Thomas Hooker Octoberfest

Brewed by Thomas Hooker Brewing Company
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Bloomfield, Connecticut USA

This is one of the best tasting Oktoberfest I have had in years. Paul Davis at Thomas Hooker knows his stuff!!

Special thanks to eaglefan538 for this one. I feel kind of funny rating an Oktoberfest Lager this high, but this was really darned good. Poured with huge head and lacing that clung to the glass throughout (I coulda even given this a 10 really). Aroma and flavor was sweet caramel malt with butter biscuit flavoring. Just the right amount of bitterness and carbonation. For the style, it can’t get much better.

Spectacular, this could be the best Octoberfest to be spotted in the States. Pours a clear copper color with a small tan head. Aroma is sweet and malty, nutty, a bit toasty, and overall very pleasing. Mouthfeel is wonderfully smooth. Flavor starts off with a great smooth sweetness of caramel, then turns a bit nutty, with slight roasty and bitter hints in the finish. A complex marzen, it’s no wonder it won GABF silver 2002.

Pours a clear orangish-brown with a rocky, lacy, tan head. Head is dense and about 1/4 inch thick. Smells (strangely) of hops with some maltiness underneath. Usually, I would expect an Oktoberfest to smell the other way around. Taste is of rich caramel malt with an underpinning of herbal hops. Lightly smoky. Mouth is lightly sticky with a persistent hoppy aftertaste. Good stuff. One of the better Oktoberfests I’ve had.

Clear, deep caramel brown in color with a foamy, mossy and 1/3" tan head. Aroma takes on Hallertau, maple, chestnuts, roasty pecans, pumpernickel dinner rolls, sweet caramel and a side note of scotch. Dimpled mug hits my lips and I breath a huge sigh of relief - this is an Oktoberfest done right. Sweet caramel and toffee chew nature met with a caramelized pecan profile. Buttery spiciness. Lovely and medium bodied with life and backbone. Balance is impeccable, with carbonation, malts and nobles in perfect format. Finish is like sucking on glazed almonds. One of the best Oktoberfests - both foreign or domestic - hands down. Thanks for the bottle CaptainCougar!

A very nice and satisfying Octoberfest. Not usually one of my favorite styles, but this one was very nicely balanced and hit the spot on what goes for a crisp autumn evening in Texas.

Attractive amber color that grows a big, soft ivory foam. Keeps a solid skim on top throughout the session and the lacing is mostly drippy with some globs and displaced sheeting. Aroma is clean and subdued carrying a tad of toffee with a rounded toasted realm to its waft but mostly dark and malty with a soft sweetness to it. Taste starts out like many o-fests, full and malty, nicely creamy with very tender notions to toasted toffee, darker fruits, and some nuttyness. Finish creates a slightly dry smokey peet and wet woodyness. A nudge of deep sided hoppyness helps add some depth in the finish as well. Stays favorably clean and firm the whole ride through. Mouthfeel is fairly full in the front and teeters from there but stays firmly set in its creamy/silken nature and finishes well with subtle tonality and very slight malty warmth. The overall clean profile of this O-fest by Thomas Hooker is quite remarkable and probably the most intriguing part that I found and liked about it. Not to mention that it helps add some very good downability; that, along with a slimmer 6% ABV just begs for repeat fill ups.

Thanks to jjpm74 for this one. The pour was copper and turbid, with 2-finger head. Aroma of corn flakes, heavy fruity hops, cabernet, cherries, blackberries. The taste was very caramel malty with some cabernet, almonds, figs, and a medium palate. Well done.