Day 271 / September 28, 2011
Great Divide Brewing Co / Denver, CO
The lengths I go to for this blog….
So,
the big final showdown between American and German Oktoberfest beers has to
happen before month’s end. And I have
decided to make it a head-to-head, blind taste test. On the day it happens, I’ll have my wife
blindfold me, pour the beers, take some pictures… hey, this could get a little
kinky!
I
want it to be a fair competition, and right now, it’s stacked in the USA’s
favor. You see, with the 6 previous
beers, I purchased almost all the German Oktoberfests I could find. Earlier this week I stopped into my Total
Wine store and bought a bottle of Beck’s Oktoberfest, because it’s all they had
left. I’ve had Beck’s Oktoberfest
before, and it’s just not that good. I
needed a better German contender to go up against the highly recommended Bell’s
Oktoberfest from Kalamazoo, Michigan.
So
Wednesday night, I convinced the family to go to The Lost Dog Café in Arlington
for dinner. Why? Because right across the street is Westover
Market, home to over 800 types of beer!
I stopped in after dinner, perused the shelves and coolers… and found
the same six Oktoberfests I’d already had.
Strike out. Unless I find
something else in the next 48 hours, Beck’s will get unfairly crushed by
Bell’s.
But
of course, Lost Dog is no slouch in the beer department, either. While we were waiting for our table to be
called, I checked out the selection in the coolers. There were many good choices, but I settled
on a beer called Rumble, an oak aged IPA from Great Divide Brewing Company. Great Divide puts out consistently good
beers, this style sounded interesting, and I’d never seen or heard of it
before.
It
was a deep amber color in the glass, and you could faintly smell the oak. The beer is “gently aged on French and
American oak”, which gives a unique, but not harsh, taste to this IPA. It’s also well balanced, and rather
tasty. Highly recommended!
