Beer expert blind judges UK Oktoberfest beers | The Craft Beer Channel

[@jacobtaylor7488]

Please try Stella unfiltered!!!

[@BiffStrongo]

I don't know what's really right for a festbier, but I love love love a good marzen. I'd drink it year-round.

[@fabianh5811]

20:52 I'd definitely visit a UK Festbier Fest :D

[@martynpalmer4212]

What a great selection, doing the UK brewing scene proud!

[@MuriKakari]

So, every town/city in the Midwest US has it's own Oktoberfest where we drink to the sound of polka and local breweries show off not just their Fest beers but quite a few others as well as the German owned or descended standards. It's usually basically a street party with lots of craft beer, but I can promise exactly zero Robbie Williams.

[@notesfromafar]

Wish Beer Merchants had a case of these so we could taste along at home :)

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

They have five of them!

[@jossdutton]

Happy to see Thornbridge's rating just below the Paulaner! Was rooting for that one as had it the other night and thought it was a cracker! Glad the beer expert can back up my affirmations! 😃

[@mrougelot]

OMG the still shot at the very end of the video is properly haunting 😂

[@lightoftheworld417]

Really enjoyed this blind taste!

[@tenchman4526]

Enjoyed it as always. I missed this years Oktoberfest window due to covid but will be hopefully making up for it on the 22nd with a very unauthentic attempt at recreating the atmosphere here in north Queensland!

[@ilcorvo9559]

McColl’s one of our locals, great! Full circle in Newcastle also made a Märzen.

[@kevinpayne3482]

Here in Lewiston New York at the end of September is our “hops and harvest festival” which I guess is self explanatory. Cheers!🍻

[@andrewsteer8860]

Great to see my local brewery, Braybrooke Beer Co, represented twice in this list!

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

A truly wonderful lager brewery

[@jacklittle4835]

Love the videos Johnny and Brad. What does a ‘green’ beer taste like?

[@markrichard526]

I would kill for an American version of these! Awesome vid! These are always so much fun to watch.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Maybe next year!

[@jeffreypeters1902]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel KC Bier Co out of Kansas City has a full range of German-styled beers using imported ingredients. If you blindfolded me, I am not sure I could tell the difference between the Paulaner and the KC Bier Co Hefeweizens. Prost!

[@laurencefromLondon]

I had a Marzen at the Camden kentish town taproom after a line was connected to the wrong keg. It was great and I asked for another and was told I couldn't have one. In fairness I got the first one for free.

[@federicus1517]

How amazing it‘d be to see you come to the Erlanger Berg and test all the Bergbiere. Nice episode

[@Prognosis__]

Do they ferment the beer at a low temperature? When I make my Munich lager, I use my bar fridge with a separate thermostat. It’s the only way to do brewing lagers

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Oh absolutely. All these breweries know how to make great lager.

[@davidellis6468]

Excellent infotainment gents, as always. I wonder if there would be an appetite to set up an "alternative Oktoberfest" where breweries bring a modern take to the Oktoberfest beer style and have the crowds vote on it to then have it on the menu for the next festival? Or is it the case that those beers make Oktoberfest what it is, don't fix something that isn't broken...

[@ville32]

Blind taste tests are the most entertaining! 💯

[@kevinpayne3482]

You’ve got your 2 beer tan👍🏻😄

[@RealalecraftbeerTayside]

You guys are helping build my beer knowledge, Thanks

[@lordofhousestewart1821]

Slightly off topic...but was in The Harp Covent Garden and had the Suffolk Bitter...WOW. GO try!

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Great pub, great beer

[@joelcomptonjailall8944]

Love these videos!

[@iggsolo]

Just out of curiosity, what do you do with all the unfinished cans/bottles in these series?

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

...what unfinished beers?

[@jordanr991ify]

I visited Caps and Taps in Tufnell Park Saturday just gone and managed to try the Deya/Braybrooke collab and one other on tap, but I cant recall the name. Among other wonderful beers as well. Want an amazing shop, with a fantastic selection of beer and lovely staff, please go and support if you are in the area! The Deya/Braybrooke was a great beer, I think I just prefer something with a little more sweetness.

[@benjaminboswijk9091]

Yes was hoping for a video like this! Would love a video from you going over supermarket ‘craft’ beers as some of the beers from places like Aldi are shocking and people trying to get into craft might try the awful ones first and think that’s all there is

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Our only concern with that is it is v UK focused when our audience is so international! If we can find some wider lessons to learn we will do it!

[@jw1640]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel I know a lot of us watching from Australia would love to see you taste some Australian beers! These blind tests obviously bring in big numbers and viewership for you, we love to see it!

[@DamienE11]

Funny you'd say that because down here in Australia Aldi actually contract out some very nice pale ales (as well as some very average lagers, but they're macro style lagers so I guess the brewer is nailing the bill there too)

[@AceTeale]

Great little video,

[@zabuzamomochi2323]

I am a noob in beers, so just to make sure: the Paulaner you threw in wasn't a UK-brewed version, but the German original, just to see how it would match up against the UK microbreweries? Is that interpretation correct?

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Exactly that! The control in the experiment if you will.

[@bigmoneynowammy77]

if im to recommend trying any fest beer, Benediktiner Festbier. its maybe my favourite.

[@thebackyardbrewer5611]

I think it was the fact that the micros were more daring with the recipe and ingredients that they didn't win head to head not the other way round as you were surmising at the end. Germans make the best "macro" beer on earth pretty much, it's nothing to lament! I think you did a reasonably good job of a competition style head to head and judged to the style pretty well, though it was funny hearing you say paulaner wasn't dark enough to be Oktoberfest! 🤣 but that's the Marzen bias coming through that a lot of home brewers have. At the end of the day the Bavarians invented Festbier and Oktoberfestbier so it's good to judge all others by them and festbier is great, I wouldn't want it hazy or weird with non standard ingredients as it wouldn't meet my expectations of an Oktoberfestbier, simple 🍻

[@richard_lindsay]

Google Sheets link?

[@rcollingridge1]

Ersatzenbrau from Sureshot is also very good, if there’s still cans of it about

[@kevinpayne3482]

Am enjoying an Oktoberfest beer from willow rock brewing company out of Syracuse New York called “hoi-hoi-hoi, 6.4% light amber, delicious 👍🏻🍻

[@santaclaus0815]

which online shops do you use to buy these many varieties? Or do you travel a lot? :-)

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

We got 5 from Beer Merchants, the other from Raynville superstore

[@wofffefe6342]

I strongly preferred donzoko's festbier to paulaner festbier.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Worth remembering I am judging to style here, so not just what beer is most delicious (though that is a huge part of it). I'd suggest trying them blind and checking your views though!

[@DiRTiey]

Good stuff guys. Would love to see a blind test of all the easily available alcohol free beers, would make sober october much easier!

[@mrougelot]

Did you realize that it was Paulaner when you tasted it? Also, if you measure all beers by German Fest beer standards then it’s hardly surprising that the one German Fest beer wins, right?

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

I didn't quite recognise it...there were a few it could have been but wasn't sure enough to guess. But yes given that my expectations of the style are based of that beer it is no surprise it won - but it also shows how close others got.

[@mrparsnip1257]

Great video as always but are we allowed to mention the dribble stain down your shirt Jonny? Beers that good eh! 🤣

[@pukbobo1423]

Perhaps slightly disappointed that so many of them didn't - intentionally or not - make a clear beer and had a hard time letting go of the hops. My guess is, that it is difficult for micros to compete with a top German macro in a style defined by some really good German macros. That judging these to style ends up being points taken off from an otherwise excellent beer.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

I think it is more down to experience than anything! Brewing malt forward lager is exceptionally difficult.

[@pukbobo1423]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel Could well be. It's also more difficult for lighter malt focused styles and beers to provide those big impressions and experiences that you get from very hoppy beers or adjunct-heavy stouts. I feel myself dangerously close to use words like "balance" when discussing these. Here's to hoping the craft beer audience will take a shine to more malt focused styles.

[@bobgodytube]

Watching this on my phone the text is too small to read, Use a bigger font !

[@jeffreypeters1902]

Paulaner FTW!

[@MichaelAndersen_DK]

Prost indeed!

[@JustinBellingerTV]

H-AAA-LLO, not HELO. *rolls eyes* 🙂

[@Warentester]

There is no such thing as UK Oktoberfest beers.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

That's just semantics. Call them Festbiers then.

[@clownworld5474]

Excellent content. You have a good pallet compared to the rest of the KZbin beer reviewing clowns. 'i could sniff that all day' 😂