Well my Faux German beer project comes to a close today. For the past several weeks, I’ve had an eye-opening review of the many beers and breweries out there making German-style products.
What are my general findings? There are definitely some excellent brews, notably Trumer Pils (Trumer IS an Austrian/US brewer) and Alesmith Anvil Pilsner. I had a fantastic and historic Volksbier Altbier from Three Weavers, and plenty of Oktoberfests and Festbiers from many of the others. There seems to be some continuing confusion as to what constitutes a Festbier and what constitutes a Märzenbier, I think the confusion coming from the fact that Festbiers took over Oktoberfest celebrations from heavier Oktoberfest Märzen. Paulaner’s Oktoberfest is the benchmark there, they originated the Festbier style.
Generally speaking, the US brewers are mostly Ale-houses; I sometimes wonder what the efforts are towards Lagers. Many just aren’t following style guidelines, we have any number of cloudy, low-carbonation, low-head, low-lacing Märzens. This is a bit sad as a Märzen is a fantastic beer, and should have all the bells and whistles – white foamy head, good carbonation, crystal clarity and nice lacing. Those really aren’t being met by many of these efforts.
Today's brew is from San Diego's Alesmith (another of my favorite brewers.) Their Oktoberfest rendition is pretty darn close, still needs better head and lacing, flavor is spot-on, and its clarity is better than most domestics. I love the “Aleschmidt” tag line, a German version of Alesmith! 5.5%, this is a great Märzenbier, you will enjoy… Prost!