Oaktoberfest Oak Aged Lager

Review Date 10/8/2021  By John Staradumsky

  Style: Oktoberfest   Brewery: Firestone Walker   Country: USA   State: California   $ Per OZ: $.17   ABV: 5.2%

Hey there Firestone Walker Brewing Company of Paso Robles, California! Wake up and smell the beer! It’s 2021 after all, and when I wandered on over to your website to read about your Oaktoberfest Oak Aged Lager I got the following:

2020, right? It’s been a crazy year with some of our all-time favorite events being canceled such as our very own Invitational Beer Festival, the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) and Oktoberfest.

We didn’t want all Oaktoberfest celebrations to be canceled this year, so we decided to offer a party pack that lets you bring some of the annual tradition to your home.

In honor of Oktoberfest, we’re excited to re-release our seasonal Oaktoberfest beer with a few new twists. This year’s batch is a Vienna Lager, brewed at our R&D Propagator brewhouse exclusively for our taproom restaurants.

Yeah, 2020. Here we are in 2021, and its like 2020 never ended. The good news is that I was able to get my hand son a bottle of Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest Oak Aged Lager this year through the magic of Craftshack.com. This year’s batch seems more of a Festbier than a Veinna-Märzen, however. Not that I’m complaining. I love both styles of Oktoberfest beer.

Lagers aged on wood are rare indeed, though not unheard of. Anheuser Busch ages its flagship Budweiser beer on Beechwood chips, though the wood really does not lend anything to the beer if you ask me. Which you did, or you wouldn’t still be reading.

Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest Oak Aged Lager has an alcohol content of 5.2% by volume according to the label on my bottle, for which I paid $3.92 from Craftshack. Total Wine sells it for $11.99 a six-pack, though not in Georgia.

Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest Oak Aged Lager pours to a tawny golden color with a thick head of creamy white foam and a nose of gently toasted malt. Taking a sip, the beer has the same lightly toasted nuts the nose promised, with a light crisp helles maltiness. It’s bready, and as it warms a gentle toasted oak character emerges. Finishes slightly tart from the wood, and gently bitter from the hops.

An interesting twist on the classic Oktoberfest beer styles, and one I will absolutely be buying again.

Would I rebuy it??