Penn Oktoberfest

Brewed by Pennsylvania Brewing Company
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA

Had this on draft. Not too bad of a beer here. Couldn’t really figure out the aroma but there was something there. Had a great aftertaste that left you wanting to have some more.

Penn is a brewery that I have large swings with. I love their weizen and St. Nick but the rest of their beer tend to be crap. I put this one in the latter category. Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a medium yellow color with a very small white head. There was a sour grainy aroma. The flavor was sour malt with a tangy finish. Ugh.

Very very pleased with this beer. I tried it after seeing it listen in Michael Jackson’s 500 Great Beers book. It has a cool bottle too. Anyway, the beer pours a dark copper color with off white head. Aroma is sweet and malty. The flavor is quite quite good, as a mix of malts and caramel flavors. Has a little bit of hop accent but nothing that alters the overall sweet taste. Goes down great.

Toasty malt and mild yeast aroma. Pours brown/copper. Fluffy off-white head. Tastes a little hoppier than it smells. Dry tasting roasted malts with a mild yeast finish. Not bad but definately nothing to rave about.

Some nice light toasted malt aroma. Cream colored head that slowly faded. Some slightly toasted sweet malt flavor that gave way to some bitterness with a drier finish than I was expecting. A decent O-fest that I would like to try when it is fresher because I think this bottle is showing some signs of age.

the great label shows a festive bavarian couple-- a guy and gal in full traditional costume. he's hefting a sudsy stein-- but she's got six of 'em! i know which one i'm hangin' with. this well-headed waffle-colored pour was tasted and probed and fussed over beside a hacker-pschorr oktoberfest and a lakefront riverwest stein vienna-- and overall the penn was humbled by the comparison-- mostly by coming in third in depth of flavor. also, unshakable was an impression of sweaty t-shirt in the aroma. if i hadn't got that notion planted in my mind, i might have raved about the other qualities of aroma, like the melting honey oozing through steaming wheat toast effect, and the almost minty-green freshness of the hops. it's light bodied on a framework of creamy carbonation, with sweet orange cake and caramel beside a concommitant persuasion of watery tea-like bitterness. it's in mike jackson's great beer guide-- that means it's okay in my book too-- this sample was probably past it's prime.

2003 Bottle. Pours a mildly hazy copper with a quickly dissipating 2cm white head. Aroma is mild--yeast and malts. Start is tangy with some citrus noted. Finish is smooth. Acceptable palate. Slightly above average oktoberfest.

Pleasant. Caramelly, toasty, fruity aromas, unobtrusive hops. Doesn't require introspection and small sips. Description says mellow and so it is. Perhaps too much so.