Upland Oktoberfest

Brewed by Upland Brewing Company
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Bloomington, Indiana USA

Pours dark orangish golden with a thin, mostly receding white head. Aroma of bready malt, metallic lager byproducts. Taste is sweet grains, toasted high lovibond crystal, bready, caramelized sugars. Mouthfeel is full bodied and slightly sticky with foamy carbonation. Decent, but not very refined, has some obvious flaws.

Nice look, a clear amber body with a tall foamy head and good sheet lacing, but it seems a bit watered down. The aroma consists of a sweet, sugary malt with trace elements of floral hops. This is light on the flavor side, pre-chewed caramel with green apples, somewhat tart. Drinkable.

<font size=-4>A White Elephant selection from the <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/events-detail.asp?eve Monthly Chicago RateBeerian Gathering at Flossmoor Station, 10/21/2006.<font size=-1>

Bottle and served in Upland pint glass: Poured a rich amber hue with a small frothy head and some lace. The aroma has notes of caramel and toffee malt, grainy and grassy, candy apples, walnut and dusty yeast esters. The taste is rather straight forward with malt flavor dominate and hint of fruit and acidic twang towards the finish. The mouth feel is smooth and chalky. All things equal, not a bad brew and easy to drink.

Bottle: Pours a golden orange with an off-white head that quickly diminishes. Has a mild malty aroma with hints of citrus. Malty flavor is sweet with hints of honey. Finish is smooth with mild bitterness. Not Germany but a good American attempt.

Bottle. Sweet toasted malt aroma with some dark earthy undertones and lighter fruity notes (grape, cherry, red berry). Clear golden-amber pour with a short white head. Strong malty taste with significantly more bitterness than expected (for style). Light toasted caramel. Not really medium-bodied, more like light-bodied with oil (which lends, fleetingly, a slightly vinous feel). Crisper than the below-average visible carbonation would suggest. Hops are just right, and malt dominates here.

Update: Second bottle, second season (one year later), and much fresher. Score will hold, at least for now. Malt still dominant, but the bitterness no longer evident. Wonderful South German spice. I’m enjoying this on the level of about a 3.8.

2005 bottle shared with SuIIy on 11/23/05. Pours a hazy golden-amber with a small white head that recedes to a ring quickly leaving no lacing. Aroma of cerealish grains, lightly sour munich-type malts, maybe a hint of dms and some glue and nuts. Some soily, composty hops and very dry cherries and plums. Flavor begins with light sourness from the malt, vanilla extract, hazelnut syrup and light honey. Soft hoppiness and an even, if possibly undercarbonated body. Lightly watery texture, with an odd glue-like chemical taste that I can’t shake. Almost seems adjuncty or worty. No alcohol apparency and at least the hops used are to-style.

12oz bottle from ATPayne. Pours a light amber color with a white head. Nose is light nuts and semi hoppy. Taste is off somehow, cant put my finger on what it is exactly, but seems kinda rancid almost. A light nut and malt exists but is overpowered by some dirtiness that clinges to your teeth leaving your mouth feeling unclean. Finishes with a light bitterness.

12 oz bottle. Poured a dark orange/brown with a thin head. The smell is full of malts. The taste is pleasant. Nice blend of malts and caramel, and it is a nice representation for an American version of an Oktoberfest. This beer has improved greatly over the past two years