Petes Wicked Oktoberfest

Petes Brewing Company
Formerly brewed at Matt Brewing Company
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
San Antonio, Texas USA

Pours amber with a decent sized white head. Aroma of sweet malts, toffee, and nuts. Flavor is smooth, malty, thin , with a dry finish, not a good oktoberfest, but an ok brew. Boring and forgettable.

Pours a nice medium amber. Sweet malt aromas with hints of nuts. Flavor is kinda sweet with caramel/malt, finishes with a touch of spice.

Bread dough and toffee in the aroma. Clear amber body with a nice off-white head. Caramel, toffee, nuts and butterscotch flavours blend together nicely with almost no hop character. Medium-light body with a somewhat slick texture. Sampled in Dallas, 2001. Bottle. Entered from notes.

ooh, this was good, sweet and flavorful made me feel like I was visiting Germany during a beer fest and tasting a really great brew.

My favorite Maarzen. Had no idea this stuff was made by Matt’s now. I guess most all in Upstate NY is. Nice reddish color, nice hops and balance. Recommended if you like the style.

GLBF: Another thin, but OK crafted Oktoberfest. Nutty maltiness and slight caramellyness, thin but tasty maltiness. Some dryness and hullness at the finish.

I typically like Petes. The color and aroma were impressive, but the lingering aftertaste of this Octoberfest really turned me off. Not bad going down, but the film it leaves on your teeth is something else. I could still taste it for quite a while. It overpowered my Beck’s Octoberfest I had next (which is much better).

Pete’s beers are not supposed to rank highly, but I have to go against the grain here. This is a spanking beer from start to finish. It doesn’t easily fall within the Oktoberfest/Marzen style, in my opinion--it is too sweet for that without the depth of dry, German hops that I would have expected. Clear, amber/bronze color with some clinging head maintained for a long time. The aroma has a bit of alcohol effevescence with a big caramel maltiness and some shortbread. Immediately smooth on the palate, oily, silky, especially as the beer warms up and the carbonation fades. A lot of caramel in the mid-finish, but some really nice nutty, almost vanilla notes, plus some wheat-bread toast, with a depth that made me think of a weak doppelbock or something akin. Definitely sweet up front, but there was a nice finish ending just a bit dry and crisp. It really punched all of my buttons, making for a well-rounded beer that was enjoyable solo, and then with some food (a homemade moderately spicy bean/tomato chili) in the second half. I can’t deny it a decent score simply for elitism’s sake.