Coney Island Freaktoberfest comes from Schmaltz Brewing, which is a brewery in New York and while I have no idea what Schmaltz means, its always been a funny word a friend and I use when one of us has something on our faces or in our beards. For example, if eating lunch and some food particles doesn't end up in the intended place we'd say, "Hey man, you've got some schmaltz on your face." Apparently its actually a Jewish word, but I'd rather not know the true meaning. The brewer also makes a point to mention that its NOT an Oktoberfest style beer, but rather a unique entity of their own.
Freaktoberfest pours out a blood red ruby color that resembles Kool-aid in appearance, with a large and long lasting lighter head I'm thinking this one is going to be good. I'd assume the color is not natural, food coloring and such. Sticking my sniffer in the glass I detect a faint pomegranate/berry-ish scent with sort of a rusty old tool-ish vibe to it (I wish I was kidding!). The first sip is not quite what I would have guessed based off of the beautiful look of the beer. Its overly bitter, grapefruit, wine-ish, malty and that awful metal is there as an aftertaste. Wow, so much for judging a book by its cover. Another swig and... this is pretty much fucking awful.
Its a bit of a shame really. I mean, obviously some serious work was put into this one, from the colorful artwork to the crafty description on the bottle. Evidently it also has an ABV that's 6.66%, which is just awesome, though I doubt every batch truly has that amount. Cute, anyway, though. I suppose its my own fault for indulging in a lot of stouts and porters in recent months, but let's face the facts. The appeal to this one is the color and I could just buy a 6-pack of MGD and pour food coloring in and get the same color easily enough. Instead I paid something like $8.99 for four 12 oz. bottle. Lame.
So, not one I'd recommend at all, but if you need some freaky fun at your next Halloween party or just want to make your party guests sick than here you go. I'm fairly certain I've had better Red Lagers before. Go for Leinenkugel's or Lakefront Brewery Inc. Fixed Gear for a truly great red one.
On the plus side...
This really is a gimmick beer. I thought the blood red color was really cool, as was the 6.66% ABV. Funny stuff. Too bad the beer isn't all that much to be excited about.
ReplyDeleteYep, oh well. At least the remainder of my evening had many good beers.
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