And now for the Oktoberfests

Just yesterday I almost waxed poetic over the coming of Autumn and one of my favorite harbingers of the season - the seasonal beers and specifically pumpkin beers.

Now another great seasonal, Oktoberfest, is starting to show up. The first release for this year that I'm aware of is Avery Brewing's Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest.

The idea of an imperial Oktoberfest left me a bit puzzled. Imperial typically denotes a high gravity, high alcohol, and more recently heavily hopped beer. Oktoberfest beers, however, are usually moderate beers; session beers brewed for the ultimate beer session in Munich.
I asked Peter Archer at Avery about this apparent descrepancy and here's what he had to say:

Think of Kaiser as a tribute to the traditional Marzen in its idea, with an Avery twist. On our label we say "we took all that is good about a traditional oktoberfest and intensified it into this...an Imperial Oktoberfest."

Just like the progression of IPA to Double then Imperial - we have taken that same progression with a different style.

I like to think of The Kaiser as a great way stretch tradition. Kaiser pairs beautifully with many richer dishes that might lose a milder marzen.

The Kaiser has a lagering of over 140 days, a malt bill built with imported German grains and is hopped with traditional German hops.

This is the 4th year we have released him on the world and quite frankly, it is fun to watch people be challenged by a style that as you say, "is a style of moderation."

Sounds good to me. Prost!