Canal Park Stoned Surf IPA Review

Name: Canal Park Stoned Surf IPA
Style: India Pale Ale
ABV: 7%
IBUs: 65

This past weekend I was back in Duluth to visit family as well as try out some local brews. While I didn't get to have as much Duluth beers as I would've liked, I still managed to grab a growler and take some notes for review.

First up is from Canal Park Brewing Company with their Stoned Surf IPA, which to my understanding is a year-round offering. Also looking at my blog, it's been a little over 2 years since I even talked about them on my blog last and a little under 3 years since I did a proper review of any of their beers.

Also according to their website, this beer is for people who like frozen mustaches, fresh air, cannon balls off cliffs. While I like the last two, the first one kinda sucks; Trust me, it's happened once before back when I had a full beard.

Appearance - Very hazy dark orange color with a mild amount of visible carbonation. The head is pretty foamy for the most part and the lacing is somewhat on the sparse side.

Aroma - Big citrus hop & mango sweetness with a equally strong caramel malt backbone. I'm also getting some mild toffee notes and a tiny hint of dankness that is almost undetectable.

Taste - Once again, I'm getting a strong citrus hop and mango sweetness on the front of the palate and throughout the flavor. Towards the middle and back, that caramel maltiness and toffee notes build up fast to help balance out the hop profile with some mild bitter notes and dankness in the back and aftertaste.

This one is pretty good. You've got a nice hop profile backed up by an equally solid caramel malt backbone. If you're ever in Duluth and just so happen to stop into Canal Park Brewing, this one should definitely first among the beers you try out there.

Canal Park Stoned Surf IPA - 8.5/10

Hofbrau Oktoberfest Review

Name: Hofbrau Oktoberfest
Style: Oktoberfest/Marzen
ABV: 6.3%
IBUs: N/A

The most common complaint I heard from my Oktoberfest article was that none of my Oktoberfest articles prior to writing that article weren't real Oktoberfest beers. That means that none of those beers actually came from Germany.

Well, I grabbed this beer randomly while putting together a mix-a-six, which brings us to Hofbrau Oktoberfest, alsp known as Hofbrau Oktoberfestbier. I haven't researched this much other than it comes from Germany and that the brewery is owned by the Bavarian State Government, so let's check this one out.

Appearance - Fairly clear pale yellow color with no visible carbonation. The head is pretty foamy but leaves behind sparse lacing.

Aroma - Pale malts, and lager yeasts with a light hint of skunkiness. Honestly, this smells more like a Euro Lager than it does an Oktoberfest.

Taste - Pale malts and some mild toffee sweetness upfront with some lager yeasts and light floral hops in the back. There's also and encompassing light skunkiness.

You know, I really don't feel that like this is an Oktoberfest but more of a glorified euro lager, in appearance, nose and palate. Simply put, I'm not a fan of this and if you're thinking about having this, I strongly suggest that you reconsider.

Hofbrau Oktoberfest - 5/10

Schell's Oktoberfest Review

Name: Schell's Oktoberfest
Style: Oktoberfest/Marzen
ABV: 5.5%
IBUs: N/A

Next Oktoberfest beer I have isn't even a request but rather it's one a friend of mine recommended for me to try out. I give to you Schell's Oktoberfest, which according to what I've been told, is the brewery's largest selling seasonal beer and one of their top selling beers overall.

Appearance - Fairly clear orange color with a mild amount of visible carbonation. The head starts out foamy but settles to a thin film and the lacing is somewhat sparse.

Aroma - Floral hops, toasted barley, light chocolate and some Munich malts & toffee sweetness.

Taste - Floral hops and toasted barley upfront with some chocolate in the middle before rounding out with some Munich Malts and toffee sweetness.

It's nothing remarkable but it's drinkable and if you're already drinking this religiously, then by all means do just that. As for me, it's nothing I haven't already seen so there's nothing really making this stand out from the rest of the Oktoberfest pack.

Schell's Oktoberfest - 7.5/10

Goose Island Oktoberfest Review

Name: Goose Island Oktoberfest
Style: Oktoberfest/Marzen
ABV: 6.4%
IBUs: 17

Well so far, you guys haven't lead me astray with your Oktoberfest suggestions since they have been exceptional, though, not groundbreaking in overall quality. That said, this next Oktoberfest offering is from Goose Island. No fancy name of any sort, just Goose Island Oktoberfest, which proudly proclaims to have hints of dried apricot and toffee aroma.

Also before I start, a couple of you mentioned that I should be using a dimpled mug or any type of mug when drinking an Oktoberfest beer. As luck would have it, I found one and everything is right in the world!

Appearance - Fairly clear dark orange color with a high amount of visible carbonation. The head is quite thin in appearance but the lacing is rather abundant

Aroma - Munich malts and toasted barley with some light hint of chocolate. I'm also getting some toffee sweetness in here as well.

Taste - Munich malts and toasted barley once again upfront, with some chocolate and toffee sweetness towards the back with a very slight hop bitterness that is mild at best in the back. As for the aftertaste, I'm getting a slight indistinguishable sweetness that could possibly be the dried apricot they were talking about....maybe.

It isn't anything I already haven't seen in Oktoberfest beer, but it's tolerable at the very least and is worth checking out or adding to your mix-a-six if you're not ready to make a full purchase of a six-pack. As for me, there are better Oktoberfest beers out there than this.

Goose Island Oktoberfest - 8/10

Surly SurlyFest Review

Name: Surly SurlyFest
Style: Oktoberfest/Marzen
ABV: 6%
IBUs: 34 (Per RateBeer)

Alright, next up in my Oktoberfest beers lineup is actually a local option courtesy from Surly Brewing with their SurlyFest. What makes this beer so interesting is that Surly makes it very clear from the get-go that this isn't supposed to be your typical Oktoberfest beer:

A traditional Oktoberfest bier from Surly? Nein! If you want one of those, grab your passport and head over to Munchen (bring us back some pretzels.) SurlyFest is brewed with three different types of Rye and a single variety of American Hops. Malted Rye, Flaked Rye, and Crystal Rye impart a distinctive biscuit flavor to the lush Vienna Malt body, and dry-hopping with Sterling Hops adds bright, floral hop aromas. A single hop, dry-hopped, rye lager bier? Ja!

Like many Oktoberfest beers, I avoided this one because of my dislike of the Oktoberfest style but I actually got a couple requests for this one, so I figured I might as well humor them and try this one out.

Appearance - Mildly hazy dark orange color with a moderate amount of visible carbonation. The head is somewhat foamy but the lacing is rather sparse.

Aroma - Munich and toffee malts upfront with some potent rye spice notes paired with a bitter hop scent.

Taste - Strong Munich malts on the front of the palate but with moderate bitter hops and rye spiciness in the back along with some light lager yeasts. As for the aftertaste, I'm getting more lager yeasts and a lingering hop bitterness.

Wow, this one too is also actually quite good and the rye bill paired with those bitter hops actually give this quite a bit of character. So far, you guys haven't led me astray with these Oktoberfest suggestions, so keep 'em coming! Oh and this is definitely worth checking out as well!

Surly SurlyFest - 9/10

Odell Oktoberfest Review

Name: Odell Oktoberfest
Style: Oktoberfest/Marzen
ABV: 6.1%
IBUs: 19

For the next few reviews, I'll be reviewing some of the Oktoberfest beers that you've requested after I posted my article about how I think that Oktoberfest beers all taste the same. There's also a couple of Oktoberfest beers which actually haven't been released yet that I'll get to in the near future.

For the first review, I've got Odell's Oktoberfest, which was the first request I got after I posted my Oktoberfest article. I was told that this one is supposed to be pretty good, so let's see how this one is.

Appearance - Clear dark orange color with a high amount of visible carbonation. The head is quite foamy in appearance but there's not much in terms of lacing.

Aroma - Munich and toffee malts with some light floral hoppiness and lager yeasts.

Taste - Much like the nose, you've got Munich and toffee malts upfront, the latter of which lingers throughout. In the back, I'm getting some light floral hops and some of those lager yeasts as well. The aftertaste consists of more toffee malts and lager yeasts.

Well, it's nothing that I already haven't seen before, but I found this to be quite good for an Oktoberfest beer and the sum of the parts really come together quite nicely. If you so happen to see this, give this one a shot!

Odell Oktoberfest - 8.5/10

Stillwater Artisanal Nu-Tropic Review

Name: Stillwater Artisanal Nu-Tropic
Style: India Pale Ale
ABV: 6%
IBUs: N/A

Well, it's another beer from Stillwater Artisanal and this ones name is Nu-Tropic. Keeping in tradition with many of their beers, it has a label that is.......different, with just of bunch of wavy squiggly lines that are purple and maroon in color. However, unlike many of their beers, this one doesn't have an explanation behind the name on neither the website or can, but simply a question asking us "Oh, you like fruit IPAs now?"

Oh yes, speaking of which, this is an IPA made with passionfruit and mango. So maybe it's called Nu-Tropic because it's made with tropical fruit? It's not a bad guess, in any case!

Appearance - Hazy and cloudy pale yellow color with mild visible carbonation and some sprinklings of sediment. The head is quite foamy and the lacing left behind is abundant and sticky.

Aroma - Getting some citrus and bitter hops with notes of mango, but not so much with the passionfruit. There's also a moderate pale malt back bone in here as well.

Taste - Bitter hops dominate the front of the palate with that pale malt backbone backing things up in the middle. It's in the middle where the light citrus hops make a brief appearance. Towards the back, however, things start to light up; As in those passionfruit and mango flavors make themselves known in a big way

This beer kind of reminds me of an inverse relationship between two twenty-somethings. Instead of starting out sweet and ending bitter, this one starts out bitter and finishes quite sweet. It's an interesting twist on something I'm used to seeing normally, but it's a twist that I definitely could get used to! It may be a notch more pricey than what I'm used to seeing, but I think it's worth it.

Stillwater Artisanal Nu-Tropic - 9/10