Harpoon Octoberfest
The original German Oktoberfest was brewed with one celebratory festival in mind. Harpoon Octoberfest is brewed with TWO festivals in mind; our Octoberfests at our breweries in Boston, MA and Windsor, VT. We love the style and it’s a great beer for the fall season. In true Octoberfest tradition, we threw our first festival here at the brewery in 1990. There were a couple thousand people here celebrating amidst the brewing tanks. We can’t quite fit everyone in the actual brewery now – last year nearly 18,000 revelers attended our Boston Octoberfest and nearly 7,000 joined us at our brewery in Vermont the following weekend. Prost!
Description
Harpoon Octoberfest is a malty tribute to fall, balanced by a gentle hop bitterness. In keeping with tradition, it is a Marzen-style beer, brewed with abundant quantities of Munich, Chocolate, and Pale malts. Those malts provide a solid, full body and create the beer’s deep color. It is a rich, flavorful beer.
Description
Harpoon Octoberfest is a malty tribute to fall, balanced by a gentle hop bitterness. In keeping with tradition, it is a Marzen-style beer, brewed with abundant quantities of Munich, Chocolate, and Pale malts. Those malts provide a solid, full body and create the beer’s deep color. It is a rich, flavorful beer.
3.2
559 reviews
Boston, United States
Community reviews
From bottle, pours red-brown with thin white head with short retention and average lacing. Taste of roasted grain and touch of caramel. Bit bitter end. Average beer.
Pours a red-brown from a bottle, thin off-white head with good lacing. Aroma of rye toast, or cracker. Flavor is a roasty bready slight caramel with a bit of a burnt note. Good beer.
12 oz van into a lager glass.
Beautiful appearance with a deep copper-amber body that’s topped by a thick and tall off-white head. Excellent clarity. Little visible carbonation after ’settling’.
Mild aroma, as expected, with both bready malts and spicy hops evident.
The flavor is a bit more hoppy with a solid malt base. Overalll, lightly bitter
This beer is really light. Some slightly malty flavors in the body which quickly disappears. Low on the hops content as well.
Appearance is amber with tan head. Aroma is sweet. Taste is light with a balance of sweet malts and bitterness. Not the best example, but drinkable.
Pours a beautiful amber with a medium head. On the nose, malt, caramel, with an interesting hop presence. Same goes for the taste. The body is kind of weak though, and so is the final. It is a good beer, and I’d drink it again without a problem.
Draft. Clear copper with a small white head. It had virtually no nose. The flavor was sweet with some caramel, biscuit and a little dark fruitiness.
Bottle. Pours an amber color with small white head. Aroma of caramel malt. Sweet flavor with biscuit and cereal notes. Medium bodied. Pretty good.
Nice enough, nice toffee and vinous notes with a deep caramel. Slightly lighter bodied than the Munich ones. But otherwise pretty good, true to style.
Great looking, deep amber with finger of thick off-white foam which laced the entire way down. Aromas are of light bready malt, but fairly subdued. Unfortunately the taste is less remarkable. Fairly smooth, and somewhat sweet, there’s just not a ton of character here. Middle of the road for the style.
appearance: clear medium amber brown, one finger of light khaki head, average lacing. aroma:caramel malts, light brown sugar, cola, slightly nutty, a bit of strawberry. taste: cola, caramel, light toffee, slight note of toasted brown bread and nuts, a bit of red stone fruit. finish: clean and slightly sweet, a bit of fruit and nut notes lingering. notes: Really nice take. Balanced and clean, supremely easy to drink. First new Octoberfest beer of the season and it started out with a winner.
Bottle, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. Biscuit malt aroma. Some pepper and ginger. Medium body, sweet, a bit flat but nice that it doesn’t smack you with pumpkin or spices. Very drinkable.
Aroma caramel, dough, butterscotch,
Appearance amber, clear, minimal head, white foam,
Taste medium sweetness, lightly bitter,
Palate light body, thin feel, fizzy,
Overall a light multy Carmel tasting beer. Not the best but not the worst. I don’t think I would suggest this beer to a friend.
Ok october fest. Thin in body and seemed watered down as if they meant to make this approachable.
Typical for the style, it’s heavy on the caramely malts and light on hops. Not a fan in general but it’s more or less representative.
Pours a light brown amber color. Little head and lacing. Not the best oktoberfest I have had. But it will cure the craving
Pours a light brown with a white head. Aroma is malt and caramel. Flavor is sweet malt and a mild bitterness that works well. I really enjoyed this one.
Easy to drink and good enough for style. Pours orange brown with OK head and lacing. Some rust with light barley notes. Bottle.
Nice dark taste. Pretty darn. Nice chocolately start with a very smooth finish. I would certainly get it again.
Reddish brown beer with a thin tan head that disappears quickly. Semi-sweet nose of almonds, caramel, and praline. Flavor is surprisingly rich with the candied nut flavors most prominent followed by sweet malt and a mild bitterness that really sets off the sweetness. Mouth feel is relatively light with bracing effervescence. If you like malt, you’ll like this beer. Enjoyable!
A little disappointed there was not much of a nose to this beer. A healthy swirl helps though. Copper in color with average lacing. The taste makes up for the lack of nose. Sweet malty front with a hint of brown sugar. Carbonation is spot on for the style. Overall I would buy this one again. Im glad I committed to a 1/6th keg for the basement bar during the fall season, which is the best season for beer in my opinion.
We had this brew at the Windsor brewery which made it very fresh. The food is good, but doesn't stack up to the brews.
12oz bottle - pours a deep copper , sweet bready malt aroma . Clean crisp hops with a sweet finish .
Pours a brown orange with white head that leaves much lacing. The aroma is caramel malt. The palate is medium body. The taste is slightly sweet malt with hop bitterness also slight.
Bottle. Darker amber brown pour. Mild aroma. Malts, caramel and chocolate. Taste malty and caramel up front. Chocolate, cocoa finish. Smooth for style. Overall good octoberfest.
12 ounce beer pours a reddish copper color. Off white creamy head that dissipates quickly. Sweet caramel aroma nothing from hops. Nicely balanced Oktoberfest beer very malty and Carmel flavor. Just enough hop bitterness for balance.
Pint on tap. Clear orange copper with a creamy film on top. Faint aroma of toffee and toasted walnut. Tastes of toasted nut, toffee apple and a touch of dry cocoa. Medium body is to the roasty side for the style and has medium carbonation.
Pours a light brown, plenty of carbonation and a bubbling head. Sharper malt aroma with a clean malt taste. Minimal aftertaste.
On draft at Isaac Newton’s. Ehh was a bit thin and lacked something. Some nice notes of caramel malt and mild chocolate. This body. Needs a boost of malt.
Bottle from Harvest Market.
Clear golden color decent white head. Rich sweet bready pilsner with a hint of hop flavor. Nice enough marzen, better than some other versions I’ve had but still not quite as good as the German versions.