True History Sticks Oktoberfest Märzen (5.6%)

This past week, I finally made it to was has for the better part of two years been one of Toronto’s most talked-about breweries, True History. I had tasted their beer at other venues, notably Bar Hop, but being a downtowner, had never made the transit trek to their St. Clair and Dufferin digs.

The appearance of not one, but two Oktoberfest beers finally set me on my way.

Early on in this series, I wrote about how there are actually two schools of Oktoberfest beer, an Old and a New, the former being a more classically styled Märzen and the latter being a lighter and flavourfully brighter lager some have termed Festbier. Bless their hearts, the duo behind True History, Matt Thompkins and Adam Shier, have elected to produce both, titling them Sticks and Stones.

(My review of Stones will be up tomorrow.)

By appearance, Sticks could as easily be a New School Oktoberfest as it could an Old School one. That’s because rather than the ruddy amber or darker hue of most Märzens, it is a rich, deep, and slightly hazy gold, although as the brewery states this has been conditioned for a rather astounding six months, I’m betting it’s a chill rather than a particulate haze.

On the nose, it’s all Märzen, and most enjoyably so. There is sweet malt, but in a pleasantly toasty, almost earthy fashion, with hints of rose hip and brown spice for accents. The palate entry is likewise sweet, but gently so, with a slight hoppy spice and notes of toasted cereal grain. On the mid-palate, the hop emerges to complement rather than supplant the malt, first adding complexity to the sweet, earthy grain, then drying the flavour with a very soft bitterness, and finally bringing the whole thing to a wonderfully quenching, appetizing, and lightly boozy finish.

On their Instagram page, which I read only after writing my review, the brewery’s partner-owners reveal that they used a German heirloom malt for this beer and the revelation surprises me not a single bit. Throughout both my tastings – every beer reviewed here is sampled at least twice – I was repeatedly drawn back to the character of the malt, noting that there was a rustic element to it that I could not quite place. This beer is worth the brewery’s efforts take to secure that malt, it is worth the six months lagering it experienced, it is definitely worth the price, and it is very much deserving of your time and consideration.

89 ($3.95/355 ml)