Gordon Biersch Sommerfest Recap
This time, I finally got my dates right. Last night was the tapping of Gordon Biersch’s new seasonal brew, Sommerfest. Gordon Biersch describes Sommerfest as a “Kölsch style pale ale”. It is a brilliantly clear, straw/pale gold colored beer with a white, moussey head. I found the aromas to be subtle but I felt the malt aromas to be slightly more dominant than the low hop aromas. I found the flavor of Sommerfest tended to lean more to the malt side of the spectrum with low hop flavor and bitterness. If my memory serves me correct, I found this beer to have been a little sweet as well. The finish was refreshing and crisp. With a med to med-lo body and a med to med hi carbonation level, this is an easy drinking beer, perfectly suited for the summer season from which it gets it’s name.
When I compare what I remember Sommerfest to the BJCP guidelines for a kölsch style, I find the Sommerfest fall short on a couple of points. First, I thought the hop bitterness level of the beer was a little low. I’m not expecting it to be on the level of a pale ale or even a pilsner, but when a beer is described a “sublte Pilsner”, I would expect it to have a little more hop bitterness and flavor. This makes me wonder if the hop shortage has forced the GB brewers to change up their recipes a little bit and make a less hoppy beer. I also felt that the sweetness level of the beer was higher than expected. I anticipated this beer to have been fully attenuated and a little on the dry side.
Overall though, I found this beer to be very refreshing and flavorful beer. For the most part, Sommerfest hits all the main points for the style. Still, I can’t help but wonder what a true kölsch from Köln, Germany tastes like. From all accounts, we get close to the real deal but not quite there yet.
This tapping has been the busiest of the year so far. Sammy and I arrived there at around 6:30pm and thankfully the line for Sommerfest was relatively short. It wasn’t until we two-fisted our way to the table where our friends were that I realized how long the line had gotten behind us. For a while, it seemed to stretch on for almost the length of the outdoor patio area. Brewmaster Dan Satterthwaite and another GB employee were busy pouring for almost the entire two hours the event was on for. I wanted to chat with the but between the noise of the band and the people there, it was hard to have a decent conversation. At one point, they ran out of the plastic GB cups and started using their regular beer glasses. The upside was two-fold: a better container to drink the beer out of (yet not the recommended glassware) and larger pours.
The female wait staff working the outdoor patio during the tapping were all dressed up like the St. Paulie girl. This is the first time I’ve seen the GB wait staff in costume and I wasn’t complaining. Before the dinner rush set in, the mainly walked around the patio area handing out appetizers like pretzel bits with Dijon mustard, garlic fries and I even saw some pieces of pizza. In addition, we ordered their “spicy” wings as well as an order of fresh cut chips. The chips were very tasty but the wings were completely lacking any sort of (spice) heat. It’s not that they weren’t good tasting, just not spicy.
They’ve been using the same jazz trio to play these tappings, which is a good thing since they’re very entertaining. Every once in a while during their set, a “guest musician” would come on stage and play with them. That’s one of the reasons I’ve always found jazz to be an exciting genre of music as it gives everyone in the band a chance to be the center of attention. There’s a crazy amount of freedom with the style, yet it is always supported by a loose structure.
All in all, the tapping went very well. Gordon Biersch San Jose always does a good job with their tappings. The beer scene is pretty bad here in the south bay and to have a place like GB putting on an event like this is a good thing. While most people are admittedly there only for the free beers, they at the very least, are trying something they probably would never have bought themselves. And that, is a good thing.
As expected, the Sommerfest is a refreshing and highly drinkable beer with decent flavor. One of our friends summed it up best by saying, “If I’m going to be drinking a lighter beer, I might as well drink this. At least it has flavor”.
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