Water Street Old World Oktoberfest

Brewed by Water Street Brewery
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Delafield, Wisconsin USA

One of my overall favorite beers! I just wait for this time of beer so I can take a couple gallon containers to Water Street to get them filled with this sweet sweet nectar!

Dark red coloring, with a yellowish head that lasts. Slightly sweet aroma. Initial flavor is of coffee, with a hint of nuttiness as well. The malt taste is present as the beer warms, and thats what stays on your tongue long afterwards. A very satisfying beer.

On tap at the brewpub into a dimpled mug. Once again I’ll pimp a Water Street beer in the face of lower reviews. Tan fizzy head diminishes to a patchy dusting over a glowing copper beer with lots of visible effervescence. Sweetish taste at first. The carbonation is tingly but not distracting, dissipates to reveal a blackberry like sweetness with dark maize that is gently dry and lingers in the finish. Body is refreshing. Highlight flavors of cotton candy, brown sugar, and autumn-tasting apricot intertwine with the earthy-grainy harvest backbone that’s almost peaty. Smells like a barn housing hay bales and corn left over from last year’s harvest, and butter. Completely appropriate to the style and the season; tastes great. I even came to enjoy it more as I got to the dregs (it was my first beer of the afternoon, so it was not because of the alcohol), so I bumped the overall up one from my initial notes.

Probably rated higher than I would have, but after 3 or 4 great weisses anything tastes good.....MALT. Heavy in the nose and the palate. I thought this was really malt sweet with a hint of nuttiness. Typical dark amber color. Slightly bittersweet finish.

My favorite of the Water Street beers. It was very malty and smooth to drink. Surprisingly there were not the classic Octoberfest flavors

Clear dark brown body with just a slight layer of white head. Toasty malt with a little earthy almost rye bread flavor. The hops were appropriately bitter with a little bite. The finish was kind of dry for an Oktoberfest.

Somewhat lasting white head, clear medium-dark amber color (like Jack Daniels maybe). Minimal malty aroma. Light flavor, but balanced with sweet grainy malt and slight, unintrusive hops.

Dark brown with a decent lacing head. Aroma is big on malt, as is the body which I found to be a little too sweet and bitter for the style. The finish was too sticky and long-lasting to make this a real winner. Also, too much of an American yeast profile.