Commentist Beer Barrel: Märzens and Milestones

Disclosure: A couple of weeks ago I was invited to, and attended, a bottle share hosted by Goose Island employees. I got to try some pretty sweet out-of-market beers and got a free glass (pictured), T-shirt, and bottle opener out of the bargain. I’m committed to transparency in the Beer Barrel and will always tell you when I’m reviewing free beer or the products of someone who gave me free beer, even if it was our own Old School Zero that gave me the free beer. I’m also going to tell you that this is a kickass beer and I’d have reviewed it anyway.

I don’t have a true record of how many different beers I’ve tried. The app I’m currently using to keep track, Untappd, didn’t exist when I started drinking beer, and for a baffling long time after that app began existing, I continued to use a Motorola Razr for a phone. There was no version of Untappd for the Motorola Razr, or the telegraph machine, or the carrier pigeon. In any case, I now use Untappd, and as of this writing my total stands at 2,498 different beers sampled. There’ll be a little celebration this weekend, and I’ve got a bottle of The Bruery Mélange #14 earmarked for the big 2,500.

You don’t try 2,500 beers without trying a whole lot of different styles of beer, or without trying most of them several times over. The process has left me with a pretty good idea of which styles I like—being honest, it’s most of them—and which ones I don’t. I’m on record, as recently as last week in this space and also at a lot of other times and places and sometimes loudly in bars, as not particularly liking Oktoberfest lagers, or Märzens. I don’t generally care for them for reasons similar to the reasons I’m not big on brown ales: I’ve found they tend toward uncomplicated malty sweetness, and that’s just not very exciting to me. But today, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve found a Märzen I actually like, one that I can drink with relish rather than just politely tolerate out of some irrational sense of obligation to the season.

Goose Island Oktoberfest is copper-brown and crystal clear, with a bubbly cream-colored head. The scent is non-existent, due to the sudden onset of ragweed season in Central Texas, but I’m not going to hold that against the beer. In any case, the moment I first tasted this, I was blown away by how much more there was to it than there is to your average Märzen, which tends to be all caramel and sweetness. That’s not the case here. The key thing, I think, is that the Goose Island iteration of this style brings just enough bitterness to give the caramel malts a sense of context. But beyond that: The malts themselves are more varied, too. There’s a fruitiness to this beer; a touch of melon, a bit of raisin, maybe even the suggestion of red wine. And overall, it’s just hearty, in the same way last week’s beer was. If, as I’ve long thought, the hallmark of the average Märzen is a fleeting and unremarkable sweetness, this is the rare Märzen that sticks to your palate and to your ribs, full-bodied and rich and just goddamn satisfying.

But, like LeVar Burton always said, you don’t have to take my word for it. lady snow also tried Goose Island Oktoberfest, and she’s more trustworthy anyway, having skipped the bottle share and received no free swag.

lady snow says: Whose Oktoberfest is this again?

make it snow says: Goose Island.

lady snow says: Other Oktoberfests that I’ve had have kind of a hay-like quality to them. You know, if you used to chew on hay as a kid. This has… almost like a white cheddar flavor.

make it snow says: Obviously I wouldn’t be able to spot that.

lady snow says: Yeah, you’re not a cheese guy.

make it snow says: But it’s more of a savory flavor, then?

lady snow says:  Yeah. Not the same meatiness as a Hibernation or an Alt-eration to me, though. It also has more bitterness than the other Oktoberfest beers I’ve had. I don’t think I’m as big a fan of bitterness, generally, as you are, so I don’t really prefer this approach. I preferred, say, the Sierra Nevada/Mahrs Oktoberfest, which was a little sweeter. This one doesn’t feel as much like a fall beer, or a harvest-time beer, to me. It’s not a bad beer at all, and I’d definitely drink it again. I just like other Oktoberfests better.

make it snow says: Maybe I just don’t actually like this beer style at all.

lady snow says: Yeah, you might be the weirdo here.

tl;dr: Probably a great Oktoberfest for people who don’t like Oktoberfests. Maybe not such a good Oktoberfest for people who do.

Grade: So, look, I said I could drink this with relish, but please don’t add relish to this beer.

make it snow is an alot of beer who’s had maybe a couple thousand too many.