This is it, ladies, gentleman, and all you fine non-binary folks who frequent these parts: The end of my Oktober fest season. While it's been an absolute joy (I've found a few new autumnal mainstays for my fridge), I can't say I'm too terribly sorry to see it go--Spooky Finger Puppet Ghost Month starts up in just a few days.


But (!) that's not to say it's all over yet. See, this month I've been saving what I presume will be one of the best for last. Fat Head's has a track record for me that's pretty unbelievable: Of the three beers of theirs I've sampled for the blog, two received perfect scores ("perfect" on the blog, if you don't know [which you might not because I don't think I've ever explicitly stated it?] means it gets my absolute highest recommendation, and that it's an amazing brew. "Perfect" doesn't actually exist) while the third got a 9.0/10. So, you might see why I'm excited to break into my bottle of G'Suffa! Let's not waste too much more time.

This is an Oktoberfest beer I've been meaning to get to since, oh, about 2016. Back then, my dad sent me a text praising the lager and letting me know that I should try it. For the last two years, I've found it too late for my Oktoberfest season. This year, though, I made sure to seek it out early.


Without further ado, it's time to crack into the can. Here we are: Left Hand's Oktoberfest Märzen Lager.

This post marks the halfway point of the blog's Oktoberfest season. It's the Wednesday of the whole thing, if you will. So, what better day of the week to do this write-up than, well, Wednesday?


Is it obvious that I'm struggling to think of a good introduction? I hope so, because everything here was founded upon transparency. Today's post, by the way, is Hi-Wire's entry into the Oktoberfest canon: Zirkusfest. I'm pretty excited for this because, until I found this can at my local bottleshop, I had no idea that Hi-Wire had thrown their hat into this specific style ring. Let's see how it drinks.

Full disclosure: I've had Franz before. It's been a Cincy Oktoberfest staple since I've lived here. It's one of those standbys that fill shelving units at grocery stores, gas stations, and bottleshops from August and into October. It's a pretty popular beer.


A few years ago, when Michelle and I started house hunting, we took her dad to Rhinegeist's HQ. On tap at the time (mind you, this was in August) they had a sour variant of Franz that I adored. While I'm still holding out that Rhinegeist will bottle that someday, I'm ready now to crack into my can of the classic Franz to give my "official" thoughts.

We're through Labor Day which, around these parts, means it's officially Oktoberfest season. Prost! Today, I'm kicking off the seasonal fun with a beer that's been on my list for a long while--one that I'm glad I'll finally be able to scratch off of it: Thirsty Dog's Barktoberfest.


I'll be the first to say that I don't drink much Thirsty Dog--it's not super readily available in my area. In fact, Barktoberfest is only the sixth beer I've had from them. Since the other five (12 Dogs of Christmas, it's BBA variant, Siberian Night, Imperial Old Leghumper, and Old Choco [the latter three of these never made it to the blog]) were all top-tier brews, I think it's safe to say my anticipation is pretty high here.