Fall is a time of change: The lazy days of summer recede, the light wanes, the flannel appears. Beer follows this shift, too, from refreshing summer pilsners to darker, richer ales and lagers. We’re now looking to drinks to warm us up rather than cool us down.
One notable exception is fresh hop beers, usually IPA’s or pale ales that are made with raw, unprocessed hops plucked at the peak of freshness straight from the fields and dropped into beer within 24 hours. They’re beautifully floral ales but only available during a short time period—blink, and you’ll miss ‘em. The rest of the season is marked by malty, bready, stick-to-your-ribs kind of beers made with special grains, vegetables, and spices. (Yes, that includes the pumpkin stuff.) Here are the bottles (and cans) you should be stocking up on for the season ahead.
Early fall is Oktoberfest season—the official Munich festival kicks off this Saturday (September 16) and runs through October 3rd. It’s even got its own special shoe: Adidas has made beer- and, um, vomit-resistant sneakers for the event.
The festival’s official beer—simply called Oktoberfest, or festbier—is a golden-hued lager that evolved in recent decades from the traditional copper-colored Märzen style. Today’s version is somewhat bland and insipid, but traditional recipes are still relatively easy to find. The standard is Ayinger Oktober Fest-Märzen, a rich and malty brew that’s dry and easy drinking.
Of the American iterations of the style, perhaps the best is Sierra Nevada’s Oktoberfest. For the last four years Sierra has teamed up with a rotating German brewery to produce a different version of this seasonal beer. This year’s collaborator is Brauhaus Miltenberger, and the beer is as complex and crisp as ever with notes of caramel, toffee, and grassy hops. Two other widely available one are Sam Adams’s OctoberFest, a malty-smooth amber lager, and Goose Island’s Fest Bier, a toasty little number full of rye and spicy hops.
Local iterations abound, too. Perennial favorites include Night Shift’s Oldenburg (Massachusetts), Hi Wire’s Zirkusfest (North Carolina), Live Oak’s Oaktoberfest, and Urban Chestnut’s Oachkatzlschwoaf (mercifully abbreviated to “O-katz”). Many small breweries, including Night Shift and Urban Chestnut, hold full-on Oktoberfest parties complete with lederhosen, drinking games, and oompah bands. Check your local listings, and maybe pick up a pair of those sneakers just to be safe.
Pumpkin beers are another, less welcome harbinger of fall. Many deservedly get a bad rap for being overly spiced and cloying (nobody wants a hoppy version of a pumpkin spice latte), but dig deep enough and you can find some good ones.
A good pumpkin beer incorporates the flavor of pumpkin flesh—a subtle flavor, to be sure—without relying too heavily on the baking spice-bomb that drives so many of us crazy this season. Some favorites are Roadsmary’s Baby from Two Roads Brewing, a gently perfumed rum barrel-aged pumpkin ale with vanilla, and Rumpkin from Avery Brewing, a super-strong ale (17.5%!) with a chest-warming silky smooth finish. More adventurous drinkers should seek out Jester King’s 2017 Autumnal Dichotomous, a saison brewed with grilled pumpkin flesh and seeds, fig leaves, wood sorrel, and horehound (a relative of mint), all foraged from the brewery’s Texas Hill Country farm.
Sweet potato beer also pops up this time of year, for all you pumpkin spice haters who still want to enjoy a seasonal beverage. Look for Burial Beer Co.’s Skullsaw Porter, a dark, robust ale brewed with North Carolina-grown sweet potatoes, and Autumn Maple from The Bruery, a bold Belgian-style ale brewed with yams and spiked with cinnamon and maple syrup.
Perhaps my favorite style to drink in the cooler months is strong saisons and other boozy farmhouse-style ales. As previously discussed, saisons are great with food—versatile and well-rounded enough to go along with pretty much anything you put on the dinner table. That’s especially true in the fall when heavier food (stews, braises, casseroles, and other various things you can put in an oven). A little extra heft in the booze department means the beer can match that flavor intensity mano a mano.
A French iteration of the style is called bière de garde (beer for keeping). These beers were traditionally made in the early winter and conditioned, or “kept”, until spring. The long fermentation and higher ABV delayed spoilage which meant the beer could be drank fresh or aged for many months. Several French versions are still commercially available, but my favorite this season is Off Color’s Le Woof, an American “imperial” bière de garde brewed in Chicago with rich, earthy aromas and a nutty, bready finish.
Another fall seasonal saison I get excited for is Allagash Brewing’s Interlude, a 10.6% saison fermented with funky Brettanomyces yeast and aged in red wine barrels. The Brett gives its smell a bit of fruity pear and pineapple nose, while the barrel aging means you get just a hint of wine-iness. It’s the sort of thing that can stand up to the ennui of falling leaves and shorter days.
