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As the seasons change into autumn, you may have caught onto  the labels changing around in your local liquor store.  So what’s with the bottles released from your favorite brewery with terms like, Oktoberfest, Marzen and Vienna Lager?  These bottles of fermented liquid gold are brewed in honor of the largest festival in the world, Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest, yes it is spelled with a ‘k’, has been held in Munich, Germany dating back to 1810.  The festival usually starts in the third week of September.  It’s origin comes from a royal wedding when Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen invited all citizens of Munich to festivities held on fields outside the city gates in celebration of their marriage.  Following the festivities the day ended with a horse race.  The next year citizens of Munich gathered again on the same day with the addition of an agricultural show, held to advance Bavarian farming and cultivation.  Wait a second, I got lost somewhere between a royal wedding and all the horse shit.  Where do the fun loving, lederhosen wearing, beer guzzling Germans come in?

The first beer stands, not tents, were set up in 1818.  Who would have foreseen beer stands catching on at a tradeshow geared towards men, in a country who’s earlier laws were established  to protect consumers from purchasing tainted  beer?  Insightful landlords with the help of local breweries setup the first tents and halls in 1896 to meet the demands of the thirsty congregation.

The beers served at the festival can carry a few different names, either Oktoberfest, Marzen or Vienna lager.  All three styles are brewed in March, hence the name Marzen translates in reference to the month the batch was brewed.  Most beer experts will use the terms Oktoberfest and Marzen interchangeably, but in Germany, only breweries located in Munich’s city walls are allowed to label their suds, “Oktoberfest”.  The style closely resembles that of an Amber with a heavier mouthfeel.  Some of the flavors your pallet may catch whilst enjoying a cold one are mildly bitter hops, lightly toasted caramel malts and spice.   If the Marzen style is too bold, you may want to try the Vienna Lager, which has a lighter body.

Our recommendations:

Great Lakes, Avery The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest, Capital Brewing Co, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, New Glarus, Ayinger, Hinterland, Thomas Hooker, Berkshire, Shiner, Sly Fox, Pennsylvania Brewing Co, Great Divide Brewing’s Hoss, Millstream, Victory Festbier, Sprecher, Brooklyn Brewing Co, Three Floyd’s Munsterfest, Clipper City Brewing Co. Prosit!, Harpoon, and Weihenstephaner Festbier.

Capital Brewery has been a staple in the Wisconsin brewing community for the past quarter of a century. Earlier this year they celebrated their 25^th year of brewing tasty beer. Since they have been around for so long, now might seem like an odd time to start a new tradition. But that is exactly what they have planned for their latest invention: Eternal Flame.

Eternal Flame is described by the Brewmaster, Kirby Nelson, as a “birth beer”. Essentially Eternal Flame is a blend of Capital’s two best brews: Autumnal Fire and a new concoction called Imperial Fire. Autumnal fire is a bigger, bolder, doppelbock version of an Oktoberfest beer, and Imperial Fire is its emboldened sibling. Candi sugar was added to Imperial Fire to give the yeast some extra sugars to feast on and bump up the alcohol content.

60 barrels of each were brewed earlier this year and blended together to create a completely new and unique brew that was aged for an additional six weeks after fermenting. Of the 120 barrels, only 60 were bottled and distributed as the first edition Eternal Flame. Nelson plans on keeping the remaining beer for next year, at which time he will brew an additional 60 barrels of a new doppelbock to blend in and create Eternal Flame #2.

The name Eternal Flame is extremely fitting because the process of blending 50% and saving the remainder to blend the next year will ensure that at least some portion of the original batch will be in every edition.

Change is coming quickly to the beer world. Even in just the past five years there have been big shifts in what beer drinkers are looking for. Many of the old staples like Budweiser and Miller Genuine Draft have lost huge portions of their once dominating market share. When people are cracking into a frosty bottle of beer, now, more than ever, chances are that bottle came from a microbrewery.

All of the biggest losers (a title that nobody is proud of) have lost at least 30 percent with #1 losing over 70 percent of sales. Of the top eight losers, half belong to the Miller-Coors family, and half belong to the Belgian owned Anheuser-Busch InBev family. This has been a clear and consistent trend. 24/7 Wall St reports that from 2005 to 2010 overall beer sales rose 1.9 million barrels to a total of 208.4 million barrels, but the sales of the top 20 brands dropped 10 million barrels to 149 million.

Below is the list of the top five beers that have lost the most sales. The numbers given are the sales lost from 2006-2010. The total number of barrels sold are from 2010.

5. Old Milwaukee
-Sales loss: 52 percent
-Barrels sold: 525,000

4. Milwaukee’s Best
-Sales loss: 53 percent
-Barrels sold: 925,000

3. Bud Select
-Sales loss: 60 percent
-Barrels sold: 925,000

2. Michelob Light
-Sales loss: 64 percent
Barrels sold: 525,000

1. Michelob
-Sales loss: 72 percent
-Barrels sold: 175,000

Fall is a special time of year for a few reasons: Pumpking, Pumking, and Pumking. This limited release beer by Southern Tier tastes like pumpkin pie stuffed into a 22 ounce bottle, making it the perfect seasonal beverage. Not only can it be enjoyed in its liquid glory, but pour some of it in pancake batter and be prepared for some tasty cakes. These tasty, seasonal flapjacks can be achieved with only a few tweaks and additions to any standard pancake recipe.

COMBINE:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp pumpkin spice seasoning

COMBINE:
2 eggs
3 tablespoons melted butter
¼ cup heavy cream
¾ cup Pumking
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Stir together the dry and liquid ingredients but be careful not to over-mix. A few clumps in the batter are fine as these will cook out on the skillet. After your skillet is nice and hot, just butter it up and plop your batter on it. Wait for a few bubbles to form on top of the cakes before flipping. They will fry up nice and thick so make sure that they are cooked the whole way through before pulling them off. Once they are ready, drop a slice of butter on there and slather with maple syrup. Or, if you are feeling fancy, top them with some candied pecans and a dollop of whipped cream.

Enjoy!!!

AKA: Pils

AlcoholPercentage Range:  4 -  7%

International Bittering Units:  

Czech Style 35 – 45

German Style 25 – 45

American Style 10 – 15

Serving Temperature:  40 – 45°F

Season:  Summer & year round

Serving Glass:  Pilsner Glass, Flute, Pint Glass, or Mug

Recommended Choices: 

Beginner: Beck’s and St. Pauli Girl

Moderate: Lakefront Klisch, Lagunitas PILS, Sprecher Summer Czech Style Pils, Sam Adams Noble Pils, Bitburger Premium Pils

Advanced: Oscar Blues Momma’s Little Yella Pils, Sierra Nevada Summerfest, Pilsner Urquell, Czechvar, Lagunitas PILS, Primator Premium Lager, Golden Pheasant, North Coast Scrimshaw, Konig, Radeberger, New Belgium Blue Paddle, Schell’s, Eku, Warsteiner Premium Verum,

Insane: Moonlight Brewing Reality Czeck, Pilsner Urquell Kvasnicovy (unfiltered), Abita S.O.S. (Save Our Shore), Victory Prima Pils, Left Hand Polestar

History:  The origin of the Pilsner comes from the town ofPlzeň (Pilsen) in the Czech Republic.  In 1842 Burgerbraurei (Town Brewery) created the original Czech Pilsner and the first clear and golden beer cooking with pale malts and fermenting at cooler temperatures.  It was the location which provided the best support for the beer to a successfully sought after style using Saaz noble hops from the local region and their clean and soft water resources.  After the cooking process was completed the Czech Pilsner was stored in caves to ferment at lower temperatures.  There are rumors that the yeast strain (Pilsner H) used in Pilsner Urquell came from a run away monk who stole it from his monestary.  There’s no telling if this is true or not, but the Pilsner H yeast strain is one of the most commonly used in the early history of the pilsner style.  Over time the Pilsner name was used to define any bottom fermented beer, so in order to maintain it’s identity Burgerbraurei named their beer in 1898 Pilsner Urquell (The pilsner from the original source).

Look:  Bright golden or straw yellow with visible bubbles floating to the top.  Pilsners are generally served in tall and narrow glasses to showcase the bubbles much like a flute glass with champagne.

Pouring:  Tilt glass on a 45 degree angle and begin pouring the beer so that it makes contact half way down the glass.  As the beer is about half way full begin to slowly tilt the glass vertically.

Flavors:  Hops, dry, lightly bittered, pale malts, crisp, grassy, fizzy.

Food Pairings:  Indian, Thai and Chinese Cuisine.  Also goes well with a light salad.

ABV:  6 – 10%

Serving Glass:  Pint Glass @ 45 – 50°F

With the recent trends in the craft brewing industry, I’m sure a lot of you would be willing to bet pumpkin beer emerged with the increasingly unique (some may label weird) styles of beer in the past 30 years.  However, pumpkin beer’s beginning predates the current surge in craft beer nearly by two centuries.

We can all agree that beer in the early 1800’s was nothing like the magnificent stunning suds we have today.  If you look back to the early 1800’s, beer was consumed primarily as an alternative to the poor water supply the average American household had access to.  Something still seems abnormal about pumpkin flavored beer in a country where most picture a modest golden ale as the traditional staple.  Pumpkin beer came about when shortages of malts left brewers to resort to other sources for their fermentable sugars.  Pumpkin puree was also accompanied by other replacements, like dried apple and rye bran.

The resurgence of the style came back when Buffalo Bill’s Brewing company made their Pumpkin Ale in the  1980’s to sell as a fall seasonal favorite.  Today there are many variations of this historic beer style that died off for over 150 years.  Here are a few beers you may want to give a shot, whether they’re made with pumpkin puree or spice.

Selin’s Grove, Elysian Brewing’s The Great Pumpkin, Williamsburg Alewerks, Kuhnhenn All Hallows Ale, Cigar City Good Gourd Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Saint Louis Schlafly Pumpkin Ale, Midnight Sun’s TREAT (Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter), Cambridge’s Great Pumpkin Ale, Southern Tier Pumking, Cape Ann’s Fisherman’s Imperial Pumpkin Stout, Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale, Elysian’s Night Owl, and Weyerbacher’s Imperial Pumpkin Ale.

Style: Hefeweizen (translation Yeast Wheat)

Varieties: Southern German Weissbier, Berliner Weisse, Belgian Witbier and American Wheat Beer

Season: Spring & Summer

Alcohol Percentage Range: 2.5 %  to  9.6% ABV

International Biterring Units: 3 to 28 IBU’s

Serving Temperature: 45° to 50°

Serving Glass: Hefeweizen Glass
Recommended Choices:

Beginner wheats: Abita Wheat, Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat, Samuel Adams Coastal Wheat

Moderate wheats: Franziskaner Hefe-weizen, Hacker-Pschorr Weisse

Advanced wheats: Ayinger Brau Weisse, Hofbrau Munchner Weisse, Bells Oberon

Insane wheats: Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier

History:  The style originates from Germany and is a popular choice during the warmer months.  Originally reserved for German royalty, laws were passed to see that this beer did not reach the hands of a common peasant.  The traditional way this style is brewed is unfiltered and bottle conditioned.  This means that when the beer is ready to be bottled the brewery leaves some of the yeast in the brew and sometimes add a little more to continue fermentation inside the bottle.  This process gives each beer more carbonation which is why it’s typical to serve this beer in a taller (Hefeweizen) glass to show case the carbonation.

Look:  Hefeweizen beers get their hazy golden luster from their protein characteristics from the wheat and appear pale gold.

Pouring: There are 2 different ways wheat beers are poured.  Before pouring make sure to take note that this is a highly carbonated style, and may overflow if poured out too quickly.  One way is tilting your glass 45 degrees and placing the top of the neck of your bottle against the very top of the glass and slowly pour most of the beer into the glass leaving around 1 inch of beer in the bottle.  The beer left in the bottle contains unfiltered yeast.  To mix the remaining yeast up you should move the bottle in a circular motion by placing your flat palms on both sides and twisting back and fourth (like you’re trying to start a fire).  Another way to mix the leftover yeast concentrated beer is to lay the bottle on it’s side and roll it along a table.

The second way to pour your Hefeweizen you start by placing your glass (Make sure to use a Hefeweizen glass for this pour) over the beer and begin tipping your glass back to a 45 degree angle with the bottle inside.  While beer is pouring out of your glass make sure to slowly lift your bottle with the tip slightly emerged from the rising beer fluid level.  Just like in our first example stop the pour before the last inch is poured to mix the yeast.

German Hefeweizen VS. American Wheat

The difference between the two styles is that the German Hefeweizen is bottled with yeast for in bottle fermentation.  The extra addition of yeast to the beer gives it a pale opaque golden luster and a bigger body that feels almost chewy.  The American wheat filters out the yeast before pouring into bottles.  With the filtration of yeast the body is lighter and the appearance is clearer.  Beers with a good amount of wheat tend to have a crisp finish as is the case with American Wheats.  There are American breweries which brew a German style where they don’t filter the yeast.  In that case, make sure to pour your beer the same as any German Hefeweizen in order to suspend the yeast from the bottom.

Flavors: Banana, Clove, Fruit, Vanilla, Wheat, Citrus, Spice, Orange and Bubble-Gum.

Taste Resembles: Orange Gum

Food Pairings: Salads, seafood and poultry.

Recently, Smuttynose Brewing Company has released a batch of brew labeled January 2011 as its expiration date.  Clearly, that date has passed. But no worries, you may disregard this marking. The individual in charge of marking the notches moved the notch indicating the month, but forgot to move the year marker to 2012.

Since then, Smuttynose has decided to update their bottle dating system.  Because of this, I know some of you will inspect the bottle, as I would myself.  During inspection, you may notice floating particles inside the bottle. However, they are not an indication of a bad batch.  Smuttynose does not filter all of their beers, one of them being their IPA.

According to smuttynose.com,

• “Lees”-the sediment that appears in their IPA bottles, is a combination of malt proteins, hop tannins and yeast-occurring naturally in a dry-hopped, unfiltered beer
• Crystal clear beers come from an intense filtration process-such as mass produced beers
• This process has a tendency to sacrifice flavor
• As their website states,

“We like the way our IPA tastes, so we’ve chosen to live with our ‘ugly’ beer, even though this may not please everyone.  So here’s to lees, a healthy & natural feature of our homely IPA!  Cheers!”

The gentlemen at BrewDog have outdone themselves again.  As they continue to compete with their German opposition Schorschbrau Brewing Co. Boasting a 28% alcohol by volume label, their latest creation has set a record for naturally fermented beer.  Their process involved slowly drip feeding additional sugars in order to keep its yeast alive for a longer fermentation period.  Later the beer is stored and aged for 6 months in whisky, bourbon, rum and sherry barrels.  The batch is very limited, as it is served at only one location at a time and is dispensed from the mouth of a deer bust.