The 2009 Fack Youk Fall Beer Review

It's been a while since we talked brews around these parts, but judging by comments on previous posts, I can tell that there are a decent number of you out there who share my love for great beer.

I personally enjoy fall beers more than any other seasonals. A big part of that are brews like Oktoberfests and pumpkin ales which add dimensions that Winter, Spring and Summer brews just don't have. I find Winter ales to be over-spiced. Summer brews to be enjoyable but they aren't usually complex enough to achieve Great Beer® status. Spring ales are few and far between.

Something about beer and the Fall just seem to pair exceedingly well. It's just starting to get cold and the leaves are turning, setting the stage nicely for a darker, heartier brand of brew.

On to the review:

• Three of us (my buddies John, Frank and I) tasted 13 different beers, divided into 4 categories: 4 Oktoberfests, 2 Fest Biers, 3 Harvest Ales, and 4 Pumpkin Ales, in that order.
  
  
• As for ratings, we used a 1-5 scale with 1 being "I would never drink this beer again" and 5 being "I'm definitely buying this the next time I see it", or something to that effect.
  
  
• Two of us drank out of goblets like this one, and the other out of an oversized wine glass of roughly the same shape, which I always recommend in an effort to maximize your beer experience. We weren't too anal about rinsing them our or cleansing our palates so it wasn't the most scientific of tastings.
  
  
• The beers below are listed from least to most enjoyable by category and the ratings are based on the average of our 3 scores.
  
  
• Each beer is linked to its respective place on BeerAdvocate so you can get a good look at the bottle and some other (more expert) opinions if you'd like.

Oktoberfests - We tasted the this group first, which was probably the right move since they were the most straightforward of the bunch. The scores are lower than almost all of the other beers because they are simplistic, but as far as session beers go, these and the two Fest Biers are probably your best bet.

• Blue Point Oktoberfest - 2.50 -Extremely light and drinkable, the Blue Point lacked any sort of depth of flavor and had a sharp biting amount of carbonation on the tongue. It's a good session brew, but not highly recommended if given the choice between this and other Oktoberfests.
  
  
• Stoudt's Oktoberfest - 2.67 -Pouring out a copper colored hue, Stoudt's offering was simple and easy going down. It had the mildly skunky notes of a typical lager and slightly less carbonation than the Blue Point.
  
  
• Saranac Octoberfest - 3.33 - The flavors in the Saranac were immediately more apparent than either of the above two beers. It had a nuttier, breadier taste to it with a smoother mouthfeel. It was notably hoppy as well, balancing it out pretty nicely.
  
  
• Harpoon Oktoberfest - 3.50 - The Harpoon poured the darkest color of any of the four in this category - nearly garnet red. It had the recognizable flavors of Harpoon's signature yeast strain along with sweet notes including dark fruit (dates?), hints of butterscotch and caramel, and a nice amount of hops. Really well-balanced and the most enjoyable of the crew.

Fest Biers - We were originally going to lump these in with the Oktoberfests but they didn't quite fit; they aren't very similar to each other (aside from the name), but neither belonged in the previous category. Both of these came out with relatively higher ratings mostly because they weren't really playing by the same rules as the Okt's, hence the separation.

• Weihenstephaner Fest Bier - 3.67 -With a beautiful straw-colored pour, it was apparent that the Weiheny wasn't really comparable to a typical fall beer. It had a somewhat skunky nose but the taste was much sweeter, with hints of honey. It was soft on the palate and an ideal choice if you are going to kick a whole six pack by yourself.
  
  
• Victory Festbier - 3.83 - Holding this brew up to the light gave it to color of an orange gummy bear. The character expanded and had a deliciously long finish. It was rich and malty giving way to some spicy and hoppy notes. You might miss the complexity of this one if you are downing a whole bunch of them or drinking out of a bottle, but if you pour it into a proper glass and savor, it's well worth the effort.

Harvest Ales - The cool part about these beers was that each took on the character of their respective region. As you went north, starting with the Southern Tier, on to Redhook and finally arriving at Long Trail, the beers got steadily heartier and, in our opinion, more enjoyable.

• Southern Tier Harvest Ale - 4.17 - In a blind taste test, I'm not sure I could distinguish this from an IPA, which is probably a good thing. It was a gorgeous golden color with citrusy flavors backed with bright, hoppy notes. More of a late summer than fall beer maybe, but delicious nonetheless.
  
  
• Redhook Late Harvest Ale - 4.17 - The Red Hook sat roughly between the other two in this category. It had some of the hoppy and citrius elements of the Southern Tier and also a bit of the malty character of the Long Trail. A good beer in its own right, this one still comes with a sincere recommendation.
  
  
• Long Trail Harvest Ale - 4.33 - A rich ruby-color once emptied into a glass this baby was nutty with notes of hot cocoa. It was strong, roasted and malty with a warming, almost whiskey-like character. In our eyes, this is was a great execution of a Harvest Ale and the epitome of what a fall beer should be.

Pumpkin Ales - The pumpkins had the widest variance of any of the groups, spanning the spectrum from pretty bad to mind-blowingly good.

• Saranac Pumpkin Ale - 2.17 - With all due respect to Saranac, this one represented the mistake a lot of breweries make when attempting a pumpkin beer; just dumping in a whole bunch of spices in a ham-handed attempt to give it the expected characteristics. You might as well get a medium-bodied ale and shake some pumpkin pie spices in it yourself.
  
  
• Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale - 3.33 - The Smutty had some of the same problems as the Saranac but not nearly as bad. The spicing was overt and almost separate from the beer itself. It was enjoyable, but left something to be desired.
  
  
• Dogfish Head Punkin Ale - 3.83 - The Dogfish Head did the best job of the typical pumpkin ales at subtly blending the spices and the beer. There were some notes of semi-sweet chocolate, coffee and mocha to balance out the cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice that overpowered the other ones. DFH rarely disappoints and this one did not either. Probably not worth the money, but the best one short of the...
  
  
• Southern Tier Pumpking - 5.00 - Being an imperial ale and checking it at 9% ABV, this one was already on a different level than the other three, but it went above and beyond expectations. That was apparent from the first whiff of this deep copper gem. You could smell the creamy sweetness as if you had just opened a box of pumpkin pie topped with fresh, home-made whipped cream. If you have had their Creme Brulee Stout, you'll recognize the amazing, ephemeral sweetness of the beer packed with caramel and vanilla. I kind of hate that we all gave this a 5, but it was the last beer of the night and stood out so far and above everything we tasted, we had no choice.

There are some notable omissions to this list and we are currently preparing a second round of tasting to come sometime this week. Stay tuned.

Programming Note

Sometime this morning, Blogger dropped an unexpected software change on our asses. All of a sudden, you can only put 10 tags on a post and each blog can have only 2,000 tags in total.

Well, by now you've probably noticed that we get a little tag-happy. I usually tried to hit the previous maximum of 200 characters on every post, regardless of the subject matter, partially for the resulting search traffic and partially just for the fuck of it. Unfortunately, this little habit has kind of backfired because by my count, we have nearly 4,350 individual tags ranging from "AssClowns" to "ZipTies".

That means that we can't put new tags on anything until we get back under that number. Since Blogger's software totally sucks, editing these labels incredibly tedious and I've got a pretty large mess on my hands that their Help Forums aren't going to be able to provide much assistance with. In the meantime we'll have get a little creative and re-use the tags we have.

As such, I won't be able to get to the Fall Beer Review I mentioned last night. But rest assured that Frank, John and I drank 6 Oktoberfests/Festbiers, 3 Harvest Ales and 4 Pumpkin Ales and recorded our reactions to them. It just has to be typed up and that's not happening today. I'll get it done over the weekend though and post it here on Monday when there will be some more eyes on it. For now, here are the baker's dozen we sampled last night.

Be back with the preview in a little while.

A Letter To Joe Girardi

Dear Mr. Girardi,

Last night was very nearly incredibly awesome. A 5 run comeback in the 9th inning would have been a monumental achievement and the best comeback victory in a season with 40 of them already. It would have returned the favor to the Rangers, who got quite lucky to string together a 5 run rally without making an out themselves in the 4th inning (which it might surprise you to learn, didn't include a bunt attempt). But last night was not awesome. It was incredibly frustrating.

You see, Joe, last night my roommates and I decided to take the plunge and buy a new TV. Big Willie Style's 32" had been holding down the mantle in the interim and it was time to get serious about our new place.

After a long day, we drove to Boscov's at around 8:30 and then to Sears, intent on acquiring one before the stores closed at 9:30. We very nearly bought this 42" LG for $700, but they didn't have it in stock. After a serious amount of deliberating, we decided to go with this 46" Samsung which was priced at $1200 on the shelf but after the 10% discount I got for opening a Sears card (which I'm literally never going to use after this purchase) it was $1166 after taxes. No interest or payments for 6 months to boot. Not bad. Am I right, Joe? Or perhaps you might have gone with the 24 months of free financing, since that's what "the book" on buying TVs says.

After we got the TV loaded in the van, it was about 9:50 and we turned on the game just in time to John and Suzyn called Michael Young's two run homer in the 7th inning. Great. On the way home we listened to the radio duo swoon over Neftali Feliz and compare him to Joba as he touched 100 on the radar gun (101 according to pitch f/x). We arrived back at the apartment and set up the new toy just in time for the top of the ninth.

We cracked a few Dogfish Head Immort Ales to celebrate and watched as Damaso Marte work a pretty solid inning in amazing 1080i resolution. Predictably, we marveled at the new awesomeness of our new TV, which fit on top of our mantle like the stand had been custom made for it.

Then the 9th inning came, Joe. Remember it? After the Yankees sent six straight runners to the plate without making an out, you decided to give one away by asking a guy who is terrible a bunting to do something, which even if he was successful at, would have hurt the team's chances at winning. The run expectation actually declines when you go from men on first and second with no outs to runners on second and with one down. Take a look.

Furthermore, Frank Francisco had already walked A-Rod and thrown fewer than half of his pitches for strikes. You took away Nick Swisher's excellent ability to work a walk by having him bunt in that spot. Did you see Francisco's first pitch? It was at fucking eye level. How do not make that guy throw strikes?

You asked a guy to bunt who can't bunt to set the table for a guy who is worse than 50% at getting the runner in from third with less than 2 outs. It's a stupid move in principle and it was even dumber under these circumstances.

And when it failed completely, you stormed around in the dugout like a fucking 4 year old because your fucking boneheaded decision didn't work out.

In all fairness, I stormed around my apartment at the same time, but I was acting like at least an 8 year old.

So thanks, Joe. It could have been one of the best TV Christenings in the history of mankind. But as soon as you started meddling and overmanaging, the whole thing went to shit.

Yes, right THERE. In the highest possible leverage situation.

I'm not blaming Melky Cabrera for lining into a double play, Joe. The entire situation would have been different if you let Nick Swisher take a full swing at the ball instead of conceding a precious out to a guy who could hardly throw a strike.

This is your fault.

Fuck you,

Fack Youk

Doris Sighting!!!!!!!

Yup. That's her. Swear on my life. I obviously couldn't get a pic of her face because that would put me in her peripheral vision and that was a confrontation I was not at all interested in. That, and also I drew the line (for once). If I'm not going to put my face on this blog, I really shouldn't put hers, I don't think.

I really didn't know how this day could get any better. There are some things in the works that I don't want to mention for non-jinxing purposes, and the snow, and the shrimp fritters, and my new headphones...

I actually went back to Whole Foods to pick up some more those fritters, along with a sirloin for the grill tonight. I asked the guy at the meat counter for a steak that was about a pound and three quarters. He put it on the scale: 1.75lbs. Bang. I mean, who cares? But that was pretty cool.

That beer is the Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine. It's 15% ABV.

I needed to stop by Pioneer on my way back to grab some more brews and walking in, I spotted the mythical beast known to you Fackers only as "Doris". I very nearly soiled myself.

I didn't observe her eating habits like Sampson did, but this is kind of similar as she was in hunter/gatherer mode. It's not everyday she leaves the apartment. Actually, this may have been the first time in 46 years.

We left Pioneer at about the same time, and I skittered back over the icy sidewalks, hid out in my entrance way and nabbed this shot.

Look familiar? It's blurry and everything, just like the original! There was a girl right there walking her dog who saw me do it and gave me this look. I shrugged my shoulders and went "It's a long story..." and scampered upstairs to write this post.

This was one of the best snow days ever.

Sean Daley from Atmosphere, would you do the honors?



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We should be back in sports mode tomorrow. Hopefully you enjoy the non-sports stuff too, because it's really fun to write. I don't really know where to even send these links, but if you read other blogs with similar content like Schiff's, feel free to point me in their direction or vice versa.