Imperial Oktoberfest is a ‘style’ that I have encountered a few times in the past (Kaiser Avery) and it’s sits very uneasily with me from a purely philosophical point of view.

Pour is a pretty attractive, reddish mahogany one with some decent tea colored (light, light brown) head and lace. Looks appealing.

Nose offers some significant toasted malts. The initial tastes immediately hit some solvent alcohol. I shouldn’t be surprised given the ABV, but it is quite obvious.

The caramel malt base shines through quite strongly, and it manages to support the alcohol – just. It has a slight (very slight) liquor feel about it. Some soft marzipan and the ever present solvent EtOH. The mouthfeel remains rich and substantial despite the ABV, and that’s a plus for me in the style. Vienna and Munich malts are obvious (obviously!)m, but the Hallertau and Saaz hops much less so. That’s good. What’s not quite as nice is a slight, vegetal note in the finish, but I think that’s connected to the alcohol.

Well, I suppose if you are going to have such a thing as an Imperial O’fest, this isn’t too bad. It remains somewhat stylistically correct (if that’s possible with the ABV and the deep, deep color) and there are decent amounts of sweetness, alcohol and malty goodness. In the end, I liked this a LOT more than I thought I might.