Spirited’s Oktoberfest features wide selection

By Kameron Z. Spaulding

The fall season is always a highlight for beer drinkers.

One of the greatest local events each year is the Oktoberfest tasting planned each year by Spirited (formerly Nejaime’s) on Route 7 in Lenox. Always held in early October, this year’s event was last Saturday.

This year’s free event – yes, I said free – included over 60 beers available for tasting. And if any one of those beers strikes your fancy – and they always have a few – they are all not only in stock in the store but also on sale the day of the tasting.

Up for tasting were products from Mayflower, White Birch, Smuttynose, Maine, Pretty Things and nine others.

Perhaps the true highlight for Berkshire County beer drinkers was the chance to try the county’s newest brewery, Big Elm Brewing from Sheffield.

Brewery owners Bill Heaton and Christine Bump, former owners of Pittsfield Brew Works, were on hand to pour their new brews.

The two they featured were the IPA and oatmeal stout. The stout was also recently featured on the cask system at Moe’s in Lee and has already started to form a following. Both beers pour pretty well and are full of flavor.

Right now they are working to get kegs in more bars around the region and will begin offering 22-oz. fills soon. Not long after that they will look to join the craft beer in cans revolution.

“We hope to have the cans out by the holidays,” Heaton said.

But Big Elm wasn’t pouring the only winners on Saturday.

Nyx (White Birch Brewing) was a true American black ale: lots of richness with chocolaty undertones but the true highlight is how well the Cascade hops finish the drink.

The black ales really shined all over. The best of which was the Dubhe Imperial Black IPA (Uinta Brewing). It is as dark and thick as you find in the style and you can actually pick up on the hemp added to finish. There is so much going on it, from the dropkick of hops to the smooth roasted flavors, it has it all.

There were just too many great beers – and, sure, a few bad ones – to go through here, but if you were able to stop by the event and have any notes of your own, shoot me an email (kspaulding@berkshirebeacon.com), and we can talk about that great lineup anytime.

Posted by Kameron Z. Spaulding on October 18, 2012. Filed under Columns,Food,Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry