Background – From Spoetzl Brewery themselves “Just like the world’s largest beer festival, our little brewrey has Bavarian roots and a long tradition of honoring tradition. Which is why we made this märzen-style with German-grown Hallertau tradition. If that doesn’t make you polka dance for joy, we don’t know what will..”
Appearance – The bottle has a predominantly orange palate that really stands out. There are nice accents of blue and white but it would be easy to mistake this for a pumpkin beer from afar. Once poured you have the burnt amber color with a heavy foamy head and alot of lacing, very traditionally looking Marzen here.
Aroma – This beer holds up the standard expectation of a Marzen. You have heavy notes of malt and biscuits. Both cold and warm I could detect alot from Shiner.
Taste: Just like the aroma the taste here is all what you would expect. A healthy dose of malt with a slight caramel finish. As the beer warms you will get some toasted notes and a minimal amount of hops. I like what they are doing with this one, its a solid beer.
Drinkability – The initial sip will be smooth with minimal carbonation and you will notice the sweetness of the malts. But as it sits you will have a dry almost stale aftertaste which is the biggest negative I could detect from this one.
Overall – The Shiner Märzen-Style Oktoberfest may not deviate too much from a standard Marzen, which is fine with me. Its the finish of the beer that stops it from being better. I would recommend trying it, especially if this is an introduction to Marzens.
Game Pairing: When it comes to game pairing I decided to pick Power Move Wrestling. Listen I know there are plenty of better wrestling game’s out there but this is an interesting choice that doesn’t do much wrong, yet its not perfect either. These two deserve each other.
