Tonight I opened up one of the promotional bottles of Beck’s Oktoberfest that I received last week (though not the one with the snap-on stein handle).

All of the Beck’s line of beers are brewed by Brauerei Beck in Germany and imported to the U.S. by Anheuser-Busch. According to the label, it’s brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot of 1516 (the famous German Purity Law) though there’s no mention of alcohol content (I would guess in the neighborhood of 5% by volume).

And it comes in a green bottle, which always makes me leery. What is it with these European imports (at least the ones imported by the big macrobrewer corporations) coming in green bottles?

Appearance: Deep orange to amber, very clear. Head didn’t last long, and was fizzy and tan.

Smell: Nice malty and toasty aroma, almost fruity. Reminds me of fall and pumpkins.

Taste: Dry, more of a roasted malt character than I expected. A bit of sweet barley and bitter in the back. The roasted malts lend an astringency to the dryness.

Mouthfeel: Fairly light-bodied with a crisp edge to it. Leaves you a bit dry in the aftertaste, too.

Overall: Easy drinking and goes well with food (it accompanied my dinner nicely). I’d like a bit less bitterness and more rich, malty notes though.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B-. On RateBeer, it scores 2.84 out of 5 and is in their 31st percentile.