Oktoberfest beer from a regional perspective - Virginia & Maryland

We have looked at the benchmark German style Oktoberfests, we looked at a local, and now we are going to take a closer look at a few regional Oktoberfests. Regional in this case means Virginia and Maryland. 

Legend Brewery, out of Richmond, is a Virginia institution, brewing beer since 1994. Drink enough beer in Virginia and sooner rather than later you will have a Legend.

Legend Oktoberfest poured a clear, bronze color, with minimal head. On the drink it had a very pleasant hop and rich slight sweet toffee taste mixed together. Carbonation is a bit above average. It is lighter on the palette than expected, but interesting to note, the aftertaste is reminiscent of a much heavy beer. On the finish it leaves a cloying bittersweet taste in the mouth. I felt I needed to spit after a few drinks. For me this beer is an easy, well-balanced Oktoberfest to drink, but it requires food to clean out your mouth afterwards. This beer is not a solo companion, it needs some wurst and pretzels, otherwise you may find it sticks around too long afterwards. It comes in at a slightly low, for an Oktoberfest, 5.4% ABV.

Here is the "party line" on Legend Oktoberfest:

Legend Oktoberfest is a celebration of malt harmony! This copper hued lager is brewed on a base of Vienna malt and owes its rich flavor profile to generous helpings of Munich and Caramel varieties. This beer is on the sweet side of balance, but the soft complex maltiness is countered by a touch of German Spalt hop bitterness for a clean finish. Legend “Fest” complements hearty cool weather food like stews, sausage dishes, and smoked meats.

DuClaw Brewing started in 1996 and has established itself throughout the eastern Maryland region. They brew a diverse array of brew and are well received. Similar to Legend, you can't drink Maryland craft beer without having a DuClaw sooner or later.

DuClaw's Mad Bishop poured a clear amber color, with minimal head. It lacks the toffee, caramel notes of other marzens, replacing them with a hoppy, roasted maltiness. The hop flavor flowed through the drink and into the aftertaste eventually giving way to a light residual barley flatness in the mouth. It is bittersweet but not overwhelming, a smooth crisp drinker overall. It is a decent beer but a bit too grainy. If that is something you enjoy out of your beer then this is marzen will be right down your alley. It comes in at 5.8% ABV.

Here is the "party line" on DuClaw Mad Bishop:

So begins the SERMON

Haunting the congregation with its distinct copper color and rich toasted malt flavor, this true German-style Octoberfest lager is smooth in body and uses German hops in the brewing process to balance out the distinctive, toasted malt sweetness. The clean smoothness is created by the long conditioning (lagering) process of 8 weeks, which is something they don’t talk about in Sunday school.

The Fortuitous Accident - Derecho Common

It is even more delicious than it looks.

It is macro month on the blog but I'm steadfastly refusing to jump into it. That is what Monday will be for. Instead I'm taking another slight detour. The heat out here refuses to break and the dog days of summer are right around the corner and this calls for another beer that can beat the heat. Fortunately the local brewery has stepped up to the plate again. 

One of the beers that I missed during reviews for summer seasonals was Downright Pilsner, the summer seasonal out of my local, Port City Brewing. It was an excellent pilsner, done in the Bohemian style, with a nice crisp bite,  classic golden color, and very refreshing. All in all, a well done classic pilsner. It was further proof that Port City is continuing to grow as a brewery. 

On Friday, August 4, a new beer entered the picture and this one is a bit more special. Derecho Common is Downright's more elusive strange cousin from the west. If a small disaster hadn't befallen Alexandria then it is very likely that this beer would never have come into being. For local beer drinkers that would have been a tragedy. At the beginning of July we had a derecho roll right over us and knock out power in the midst of a heat wave. Port City Brewery lost power and were in jeopardy of losing a good deal of beer, fortunately a generator was procured in time and the beer was saved. Not everything returned to normal though, one tank of Downright pilsner fermented at a higher temp and a decision was made to turn that brew into a California Common. 

Before we go any further though here is a little context. We haven't really discussed California Common a.k.a steam beer on the site yet, but for all intents and purposes it is a lager that is fermented at ale temperatures. It came about in the mid/ late 1800s in California when thirst for lager beer was booming but the tools to brew it weren't quite there. Brewers are a resourceful lot though and they created an American style of beer in the vats of necessity. California isn't natural lager country and refrigeration, while in existence, had not made it to San Francisco yet. Enter steam beer, a cheap beer brewed for the working class. It became very popular, though when technology did catch up so did the demand for traditional lagers. Steam beer faded away and almost went extinct but was revived in the very early 1970s. The biggest brewer of and most well known is Anchor Brewing out of San Francisco and they were the brewery that saved the style though at a cost. Steam Beer is their trademark in the United States, all other brewers have to use California Common. Nowadays steam beer is a well appreciated style in the craft brewing world. 

Derecho Common pours a golden sunny color, clear, with a fluffy white head; this beer has a lot of the same visual characteristics as Downright. If you had the opportunity to try Downright you can actually taste the relationship between the two brews. The Derecho Common has a bit more body, and an ale-like fruitiness that comes along with the higher fermentation, this is enhanced by the Amarillo hops used. It does capture that steam beer taste which as I can best describe is a slightly flat fruit-like bitterness. The ties between the two brews become a bit more overt when, on day two of the growler, more earthiness in the aftertaste had started to creep into the brew bringing a nice reminder of Derecho Common's pilsner roots. Like it's cousin,it has a lower ABV and it is a great hot day beer. It is a refreshing, slightly heavier, very smooth drinker. This is a beer to unwind with on a hot day after working in the yard or field. The downside of this is that it is very limited and if you are going to try it you need to get out to Alexandria in the next two weeks. 

The bigger picture of what Derecho Common represents is that Port City Brewery has the brewing competence, ingenuity, and confidence to take a potentially bad situation and turn it into a very rewarding brew. Faced with a crisis they kept their cool and delivered a quality brew that hits all the marks. It would make those old California brewers proud. The bottom line is Derecho Common is a great beer, hopefully Port City will continue to set aside a tank of this annually to celebrate the fact that when you have the skill you can make your own luck. 

Beer Brewing - Making Beer at Home

I’m a process person. If it were the 1950s, you could bet I would be sitting at the kitchen table, taking apart a radio just to see how it works 1980s boomboxes just weren't the same...). I like understanding the world around me, especially if it involves something I love – for example, BEER.


I like understanding the history of beer and how beer is made. The best way for me to understand both is to brew beer at home. Home brewing is gaining a large popularity, especially in the Portland area. Shops like U-Brew in Sellwood and the Homebrew Exchange in Kenton allow Portland beer enthusiasts to brew at home while having the expert guidance of those who also love to brew. 

Making beer is easier with these stores (and naturally the interwebs help, too), and having homemade beer at home can be as common as it used to be. The history of beer is filled with stories of homemade beer - Thomas Jefferson and George Washington both loved beer and had it made in their homes (Monticello had special places just for beer); in fact, it was much more common to have beer at the table that was brewed onsite, than it was store purchased (or tavern purchased, since I’m sure 7-11 was not around back during our Founder Father’s time).




Making beer at home is actually much easier than I had anticipated. The Homebrew Exchange in Portland sells a “Pico Brewery Beer Kit” for $24. The kit includes everything need to beer one gallon of beer with the exception of the actual ingredients - but hark! You can buy these, too, at HBX, for only $9.00. Since this is my first time brewing beer, I do not claim to be an expert on the subject. In fact, this blog entry is more a commentary on how easy beer making is at home - I'd like to hear your commentary on how easy you find it to brew beer. Why do you brew at home? Are you a process person like me, enjoying beer more because you understand it? Or do you just love to create and drink something you find damn tasty?


Below are my pictures from my first test batch - it will take 2 weeks to ferment, but when its done I will let everybody know how it is!

Malts ready to boil. 

Malted grains boiling in water.

Malts after boiling.

Hop pellets added during the wort process.

Cooled beer has yeast added and is now fermenting.

Want to learn more about making beer? Popular Mechanics has written THIS article, which is a decent explanation.


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