat double decocted bready- toasty malts in the front...boarders on sweet but not ... but by middle this gets balanced with the herbal-woodiness of long boil Hallertau and spalters, some earthy tones ad to the toasty smooth character...finishes long and clean but damp with maltiness and hops in near balance...great toasty-bready after taste. Rich, satisfying, smooth and drinkable...all the prerequisites for the style....many are called but few deliver a real Bavarian fest marzen but it was done here...again. LTM...you guys rock!!

Malter, legerement carameliser, une petite note de miel. Le corps et le gaz sont parfait. Un autre succes pour Les Trois Mousquetaires. Malty, lightly caramelized, notes of honey. body and carbonation are perfect. An other succes for Les Trois Mousquetaires.

Bottle... This beer rocks!... Clear, light copper lager with a mid-sized, fizzy, white head. Great retention. The aroma puts forward notes of caramel, honey, biscuit and maple. Full-bodied and chewy with tingly carbonation. Malty-sweet, fruity and minerally with remarkable balance. Malty, fruity, nicely roasted finish. A shout goes out to glouglouburp for providing the bottle!

My Bottom Line:
This Oktoberfest Lager expresses its maltiness most wisely with fruity caramel suffused throughout serene toasted bread allusions., as spicy hop subtleties grow within and finishing wooden hops are joined by a proficient toasted malt undertow. This is as authentically Bavarian as it can get outside of Germany.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A sticky sheet of foam lays atop the glowing amber red.
-Carbonation is quite active, but remains very comfortable.
-This is so drinkable (but never frail), I just feel like gluttonously downing the whole 750ml bottle in a few minutes.
-The malty fruitiness is quite eloquent, yet is never defined by one or two specific fruit.

Bottle.

Reddish to copper hue covered by a tight, dense, mostly lasting off-white foam. Immediately bready, vigorously toasty maltiness playing both the subtlety and the full-flavoured games. Fruity whispers complement the sweetish leanings, the latter of which are swiftly compensated by the appropriate, very german, slightly earthy, but mostly leafy hops. Tight carbonation keeps the flavours in track and ensures a controlled sweetness feel. Very clean, yet rather rich. One to make you wonder if classics like Orval were once improving so much year on year off. How exciting this must have been.

On tap somewhere in Montreal, St. Bocks? I think. This one was a very pleasant suprise because I usually find Octoberfests overspiced. Poured a deep reddish/amber with an average size off white head, well as best as I could tell in the dimly lit bar was that it was off white. Aroma of spice, bready, lots of malts and sweet. Flavor was even better lots of complexity with layers of biscut, dark fruit, toffee, malts that has a pleasant swetness to it. I could of drank this all night but there more brew pubs to explore and shenanigans to be had.

Can shared with jerc, mabel, blankboy & mds - courtesy of blankboy. Ruby-amber with a good sized white head that leaves lots of lace. Very nice aroma with sweet caramel malt, an earthy backnote, and some spicy/herbal hops. Full bodied. Flavour is just as good as the aroma - sweet, toffeeish malt off the top, a slightly smoky nuttiness in the middle, and a solid helping of hops to bring it together in the finish. As with the ’06, this is a fantastic example of the style.

Decent sized frothy off white head of fine bubbles. Minimal carbonation. Sweet malts and roasted grains in the aroma with a bit of nuts and some sort of berry in the background. Color is a beautiful crimson brown. The beer just glows when you hold it up to the light. Light roasty flavor with some biscuity malts, bit of dryness and bitterness and maybe a hint of tart cranberry. There is something in the background which I just cant place. Finishes dry and roasty with a hint of tartness. I expected this to be a pretty poor brew but am plesantly surprised. If I would have known that it was this good I would have saved it for a tasting. Thanks to etowneraser for this one.