Style: Märzen / Oktoberfest
6.30% ABV
The bottle is green, which isn’t so great for light protection, but it does look fancy and foreign. The label’s font is absolutely atrocious and boring and very “‘90’s digital graphic” in feel. The gold and blue coloring is nice though, and I do like the “HB” symbol for the company, though the specific beer’s graphic is rather boring and stuffy. Overall this bottle is really not worth much in terms of saving, and really just seems like it’s there to transport the beer to your gut.
The beer pours very clean and clear with light carbonation bubbles racing everywhere. In truth, this beer looks like dehydrated piss or apple juice, the only difference being that it has a nice, sticky, eggshell white head that sits at a fingers width for quite some time. The lacing is also sticky with thin sheets and long lines of moving up my mugs walls. The beer smells skunky and reminiscent of Heineken, which isn’t a very promising thing for a beer to smell like. Notes of light caramel mix with a large bouquet of hay and grass with light biscuit touches on the edges of the smell. The beer tastes light and highly drinkable. Heavy notes of creamy caramel mingle with notes of hay and earthy hops. The sip begins as light sweet caramel bordering on sweet apples, but then opens into heavy hay-like flavoring that reminds me of a traditional saison a hell of a lot more than an Oktoberfest. From there it slides into more spicy and earthy hop notes, and then lingers in the mouth as a mix of pilsner-like hops and hay. Mouthfeel is thin and highly drinkable, which is wonderful for the style. Carbonation is light, and the beer practically slides off the tongue lightly and leaves the mouth slightly dry with some saliva on the edges. Overall this is a mediocre almost-session ale, but it does not taste like a Oktoberfest by my measure. The heavy hay-funk notes make me think that this beer might have an infection or something, but I actually like them and found them refreshingly palatable. An enjoyable chugger, but nothing like what you would expect from the style.
3/5
Beer in my Belly 