Prost! ... an Oktoberfest Märzen

 Much of what you need to know about Prost! ... an Oktoberfest Märzen is right there in the name. It’s a clear, caramel-hued lager from the team at Great Lakes Brewery in Toronto. The beer, sold in 473mL cans, pours with a lush and creamy head.

Prost! has a malty, bready nose. The flavour is sweet, malty, and toasty, with a back end that tastes boozier than its 5.6%. True to style, the beer leans toward the maltier end of the spectrum, but there is a little nod to floral bitterness in the finish.

Not a bad little Ontario take on the classic Oktoberfest style.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Off Season Lager

 Off Season Lager is appropriately named, in that it’s a märzen brewed, not in the autumn as is traditional, but in the winter. Brewed by Goose Island Brewhouse Toronto, this Oktoberfest-style lager clocks in at 6.2% and comes in 473mL cans. It’s a clear, bronze brew that pours with a thin blanket of off-white head.

Malty and sweet to the nose, Off Season has toast, copper, and brown sugar elements. The flavour treads a similar path, with toasty malts, sweet grains, and caramel, with a slightly metallic subtext.

I love a märzen, and this take from Goose Island wasn’t half bad. I’d have liked it to be a bit toastier, and considerably less sweet, but I’d buy it again.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Märzen Oktoberfest Lager

With the label of its 600mL bottle adorned with a variety of musical instruments and Teutonic regalia, Beau's Märzen Oktoberfest Lager gives every indication of honouring the German heritage of the style. At 5.5%, this tasty lager is a member of the "Farm Table Series" from Vankleek Hill, Ontario's reliable and remarkable Beau's All Natural Brewing Co.

A clear, auburn bottom fermenting beer, this märzen pours with a delicate covering of eggshell head. It's nose gives off timid notes of roasted malts and cereal grains. Where the aroma is shy, the flavour is boisterous. It contains the same notes, primarily roasted malts and grains, but to a significantly more vigourous degree.

I wonder what the relation is between this beer and another märzen Beau's produced a while ago called Night Märzen. They both have the same amount of booze and a similar look. It's been ages since I sampled the latter, so I can't really say whether they're the same beer or whether the former is a refined or tweaked version. Whatever its roots, this is a tasty and satisfying lager. It's a great fall beer and a well made one too.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Samuel Adams Oktoberfest

Boston, Massachusetts' Boston Beer Company is the source of the Samuel Adams Oktoberfest, an Oktoberfest lager. SAO is sold in 355mL bottles and contains 5.5% alcohol. It's a handsome caramel-coloured brew topped with a lovely but short-lived off white head. It has a solid toasty malt aroma--this is explained by the label's assertion that this beer "blends 5 roasted malts".

Samuel Adams Oktoberfest is malty and sweet to start, replete with toffee notes. The finish is both grainy and relatively bitter. Well toasted notes throughout give this one a pleasant campfire feel.

This is a pretty flavourful and interesting brew, yet one that is light enough to be able to knock back a few (don't drink and drive!). A bit less toffee sweetness might have worked better for me--it is a lager and not an English-style pale ale after all.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Night Märzen Oktoberfest Lager

This is hands down the coolest bottle cap I've ever seen.

Night Märzen Oktoberfest Lager is a fall seasonal beer from Beau's All Natural Brewing Company in Vankleek Hill, Ontario. It's sold in Beau's ultra-cool 600mL bottles and contains a healthy 5.5% alcohol.

Night Märzen is a very clear copper-coloured lager. It's only lightly carbonated and pours beneath a frothy off-white head. The aroma is grainy and slightly toasted. There is a very mellow, grainy, and decently malty introductory flavour. This gives way to a surprisingly hoppy punch.

This stuff amounts to a pretty interesting and hoppy take on the classic Oktoberfest lager. It's flavourful and bitter.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier

Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier is a clear, pale golden brew.  It had lots of carbonation and a bright white head. It comes from the Staatliches Hefbräuhaus in Munich, Germany. It's sold in 500mL bottles that feature an old time-y label and contains 6.3% alcohol. It has a grainy aroma that encompasses both sweet and bitter elements quite nicely. H.O. features a crisp, well balanced flavour.  It tastes like a pilsner, only bolder--more like a concentrated pale lager.

This was a tasty brew that put me in an autumn mood. Sweet on the front end and bitter on the back, it had no real surprises, but it was refreshing and quite delicious. I haven't got much else to say about this one.  If you like robust, crisp lagers, you'll probably like Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Mill St. Oktoberfest Beer

The Mill St. Brewery is one of Toronto's finest. I had a 355mL bottle of one of their seasonal brews, Oktoberfest Beer, as part of a fall package deal (the other half was their pumpkin ale, Nightmare on Mill Street).

The Mill St. Oktoberfest Beer was an amber lager with a 5.6% alcohol content. A deep, reddish gold colour, M.S.O.B. pours clear, with moderate carbonation and some eggshell head.  It has a toasty malt aroma. The flavour is pretty robust, and features notes of caramel, copper, and faint bitterness, all wrapped up in a toasty package.

Mill St. Oktoberfest Beer is a pretty tasty brew.  It's smooth and easy-drinking, but with lots of body for a lager.  Plus, at 5.6% alcohol, I'm smiling.

Rating; 8.0 out of 10.