Of the ones listed, only tasted 2 or 3, would put Great Lakes at the top of those. Would add Left Hand Oktoberfest to that list for breweries that have a moderate number of states to ship to. LOTS of really good regional and state level breweries that have really upped their lager game over the last 3-5 years and take their Marzen/Oktoberfests very seriously.
What I want to do is do a blind h2h taste test with friends with Heater-Allen & Rueben’s. But Bobtoberfest has been impossible to find this year. Perhaps Rick sold out already, but all the usual places have none.
We’ve been sold out for several weeks. I’m not sure if we can ever make enough. We canned almost 400 cases - more than we’ve ever canned of any beer besides Pils. If we’re back to doing the Mt Angel Oktoberfest next year, we’ll need to do 4 batches…
I think this year’s version is particularly good because we made it early, so it’s had an extra couple of months of lagering time.