Autumn beers and Maryland beers judged
Rob Kasper of the Baltimore Sun sat on two panels evaluating Oktoberfest beers, so he tasted 27 beers bottle for autumn and more on draft.
The favorite bottled beers:
- American. “Otter Creek Oktoberfest autumn ale, praised as ‘nutty and sweet’ by the jurists, and the Blue Ridge HopFest, a brown ale with, as one jurist put it, ‘hubba hubba hops!’”
- German. “The top two were a Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest ($8.99 a six-pack) praised as ’silky and nutty’ and the Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen ($8.99) that was “slightly sweeter” than the other beers from Deutschland.”
- Pumpkin. “They loved the ‘hoppy finish, and ‘overall balance’ of the Smutty Nose Pumpkin Ale. I thought it lived up to its name.”
- Maryland beers. The other panel was for the Maryland Governor’s Cup Brewing Competition, which picked the best Maryland-brewed beers.
Those winners were Clipper City Golden Ale in the Gold/Blonde Ale category; McHenry Lager in Gold Lager; Brewer’s Art Resurrection in Belgian; DuClaw Black Jack Stout in Porter/Stout; Clipper City Pale Ale in Pale Ale; DuClaw Misfit Red in Marzen/Mild Amber/Lager; Brewer’s Alley Hefe-Weizen in Wheat Beer; Oxford Raspberry in Flavored Beer; and Heavy Seas Loose Cannon in Barley Wine/Strong Ale.
