Fall Is Here: 5 Fall Beers I've Enjoyed This Season

Fall has always been one of my favorite seasons. The cooler weather, football weekends, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and, of course, all those fall seasonal beers—it’s just a great time of year. There’s something special about sitting by a firepit, beer in hand, enjoying a crisp festbier or a pumpkin ale. I know pumpkin beers can be pretty divisive among beer fans, but I’m all about that pumpkin spice life. So, I thought it’d be fun to share five fall beers I’ve really enjoyed this year. Before we get into that, though, let’s break down what makes a festbier, a märzen, and a pumpkin beer.

Oktoberfestbier, also known as Festbier, is a traditional German lager served at Munich's Oktoberfest, characterized by a rich, malty flavor with bready or toasty notes and a subtle hop bitterness to balance the malt. While historically associated with the Märzen style, Festbier is the modern, official beer of the festival, known for its golden color, crisp finish, and high drinkability, making it perfect for pairing with German foods.

Märzen is a traditional German amber lager beer style characterized by its rich, toasty, bready malt flavor and restrained bitterness, with a clean and well-attenuated finish. Historically, it was brewed in March (März) and lagered in cold caves to be ready for fall festivals like Oktoberfest, though it's now enjoyed year-round. The name Märzen can sometimes be used interchangeably with "Oktoberfest-style beer" in the United States, as it's the classic amber lager associated with the celebration.

Pumpkin beers are a popular fall-seasonal beer style that incorporates pumpkin, pumpkin puree, or pumpkin flavoring into a beer, often an ale, to create flavors and aromas of pumpkin pie and warming spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove.

Alright, let's get into it! Here are 5 fall beers I've really enjoyed this fall!

Parish Brewing Octoberfest- Marzen-style Lager

Gnarly Barley Festbier

Ecology Brewing Acorn Thief Octoberfest

Miel Brewing Festbier

Rally Cap Brewing Pitchin' Pumpkin

Let me know what local fall beers you've been enjoying this year! Now it's time to go watch these New Orleans Saints! Let's hope they beat the Giants!

5 Awesome Louisiana Game Day Brews

Found this one floating around on the internet.  Not sure who did the original.

Another football season is right around the corner and nothing goes better with football than beer.  If you're drinking wine or cocktails you're doing it wrong.

And just because Bud, Miller and Coors like to pay billions in advertising to capture your taste buds doesn't mean you have to drink it!

Drinking local Louisiana beers while cheering on your Saints just makes sense.  Hell, who knows, maybe it'll bring some good luck to the team this year.

According to the Beer Institute Louisiana ranks 11th in the country in per capita beer consumption. With only 7 Louisiana breweries in production we need to do everything we can to support them!

Below are my 5 picks of great Louisiana brews to drink while supporting the Who Dats.  I based my picks on drinkability, availability and price.  I also chose beers I felt would be accepted by those who mostly drink mass marketed brews and may be willing to branch out and drink local.

NOLA Brewing Hopitoulas

If you're looking for nice hoppy brew this one fits the bill.  Perfectly balanced but be careful because at 6.7% ABV it packs a punch.  Comes in convenient 16oz cans which is perfect for your tailgate!

Bayou Teche LA 31 Biere Pale

If you're tailgating at a Saints game most likely you're serving some amazing Louisiana cuisine like jambalaya, boudin or some ettoufee.  It's just how Louisianians tailgate.  This pale ale has a wonderful balance between hops and malts and there possibly isn't a better beer to go along with our cuisine than Bayou Teche's LA 31 Biere Pale.

Abita Amber

This classic Munich style lager is another beer that goes great with our Louisiana cuisine.  With a 4.5% ABV it's easy to drink a bunch and still be able to support your team without being the obnoxious drunk fan like the Falcons have!  It also comes in a can and I'm pretty sure this is the only Louisiana craft beer being sold at the Dome during the game.

Tin Roof Blonde

The Baton Rouge based Tin Roof Brewing produces the light, crisp Blonde ale which is a great game day brew that comes in a can!  I hear that this one is also a staple at LSU tailgates!

NOLA Brown Ale

NOLA's Brown Ale is a tasty malt bomb with a nice, low ABV which makes it the perfect sessionable brew to have while watching the Saints.  It's also a fantastic choice for tailgaiting as it comes in a can as well.

Remember, these are just my picks.  What local beers will you be drinking while watching the boys in black this season?  What are your favorite tailgate food and beer pairings?

Cheers!

The Beer Buddha

Football Season is Here!!!! Let Us Rejoice!!!

I'm so excited right now! Tonite kicks off the NFL season with the defending champ New Orleans Saints taking on the geriatric led Minnesota Vikings. Poor Brett Favre. Completely ruined his legacy by being the ultimate flip flopper.

New Orleans right now is a total madhouse with the whole NFL parade thing being held downtown. Tickets for the game are virtually impossible to come by and being downtown for the game is going to be one total cluster.

The great thing about football games(and all sporting events really)is you don't actually have to be in the stadium or tailgating at the stadium to enjoy the game. Having some friends over, drinking some beer and cooking on the grill can be just as fun if not a better experience.

I plan on using the NFL season as an opportunity to have some cool events at my house that'll spread the love of craft beer. Here are some of the ideas that I have planned for this upcoming season:

1) Local vs Local: This can be tricky unless you beer trade as I do. The idea is simple though. You get local beers from your hometown and get someone to send you beers from the town in which your local team will be playing one week. For example:

Teams: New Orleans Saints vs Atlanta Falcons

Beers: New Orleans: NOLA Brewing, Abita, Bayou Teche
Atlanta: Sweetwater, Atlanta Brewing Company, Terrapin

You can do a blind tasting and square off and see who wins or just enjoy the beers.

2) Beer and food pairing: You can't have a football party without some food. Most of the time you're cooking on the grill or you got your slow cooker going anyways so you might as well pair some good craft beers with the food. And I'm not sure how you do it in your town but I've seen some amazing dishes being prepared by New Orleans tailgaters so you can do it up fancy or not. I'm still claiming that my Who Dat Roastbeef Poboys I created last year for the Superbowl helped New Orleans win the game. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Oh and paired with Abita Turbodog by the way.

3) Seasonal beer tasting: The fall is one of the best times for seasonal beers in my opinion. You have Octoberfests, pumpkin beers and all sorts of speciality brews being created by craft brewers for the fall. Fall, football and fall beer. It's perfect.

4) Locals only: You can make Sunday a locals only day. In most towns it's not that hard to do. I'm pretty sure every beer store in your area has access to some local beers. Support your local team by drinking only local brews.

5) Craft Beer Showdown: Pick a certain amount of craft beers and imports. Categorize them into 4 categories and creat your bracket. You can make this as elaborate as you want. Each person blind tastes a beer and votes on the beer they like best. Winner advances. Great opportunity to try tons of craft and import beers.

So there are some ideas I had for helping spread the love of craft beer this NFL season. If you want to know where you can get some great craft and import beers in New Orleans read below. If you have any cool ideas to share please comment! I'd love to hear them!

Beer Stores in New Orleans:

1) Steins Deli
2) Cork & Bottle
3) Martin Wine Cellar
4) Acquistapace's Grocery(on the Northshore)



Cheers!

The Beer Buddha