Fellow beer lover and home brewer Greg Pope and I rated six of the season’s Oktoberfest beers. We list them from bottom to top and rate them on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the top of the class.

Oktoberfest beers are dark gold to deep orange-red in color with a rich, German malt aroma, initial malt sweetness in flavor with a slightly dry finish. They should be clean, smooth and rich with a complex malt character.

No. 6: Michelob Marzen, Anheuser-Busch Inc., Missouri

I decided to give A-B its shot here and I have to say, Michelob Marzen didn’t do too badly. Both Greg and I tasted some decent malt flavor in this beer, but the aroma and finish are not distinctive. My suspicion is that this is Michelob with a little Munich malt added and nothing more. It did go well with the German sausages, though.
Score: 3.5

No. 5: Left Hand Oktoberfest, Left Hand Brewing Co., Longmont, Colo.

Let me preface this review by saying the American micro Oktoberfests were all good and very close to each other, stylistically speaking. In our beer taste test, we were looking for malt to be the star, with hops in a supporting role. Left Hand’s brew was darker than the rest with a good dose of malt in the flavor. But we agreed that the finish was a little sharper than the others. There could have been more malt aroma.
Score: 5.5

No. 4: Stoudt’s Oktoberfest, Adamstown, Pa.

We noted a good, malty aroma and nice balance in Stoudt’s fest effort, which has won five medals at past Great American Beer Festivals. As I said, these beers were all very close in quality. If anything, we felt the Stoudt’s brew could have used a touch more malt body.
Score: 6.5

No. 3: Penn Oktoberfest, Pittsburgh

We admit to a bit of controversy on this one. I felt it was second-best of the bunch, mostly because of its very smooth finish. Greg, however, thought it was weak on aroma and body. We did agree on one thing that forced the tie for third place: Penn is a very smooth, drinkable beer.
Score: 6.5

No. 2: Brooklyn Oktoberfest, Brooklyn, New York

Brewer Garrett Oliver, no relation to the Beer Guy, went to the trouble of having the malt for this season’s Oktoberfest brew prepared in Bamberg, Germany. His efforts pushed this contender over the top of the America micros. It has a malty, bready flavor and excellent balance. And it goes very well with the grilled bratwurst and sauerkraut we scarfed down.
Score: 7

No. 1: Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany

Once we sampled this beer, we decided all the others proved to be pretenders to the throne. Then again, I suppose, when you’ve been making this kind of beer for a few hundred years, you ought to know what you’re doing. Hacker-Pschorr certainly does, offering a beer with an incredible malt aroma up front and a nutty sweet malty flavor and smooth, balanced finish. Yes, the competition was tight, but we found this one to be a more elegant beer than the others. Simple as that.
Score: 10