This is the penultimate Oktoberfest post of 2025, which features a lager I picked up in July. It's been sitting in my fridge since, waiting patiently for this evening.

So, let's go. Here's Northern Row's take on an Oktoberfest lager: Schwester.

Northern Row's located in Cincinnati, OH's Over-the-Rhine. They're focused on crafting innovative beer out of their home in a pre-Prohibition brewery stock house. You can find a little more info over on their "Northern Row Beer" page. If you explore their website, you'll also find that they distill spirits.

Schwester (located on the page hyperlinked in the above paragraph) is a 5.6% ABV festbier brewed in collaboration with Meckesheim, Germany's Schumi's Mecksebräu. For those wondering, the connection with Meckesheim is that it's the sister city of Harrison (a city just west of Cincinnati).

The nose on my can is subdued. All the same, what little I find is clean, hoppy, biscuity, and bready. That's all there is to it. There isn't any malty sweetness here that forms into caramel or toffee aromas. It's fine, but nothing really to write home about. Melba gave my can four whiffs. I'm sure I'll find a beer that's for her sooner or later.

I'm finding the palate to be equally subdued. There's not much on the fore--just a little bread. But the lager does open up a tad more in the finish. Here small blossoms of honey and caramel appear, followed closely with a hoppy rush that leads to a long and clean lingering taste.

I don't know why 2025 Oktoberfests are leaning into a sharp mouthfeel, but Schwester continues this trend. It's bitey on my tongue and on the thinner side. It's an easy-drinking beer but not one I'd call quaffable.

This festbier's like the rush of warm weather that comes after that first, wonderful taste of the oncoming fall during early-September. You know something great is just around the corner and can't wait to reach it.

I'm giving Northern Row's Schwester a 7.5/10. It's pretty damn average. Worth drinking if you have it, but not worth going out of your way to get.