Essential Beers to Serve This Fall
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As the seasons change throughout the year, so do the types of beers we drink. After a summer filled with crisp Pilsners and Pale Ales, it’s about time to dig our noses into the great variety of fall seasonal beers.
Changing your restaurant's beer selection for the season is not only a great way to attract a beer-aficionado crowd, but it’s absolutely required. If you yourself aren’t hip to the appropriate beers to serve in the fall time, this article is here to help.
Here are four beer types that beer-lovers will expect to drink in the fall. It’s best to engage with your local beer scene to find the best brews of these types in your area. In case you live in a beer desert where local breweries are scarce, I’ve included featured beers of each type that are both critically acclaimed and widely available in most places.
Red Ales
A red ale is practically any ale that has a color darker than a pale ale and lighter than a traditional dark ale. This can range from lighter amber ales to ales with a dark brownish red hue. These beers tend to have a sufficient amount of malts to achieve their darker color, but still room for varying amounts of hop flavor. There are generally three types of beers that are considered red ales: the American Amber Ale, the Belgian Flemish Red Ale, and the Irish Red Ale.
Like all red ales, American ambers place an emphasis on malts, with flavors ranging from toasty to fruity and everything in between. That being said, ambers are generally the lightest and hoppiest of the red ales. After all, if there’s one thing we love about our beers here in the US, it’s our hops.
Belgian Flemish Red Ales are generally a bit darker, giving a deeper red color that ranges from ruby to burgundy. A sip of a Flemish red will give you malt, complex fruit and either vanilla or chocolate flavors. Many of these ales are also fairly sour, with some Flemish reds even being classified as sours.
Finally, the Irish Red Ale is like an amber with less emphasis on hops and more on malts. Among the flavors in these ales are caramel, toast, buttery toffee and sweetness. These ales have a dry finish, and can also be brewed as lagers.
Featured Beer: AleSmith Evil Dead Red
San Diego’s AleSmith releases their Evil Dead Red Amber Ale Every Halloween. With a spooky deep-blood red color, this beer features a balance of intense aromas of citrus and pine from American hops and sweet, rich, bread-like flavors of caramel malts.
Oktoberfest/Marzenbiers
Oktoberfest Style beers, now synonymous with Marzenbiers (March Beers), are the style traditionally associated with the beers served at Munich’s annual Oktoberfest. Before refrigeration was invented, hot weather prevented Germans from brewing in the summer, meaning fall’s supply needed to be brewed in March (the last safe month to brew). The first Oktoberfest in 1810 coincided perfectly with the tapping of the Marzenbiers brewed that year, permanently imbedding beer into the core of the festival
Today’s Oktoberfest beers are a result of a tradition and continuous development of beers meant for the festival. The result is generally a full-bodied beer that is dark copper in color with rich, toasty malt flavors and a mild hop profile.
Featured Beer: Ayinger Oktober Fest Marzin
This German-brewed beer from Ayinger is on the lighter side of the Oktoberfest spectrum, showcasing an amber-tinted deep golden color. It has a moderately large body and is lightly sweet with a balance of malts and floral hop aromas.
Extra Special Bitter (ESB)
ESBs are an English beer with a medium body, low carbonation and dark gold to light copper color. Despite its name, these beers aren’t considerably bitter. Instead, like most beers on this list, ESBs are defined by their delicate balance between hoppy bitterness and malt flavors. Hop flavors and bitterness are showcased, but not enough to dominate the malt flavors. Usually made with earthy, resiny, or floral UK hops balanced by a sweet caramel malt flavor and a moderate amount of fruit flavor. A great balanced beer for the copper colors and moderate temperatures of fall.
Featured Beer: Fuller’s ESB
Brewed since 1971, Fuller’s ESB has a rich mahogany color. This beer can be described as a combination of subtle yet present cherry and orange fruit flavors, malty toffee and caramel notes, and grassy peppery notes from English hops.
Dunkelweizen
Dunkelweizens are the darker counterpart of the Hefeweizen, the very popular wheat beer from Germany. Besides their distinctive wheat flavor, these beers are characterized by complex malts often resulting in sweet and chocolate-like flavors. Like Hefeweizens, Dunkelweizens also have clove and banana flavors and a low balancing bitterness. When summer ends and the time for light hefeweizens is over, dunkelweizens will comfortably take their place.
Featured Beer: Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel
This dunkelweizen from the Bavarian brewery Weihenstephan is most well-known for its creamy white foam head, which contrasts sharply with the dark brown color of the beer. As far as flavor goes, the beer features a fruity-fresh sweetness with hints of bananas with flavors of roasted malt and caramel.
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