The flood gates are open and O-fest and Pumpkin brews are pouring in.  Clearly I was not quite ready for this a few weeks ago, but after a week off to enjoy the heat and sun of the last week of August I return eager to embrace my favorite beer season.  Really all weather produces a fine environment for beer drinking and I will surely explain why every season.  With the sun still high in the sky, but cool nights following I find this time of year a most excellent climate for drinking delicious lagers.  It is around now that I start thinking about my wood pile and working outside to build thirst.  Oktoberfest lagers are coming in from almost every German and American brewery and there is almost not enough time to try them all before the winter beers replace them on the shelves.  I have not totally warmed up to the Pumpkin beer thing but many of them are well made and interesting to try.  I know many people who wait all year for these special brews and find the flavor irresistible.  I do appreciate the additional character that is added to the beer without the typical dramatic increase in sweetness we find in most fruit beers.  I oppose the spicy ones that have been built upon a beer of little substance and attempt to add excellence to an otherwise plain ale with cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and clove – it’s not a pie.  The best offerings exemplify a pumpkin flavor fused into a real beer that would likely be tasty on its own.  The best choice, if you ask me, is Fisherman’s Pumpkin Stout.  Weyerbacher and Southern Tier have some pretty serious Pumpkin brews as well.  I digress… Oktoberfest is where my excitement is.  I mentioned some great choices in my last post and there are many more worth a look. Few American companies actually make an ale and try to past it off as Oktoberfest, but this is a farce.  I enjoy the smooth, rich flavored yet still thirst quenching aspect of a well made O-fest lager.  On a cool evening they just hit the spot.

I’d like to point out how great a quality Pilsner can be.  I will use the term Pilsner loosely here to describe a style.  Pilsner, properly defined, is a pale lager created in the 1800’s in Pilsen, Bohemia.  This beer uses bottom fermenting yeast and is cold fermented, as it would have been in caves long ago.  So, Pilsners as I talk about them, mimic this style but come from all over the world and may employ different ingredients.  Saaz hops are the traditional hop for Pilsner brews, but others are used today.  Enough about that, I wish to proclaim pilsners an excellent style, too often overlooked by myself and others who demand mass flavor and extreme excellence from our beer.  Now is the time to give this style a try.  We finally have the heat of the summer and the thirst that comes with New England humidity.  I find pilsners to be highly refreshing and satisfying on the flavor front.  There is no comparison to be made to your favorite IPA, but the refreshment easily makes up for a subdued flavor profile and light body.  What I have realized is that good pilsners are clean beers that strive for perfection.  There is nothing to hide defects in the brewing as the beer is too light.  A blemish or poor ingredient choice will be the dominant flavor in such a beer so good breweries are sure to avoid this.  Most of us are familiar with the American pilsner farce, brewed with corn or rice and mass marketed.  I would like little or nothing to do with these.  At the top of my list is Victory Prima Pils.  The floral notes and the crisp finish with plenty of hops (relatively speaking of course) make for a wonderful session, especially on a hot afternoon.  Post yard work, what could be better? Yard work getting you down? You can grab a pilsner before you’re done and not worry about an extreme abv halting your progress or making your mower leave patches of tall grass everywhere.  I also highly recommend Lagunitas Pils, Oskar Blues Yella Pils and Troegs Sunshine Pils.  I also enjoy the more traditional Czechvar, Starobrno, and Staropramen.  The style has plenty to offer and can represent great quality.  I find pilsner a welcome respite from the power of my usual favorite IPAs and Stouts as well as from the heat.

Variety 12 Packs seem to be increasing in popularity these days and I often wonder how breweries decide what to include.  My favorite variety packs come from Ipswich, Victory and Brooklyn.  These are all great breweries, but really, it is the particular styles included that draw me to these packages.  I tend to think that the inclusion of a Hefe or wheat brew in a variety pack is the kiss of death.  I say that not to be negative about Hefe/Wheat/Weiss brew but in observation of that fact that many of us who enjoy pale ales or IPAs do not tend towards the Weiss world.  Is it the contrast of styles that makes a package less tempting? Troegs makes excellent stuff all around and we move through the 6-packs with regularity.  Their variety pack includes favorites like Hop Back Amber and a Pale ale that makes for a great food beer or a great session, so it should be flying off of the shelf.  I suspect that the disparity between heavy hops and wheat leaves many folks not wanting to buy the mix, even though the 12 are cheaper than 2 6’s.  I mentioned Victory as one of my favorites.  That package includes Pilsner, Hop Devil and Golden Monkey Tripel.  That is certainly a range of flavors.  I am just enamored with all of their stuff, as many are, so flavor contrast is less of an issue in this case.  Ipswich and Brooklyn, however, have really hit the mark with their variety packs.  I think that what makes these two great is the 4 brew combo representing different brews indeed, but none of which truly contrast with each other.  I know that Brooklyn includes their Lager which is an entirely different brew from ale, but Brooklyn Lager is a sturdy representation of the style with almost as much body as a pale ale.  Try out any of the many variety packs at Colonial Spirits the next time you need a few different flavors at a favorable price.