Ballast Point Celebrates Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest began as a wedding celebration with multiple days of drinking, feasting and horse races more than 200 years ago when Bavaria’s Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on Oct. 12, 1810. Fast forward to today and Ballast Point is honoring the fall fest by pouring six traditional German-style beers, minus the horses!

Dead Ringer – Amber Lager, Märzen, ABV: 6% (Draft)

This Oktoberfest lager is inspired by old-style Märzen brews customarily enjoyed during Bavaria’s world-famous beer festival. Thanks to an abundance of toasted malt and a lower hop bitterness, this dark reddish brown lager is loaded with sweet, caramel toffee flavors and aromas. All the taste and celebration of Oktoberfest packed into one bottle; no lederhosen required.

$10: Oktoberfest Dead Ringer beer + stein

Schlenkerlish– Rauchbier, ABV: 6.6% (Draft)

Inspired by a trip to Bamberg, Germany, the traditional home of rauchbier, this beer is an homage to the urbock style made by the most famous rauchbierbrauerei in the world, Schlenkerla.  This beer features 100% Weyermann (the largest German malt producer, also located in Bamberg) malts, with just short of 30% of the grain bill comprised of beechwood-smoked Vienna-type malt.  Richly flavorful yet remarkably drinkable, with a punch of smoke balanced by a firmly malty, bready sweetness, this beer will make you crave a blustery, snowy day warmed by wood-fired stove and a plate of traditional Franconian schweinhaxe.

Menu Notes: A bock-strength, malty and robustly smoky amber/brown lager inspired by Aecht Schlenkerla’s urbock rauchbier

Helles Bock – Helles Bock, ABV: 7.5% (Draft)

Don’t let this beer’s appearance fool you when lined up alongside Uber to Helles, the Dortmunder Export, and/or Festbier- despite its similar appearance, this one will sneak up on you if you’re not careful.  Constructed of 100% Proximity Pilsen malt, this beer is deceptively light, pale, and drinkable- but lurking within is a punchy ABV that will let you know that you’re drinking something of a little higher octane with a touch of retronasal ethanol burn.

Menu Notes: Clean, drinkable, but sneakily strong bock-style Helles lager

Uber-to-Helles – Munich Helles, ABV 5.4% (Draft)

This is a traditional Munich Helles German lager.  A thirteen (13) day fermentation followed by a forty-two (42) day conditioning period helped created a clean, malty…dare I say refreshing, lager.  Pilsner malt with a touch of Munich and melanoidin malt helps to create a bready, nutty character countered by a delicate floral hop aroma and flavor.  A terrific food-pairing beer.

Menu Notes: Refreshing German Lager with a clean maltiness.

Dortmunder Export – Dortmunder Export/Gernan Helles Exportbier, ABV: 5.6% (Draft)

A beer style that sits squarely between a pilsner and a Munich Helles (less hop-forward than the former, more bitter than the latter), this is a pale lager featuring a very nuanced ingredient tweak: hard brewing water (as is characteristic of the water around Dortmund in northwest Germany) with high sulfate, carbonate, and chloride, all of which provide a distinctly minerally, almost salty finish.  100% German pale malt provides a satisfying malt backbone and a bit of bready sweetness that balances a delicate Spalt-driven hop character.  Clean, crisp, and impeccably balanced.

Menu Notes: Similar style to a pilsner and Munich Helles (more bitter than the latter, less hop-forward than the former), featuring a hard water profile characteristic of Dortmund, which provides a minerally, almost salty finish

Festbier – German Festbier, ABV: 5.5% (Draft)

The most popular beer style served at Oktoberfest in Germany since the early 1990’s.  A relatively new beer style, Paulaner brewed the first pale Oktoberfest beer in the 1970s to create a beer that was “more poundable” than the traditional amber Oktoberfest beer.  This beer has a malt bill of Pilsen, Briess Goldpils Vienna and Munich 10L along with a whirpool addition of Vic Secret, an Australian hop.  The end result is a lightly fruity, herbal aroma and a clean lightly malty lager taste.

Menu Notes: A clean, pale German lager lightly malty with Vic Secret hops for a fruity hoppy finish.  Designed for consumption in stein form.

October 9th – through while supplies last!

Ballast Point Oktoberfest starts Friday, October 9th – through while supplies last! Visit any Ballast Point locations in Miramar, Little Italy, and Home Brew Mart.

See you there….and stay healthy, San Diego! Prost!