​The other day I saw my friend Mel who reminded of one his favorite beers when he lived in the London area a few years ago, Hobgoblin, which also is available in town.  Where once, in the early days of the beer bar, British beers were a common sight, these have had a tough time in recent years gaining traction among the newly minted beer lovers, who tend to go for brews with huge hop profiles featuring the citrusy and resin-y notes from the bold Cascade and Liberty hops and a fair amount of alcohol.
 
British beers, top-fermenting ales like most of the hoppy domestic craft beers, are different from those.  When done well, these are typically subtle with a mild but interesting level of hop bitterness, and quite flavorful and balanced with a nice interplay of hops and malt along with a touch of fruitiness, plus a usually modest amount of alcohol, from 4.5% to 5.5% alcohol by volume.  This comparative subtlety – and considerable nuance for fresh versions of the best ones – has worked against the British beers in the American market with a large percentage of customers demanding more aggressive flavors. There is also the fact that the beers are typically tastier and certainly more interesting when served from unpasteurized casks, i.e. real ale, as these often are in pubs in England, which necessarily do not find its way to this country.
 
But, these British imports can be good beers to sample for a change, or even enjoy regularly, including or especially Hobgoblin.  From the brewery that can explain its product in more flowery prose (that is still pretty accurate, too, I’ve found):
 
“Hobgoblin is strong in roasted malt with a moderate hoppy bitterness and slight fruity character that lasts through to the end. The ruby red coloured Hobgoblin is full-bodied and has a delicious chocolate toffee malt flavour balanced with a rounded moderate bitterness and an overall fruity character.
 
ABV: 5.2% in bottle & can, 4.5% in cask [which you won’t find around here]
Bottle: 500ml
Hops: Fuggles and Styrians
Malts: Pale, Crystal and Chocolate”
 
Hobgoblin is available at Spec’s, where a four-pack costs $10.52.

In the evening on Christmas Eve, I received a text from a friend in the Boston area who was enjoying a terrific version  of "Belgian Champagne" with another mutual friend, a beer that I had touted them on the past.  I was glad to have done the groundwork for them.

Excellent beer is the cheapest of the gourmet indulgences. That goes especially so for the strong beers of Belgium.  One of the countless excellent Belgian beers is a somewhat unusual one, and it is easy to find in Houston, Karmeliet Tripel.  At least it is seemingly always at the main Spec’s in Midtown and the bigger of the area H-E-Bs, and likely the terrific D&Q Mini Mart.
 
I drank a bottle of the golden-colored beer not too long ago, and I was very impressed yet again by quality of this beer.  I don’t drink it enough, seemingly once a year for some reason, enough time to forget how outstandingly enoyable it is.  Featuring subtle aromas and a fairly crisp and complex taste with a touch of sweetness – like a muted bit of honey – it concludes with an extremely long, dry finish. It is both easy-to-drink and immensely satisfying with layers of flavor.  Late beer guru Michael Jackson wrote, “Karmeliet has great finesse and complexity.” Wonderfully balanced, it is delicious beer, with a smoothness and delicacy masking its 8.4% alcohol by volume.  
 
Karmeliet is also a different beer, even in the amazingly wide-ranging Belgian beer universe.  It is made with three grains.  Not just the familiar barley malt – from 3-row barley in Karmeliet’s case – but also wheat and oats.  This is typical for the lighter Belgian white beers like the once-great Hoegaarden White and its offspring Celis White, but not for the stronger beers.  But, Karmeliet does even more; the three grains are used in both malted and unmalted forms.  This grain mixture, a restrained use of the central European Styrian hops and a well-suited house yeast helps make for an interesting and multifaceted beer.
 
The use of three grains – actually six types of grains if you count both malted and unmalted versions – is not what makes Karmeliet unusual, though.  It is unusual because it is so very good and so very approachable.  It is a beer that might appeal to a wide range of drinkers, even those who might usually drink mass-produced light beers.  This is because of its relatively light and subtle flavor that can be easily appreciated.  Karmeliet is not just for beer aficionados, but it is perfectly situated to be a gateway for those to become one. Karmeliet should be a maintstay, too.
 
Karmeliet Tripel is around $14 for a 750-ml bottle and $8 for a 11.2-ounce one, both well worth the tarrrif.

Though now down two games to one and facing Corey Kluber who shut them out in Game 1, the Cubs are in the World Series!  The first time since 1945.  If you didn’t know, there is a long-standing neighborhood bar that is a shrine to the Chicago Cubs, TK Bitterman’s on West Alabama a little east of Shepherd.
 
Proprietor Kent Marshall, the Bitterman, is a Chicagoland native and big baseball fan, especially of his hometown Cubs.  The bar is festooned with photos of legendary Cubs of yore including Sandberg, Santo, Sweet Swinging Billy Williams and – I don’t exactly remember – maybe even Sauer, Hank, who won the MVP in 1952.  There is Banks, of course, and Brock, Lou, in a Cubs uniform before the disastrous trade to the rival Cardinals. This is a Cubs bar, if there is such a thing in Houston.  And being a Cubs bar, you can get the true taste of Wrigley Field, Old Style.
 
In the 1980s and 1990s, beer-swilling Cub broadcaster Harry Caray was a popular pitch person for Budweiser, tying the notion of the Cubs to it in many people’s minds – “Cub fan and Bud man” – and there is a very prominent signage for it in the outfield of Wrigley Field these days.  But, it is Old Style that is the true beer of the ballpark. Like the regionally popular Lone Star here, Old Style is a bad-tasting light lager.  It’s a bad beer that tastes better consumed in the hot sun in profusion with thousands of other bleary baseball fans.  One trip to the bleachers in Wrigley Field some years ago, we made a stop at the first beer stand en route, which was an Old Style stand.  When asked where the other beers were, the attendant seemed put off: “You don’t like Old Style?” After a brief pause, he said, “I don’t drink this crap, either, the next beer stand is at the top.”
 
If you want to feel a Cubs fan at TK Bitterman’s, they can likely oblige.  They have many other better beers and libations, to enjoy the game or ease the pain of being a Cubs fan.
 
TK Bitterman’s
2010 W Alabama (east of Shepherd), 77098


Kent Marshall and a can of 'Doggy Style'

Though it dates from 2010, the owners of McGonigel’s Mucky Duck, Rusty and Teresa Andrews, are still justifiably proud of their trophy from Guinness awarded for serving the best pint of its signature dry stout in the entire Houston area.  Sampling pints on several recent visits, there is no reason to believe that this is still not the case.  The Duck consistently serves a terrific pint of Guinness.  It still might not be ideal weather for Guinness, but the interior of the Duck is nicely air conditioned.
 
Poured from a tap with about 70% nitrogen mix allowing for a creamy head, much of the taste of Guinness stout seems to result from the quality of the bartender's multi-step pour, which you will see at most bars and certainly throughout Ireland.  As with other beers, the age of the keg, the length of time it has been opened, the cleanliness of the lines, tap and the glasses matter matters quite a bit, possibly even more.  The quality of Guinness varies greatly across the city, more so than any other beer:  sometimes it is thin, weak and overly bitter while other times it is thick, rich, smooth and wonderfully enjoyable, as it always is at the Duck.  A big reason, likely the biggest, is that they serve a lot of Guinness.  So, that opaque black beer will be fresh, the lines clean, and staff well-versed in pouring a proper pint.  Plus, the Duck’s pint is still 20-ounces, a size that is nearly extinct in Houston.
 
For those that think of the Duck as primarily a showcase club featuring top regional and local Americana musical acts, it has actually always had an excellent beer program.  One of the earliest bar employees in the 1990s was Chris Black, the “king” of Denver’s beer scene and owner that time zone’s best beer bar, Falling Rock Tap House.  When Black worked there, the bar was a regular stop for Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio and most regularly, righthanded starter Mark Portugal, for whom a sandwich is named that still on the menu, and long the most popular item.  The Duck now features roughly thirty beers on tap in a range of styles and regions, and a pint can be reason enough for visit, especially if you enjoy Guinness.
 
McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
2425 Norfolk, 77098, (713) 528-5999
mcgonigels.com

It’s late September – or it was when this was originally written –  the season for Oktoberfest, that famous beer festival in Munich that inspires breweries in the German state of Bavaria, Munich’s home, and across this country to produce a slate of copper-colored, medium-bodied beers of the same name. The festival of Oktoberfest begins in September and runs into early October in Munich. The style commonly known as Oktoberfest, a lager that is clear and copper-red in color featuring a smooth and malty taste buttressed by a judicious use of classic German hops, was introduced by the Spaten brewery in 1871-72. It replaced the dark brown lagers as the specialty beer of Munich’s Oktoberfest event.  The style is derived from a style of lager beer created in Vienna a few decades earlier.
 
Today at Oktoberfest and on German labels, and seemingly since the mid-1970s and the dawn of the age of light beer, Oktoberfest beer can mean this classic style or a just a heartier style of the brewery’s main lager beer.  The use of both “Oktoberfest” and “Marzen” on a label means the beer is in the traditional style created by Spaten.  Marzen is March in German and was the last month in which brewing was possible because of the wild yeasts that quickly propagate during the warm days of summer in the time before refrigeration. The beer was stored in cold cellars (“lager” in German) and drank during the course of the summer.  The last of the beers were consumed by the end of the September and early October for the festival and its predecessor fall festivals.  The long storage beer ensured an especially smooth and flavorful beer.
 
It remains today in the best versions of Oktoberfest, even if the beers are not stored nearly as long as they once were.  These can make for terrific session beers, especially when the weather is a little cooler than summertime Houston.  Since I enjoy the style and drink it regularly throughout the year – much less so in summer – I recently conducted a tasting of all of the Oktoberfest beers I could find in Houston.  The results are below. 
 
The ratings are done in a hybrid of my copy of Michael Jackson’s Pocket Guide to Beer (signed by the author himself) and the New York Times wine ratings, [nothing] to ****.
 
Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen  ***
Easily the best of the dozen beers, and a very flavorful example of the style, Ayinger just does not disappoint; it is certainly one of the top breweries in the world. Their versions of hefe-weizens and dunkel-weiszens have done very well in tastings I have conducted over the years, and this Oktoberfest, sporting a malty aroma with a hint of nutmeg has a very long, extremely smooth and malty taste with proper touch of sweetness that makes it a very easy beer to enjoy.  5.8% alcohol by volume; 21 IBUs.
 
Spaten  Octoberfest  **
Featuring the deepest brown color of the tasting field, this was good, but not nearly as tasty as good kegs I have drank in the recent past.  It was smooth enough, but missing some of the malty sweetness that I have come to expect.  5.9% alcohol; 23 IBUs.
 
Samuel Adams Octoberfest  **
Malty aromas were followed by a properly malty taste. Made in the traditional style, Sam Adams has been making this beer for a number of years and knows what it is doing; the best of the American versions. 5.3% alcohol; 16 IBUs.
 
Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen  * ½
Notes of nutmeg in the aroma and some sweetness in the back of the mouth, but not the best representation of the style, as the beer does not quite come together in the glass. 5.8% alcohol; 24 IBUs.
 
Karbach Karbachtoberfest  * ½  [** in September 2016]
Lighter in color than nearly all of the others and the most effervescent, this had a long taste that was not nearly as malty or strong as the typical style and a bit of an odd aftertaste.  That “It’s still summer” is written on the can could be a key to the idea behind this beer, which tasted almost of a blend between the Munich helles, their lighter standard beer, and a Marzen. 5.5% alcohol; 25 IBUs.
 
Rahr & Sons Oktobefest  * ½
The slight malty nose led to a maltier taste with caramel notes and a fairly full body. Not entirely smooth, but a pretty good effort from this Forth Worth brewery. 7% alcohol; 27 IBUs.
 
Harpoon Octoberfest  *
With different aromas, this features a malty taste with a touch of dryness and some rough patches during a sip. Mediocre. 5.3% alcohol; 32 IBUs.
 
Josesphbrau Oktobefest  *
A slight malty aroma was followed by a relatively light body and a touch of sweetness.  Made with corn, I wondered. There is nothing charming about this beer contract-brewed for Trader Joe’s by a brewery that has not mastered the art of a Marzen-style lager. 5.3% alcohol; 25 IBUs.
 
Saint Arnold Oktoberfest  *
Thin and odd-tasting for the style with an odd almost soapy taste, like that of Shiner’s version.  This prominently features the Saint Arnold’s house aftertaste, which is not at all pleasant for this type of beer. 6.0% alcohol; 24 IBUs.
 
Shiner Oktoberfest   *
Odd with a hint of soapiness in its short taste. Thin for the style and tasting fairly cheaply made.  5.7% alcohol; 18 IBUs.
 
Brooklyn Oktoberfest  ½
A unique take on the style that does not work.  Looks that part with its dark copper color, but had none of the maltiness you look for in these beers paired with a bit of spice that does not really, help plus a dryness that was also at odds with both the style and enjoyment.  A misstep by a good brewery. 5.5% alcohol; 25 IBUs.
 
Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfest  ½
The worst of the lot and another beer to avoid.  The malty aromas led to fairly malty taste that finished badly, just like beers made with cheap ingredients do. 5.1% alcohol; 20 IBUs.
 
If you enjoy the style or a flavorful smooth-tasting beer with a bit of body Ayinger is the clear winner.  The progenitor of the style and one that is available year round, Spaten, is still quite tasty, if maybe more variable than it should be.  A freshly tapped keg of Paulaner, always a laggard to Spaten in terms of Marzen, can be very enjoyable as can Sam Adams Octoberfest.  If not great, Rahr’s showed some promise, and packs a wallop, too, at 7% alcohol.
 
The rest, unfortunately, should be ignored.

Original article was initially published in September 2014.

Below, two different Oktoberfest beers sampled at The Ginger Man.