Coney Island Freaktoberfest

Come one come all you lager freaks and craft beer geeks. This Coney Island Craft Lager slogan has quite the ring to it. It rolls smoothly off the tongue, just about as smoothly as one of its stalwart beers rolls down your throat.

Coney Island Freaktoberfest, an incredibly smooth marzen from the Schmaltz Brewing Co., comes as close to mastering the one characteristic I most commonly associate with the style, sweetness, as any other marzen I can remember trying. The problem I find most often with Oktoberfest’s is that they become overly sweet. They lose their bite for the sake of that smooth delicious treat like flavor.

Freaktoberfest employs a generous amount of wheat malts that accompany its hoppy counterparts, rather than subdues their taste. The result is a dark lager flavor that gradually gives way to a delicious roasted caramel aftertaste. It’s also one of the few Oktoberfest’s I can remember drinking that intrigued my palate rather than just passing over it casually.

Perhaps the thing I liked most about this east coast brew is how it handled being out of the bottle. Usually, when drinking beer I prefer it to be cold, ice cold honestly. But as this beer stayed out of the fridge and continued to warm, its taste ignited. It gave me a new respect for trying certain styles as they may actually be intended. The longer Freaktoberfest had to settle, the more prominent its caramel taste became. Its crisp bite heightened as its finish smoothed out.

As someone not usually wowed by an Oktoberfest as anything other than a beer meant for being paired with heavier foods, I truly enjoyed this beer for what it was.

Coney Island Freaktoberfest comes in at 8 mugs out of 10.