With a ton of craft beer activities this weekend, it was hard to choose just one. Unfortunately, we had constraints. We were babysitting our little niece and I still had to prepare for a few things. So, Mrs. BetterBeerBlog and I decided to stay local and stay South Bay by visiting El Toro Brewing Company for their Augtoberfest event.
Augtoberfest ran from 3pm - 7pm and we didn’t arrive until 6pm. It was good to see El Toro full of people and their families hanging out. The Internationals were playing a wide variety of music ranging from German polka to classic rock to Spanish music. While I didn’t even notice it at the time, El Toro owners Geno and Cindy were working, behind the bar and in the dining area respectively.
The Augtoberfest Event consisted of a specialized menu featuring some traditional-ish German cuisine, a commemorative stein and three, German-style, El Toro beers: Morgan Hill Pils, Maifest Märzen, and El Chivo Weizenbock.
Mrs. BetterBeerBlog and I ordered the German sausages served with sauerkraut with bits of bacon and a side of herbed, potato salad for her and fries for me. The sausage was okay, not thing spectacular, slightly overcooked if anything. The sauerkraut was equally bland, even with the bacon bits. Her herbed, potato salad was the same and my fries were incredibly salty. I spent most of my time wiping salt off of my fries. Unfortunately, the beers weren’t too much better.
Morgan Hill Pils, 4.6%
Clear gold color with a thin, white head. Flavor is surprisingly malty, cracker-like, almost bready. Hop flavor is slightly earthy, Noble hop-ish while hop bitterness is medium/medium-high. Medium bodied, crisp with high carbonation.
Mrs. BetterBeerBlog and I both feel that a really good pilsner should be clean and crisp with the balance leaning more toward the hop side but not overwhelmingly so. Morgan Hill Pils had a noticeable hop front, not much middle and an assertive hop, almost harsh hop bitterness.
Herman’s Hefeweizen
Cloudy, gold color with no head. Flavors are muddled, nothing stands out. Surprisingly bitter, lasts into the finish.
Mrs. BetterBeerBlog ordered this beer and she couldn’t finish it. I couldn’t finish it. All the good things that make hefeweizens special; banana esters and flavors, yeasty, clove-like spiciness and a soft, wheat malt sweetness; were missing. In it’s place was a big, lemony-citrus character that neither of us were sure came from the beer or the squeezed, lemon wedge that came with the beer.
Maifest Märzen, 5.87%
Clear, amber color with a thin off-white head. Flavor has a slight Munich malt flavor supported by a medium hop bitterness and resiny hop flavor. Lightly buttery? Medium body with medium carbonation.
An improvement over the other two beers but, as far as Märzen’s go it’s not as complex or layered as other examples.
El Chivo Weizenbock, 7.47%
Dark amber in color, hazy with a white head. Flavor is malty, light wheat character with medium-high hop bitterness with some alcohol warming.
Once again, the depth and complexity I’ve seen in other examples is missing from this beer.
El Toro Blackraspberry
Hazy, dark brown in color with a white head. Sweet berry aroma echoed in the flavor. Hop bitterness is low. Body is medium-low with high carbonation.
Mrs. BetterBeerBlog felt this tasted like medicine. I begged to differ, this beer had a lot of fruit character in both the aroma and the flavor. On the drive home, we both felt that the really good fruit beers have the fruit playing second fiddle to whatever the base beer style is. After all, we want beers brewed with fruit as opposed to fruity beers. For what it’s worth, this was the “best” beer of the evening.
I really don’t like to dwell too much on the negatives but it must be said the food at El Toro was ‘meh’ while their beers were very rough around the edges and lacked any sort of finesse. Yet, the idea of Augtobefest is great; the staff at El Toro really set the mood as the men were dressed in lederhosen while the women were correspondingly dressed in dirndls. Even the commemorative steins, long sold out by the time we arrived, were a very nice touch. Even seeing the Internationals playing was cool. In a small town like Morgan Hill, it’s good to see the lone brew pub bringing beer culture to their people.
