Samuel Adams Octoberfest (5.3%)
Yes, I know that the Boston Beer Company could more properly be called the Boston Flavoured Malt Beverage and Seltzer Company these days. (They are the makers of Twisted Tea and Truly Seltzers, for those who do not follow such things.) But the fact remains that the brewers of the Samuel Adams line of beers are very skilled in what they do, from their flagship Samuel Adams Boston Lager to such eccentricities as Utopias – psst, the latter of which you can still pick up at the LCBO for the low, low price of $229.
I’ve been drinking Sam Adams beer pretty much since the company got its start in the mid-1980s, contract brewing before contract brewing was a thing. The Boston Lager provided me much solace during an extended layover in the Detroit airport in the early 1990s and I was at the GABF in 1993 when the company debuted its first ‘extreme’ beer, the then-strongest in the world Triple Bock, and again in 1999 when it upped the stakes further with Millennium.
Suffice to say, I admire the brewery and respect its founder, Jim Koch, for all that he has done to help put craft beer on the map both at home and beyond the US borders.
Boston Beer was also a leader in the domestic production of Oktoberfest style beers, releasing its first way back in 1989, long before many breweries outside of Germany were bothering with the style. I thought it good back then, although my experience with such beers was sorely limited in the early 1990s, and am excited to revisit it fresh from the LCBO today.
Text on the can suggests that Boston Beer “developed a unique malt blend” for this beer, which begs the questions of what, exactly, makes it so unique, and isn’t deciding on what malts to use generally what brewers do when formulating their recipes? Pedantry aside, it actually is quite an attractive looking lager, copper bordering on bronze topped by a tightly formed ring of foam.
(After writing this review, I visited the Samuel Adams website and discovered that the uniqueness comes from a special Samuel Adams Octoberfest malt, presumably developed specifically for this beer.)
The aroma is all about malt complexity, as it should be in any malt-forward beer, and seems to be a bit more Old School and New, with toasted malt notes dominant, floral honey in support, and the faintest whiff of a distant campfire in the background. The palate entry is likewise malt-centric, with toasty and floral caramel notes and just a hint of nutmeg leading to a mid-palate that grows drier and just a bit tannic, the caramel turning more to well-cooked brown sugar, even a bit burnt, and the spiciness growing to a subtle assembly of baking spices with a faint raisiny note in the backdrop. The finish dries further, though not quite completely, leaving lingering notes of caramel, spice, and alcohol on the tongue.
Like most style-specific Sam Adams beers, this hits the mark on many levels, not least of which is its lovely balance between complex maltiness and drying through never quite bittering hop. Certainly not a beer you’d have trouble enjoying over several cans, and neither one you might forget about the next day.
86 ($15.75/6 x 355 ml)