Pioneer Black River Red

Brewed by Sand Creek Brewing Co. (Pioneer/Wisconsin Brewing Co.)
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Black River Falls, Wisconsin USA

Pours a transparent copper orange with a large, airy, frothy off-white head. Aroma has some toasty grainy malty notes with a touch of noble hops. Body starts a little thin and semi-sweet with some light toasty caramel notes and earthy, grassy bittering hop balance. An ok Märzen.

Bottled. Poured clear medium orange with a short cap of beige head. Aroma picked up sweet toasty caramel and grains with an herbal, almost medicinal accent to it. Flavor had toasted caramel at the core along with some candy-like sweetness.. sticky herbal surrounding. Lighter-bodied with a decent feel on the palate.. drier back-end with short residual sweetness through the finish. Nice easy-drinkin’ marzen.

This beer pours a nice brownish red color with a half inch head. Not much retention on the head and it settles into a thin ring. Aroma is very malty as the first taste. The malt taste fades and a sweet caramel emerges. I love malty beers and this one is in my wheel house. However, it is not a great marzen.

Poured amber, off white head. Flavor is toffee, toasty, caramel, & a wee bit of dark fruit. Slight hop bite, balanced with the malt. This was good.

From a twist-off 12 oz. bottle with no freshness date, sampled at cellar temperature in a pint glass. Poured a clear amberish copper with a foamy, bubbly topped white head, decent retention, minimal amount of ringed sticking. Rye malt was the first thing I noticed in the aroma, along with toasted grains and nuts, also a light fruitiness. Good carbonation and a crisp, dryish, smooth medium-light bodied mouthfeel. I hoping for more of a rye malt taste, just a very light rye biscuity, the rye does provides a hint of spiciness, soft toasted grains, a watery nuttiness, a fruitiness that I find to be orangey too, and a dryish grainy finish, bare traces of caramel comes out in the finish too. I like some of the beers from Sand Creek, but this won’t be a regular with me.

12 oz bottle. Poured a clear reddish-orange color. Head was thin, bubbly, and off white with decent retention and lacing. Malty molasses aroma with cowering hops somewhere in the background. Medium bodied and dry on the tongue. Flavor is a mixture of dried fruits and toasted bread with a delicate spicy note. Not bad.

12 oz bottle. Pours dark orange amber, not much red at all. Small head that lingers, medium carbonation. Aroma and flavor is mainly malt with thin mouthfeel. Not a very good beer and not a good Oktoberfest.

12 oz.bottle a gift from a co-worker - Bottle is past its prime (10/05). Pours an amber color with a one finger thick off white head that faded quickly. Has a light ester aroma. Has a toasted caramel malt flavor. Thin mouthfeel and body. Would have liked to have tried a fresh bottle.