Reply To: Got Beer?

Last night I tried this year’s Schells Snowstorm since someone blew the Oktoberfest keg last weekend at The Loose Moose…wasn’t me this year. Anyway this year Snowstorm is a confusing beer if you read their description on their website.

As every Midwesterner knows, no two snowstorms are ever alike and that’s what makes this brew so special. This year’s Oat Starkbier is a malt-driven dark lager meant for the coldest of winter nights. The creamy mouthfeel from the oats smooths out the toasty notes, amplifying the rich Munich malt before a crisp finish

That’s the description on the heading above that it is listing as an Oat Stout. After doing a quick Google search about what a starkbier is, the interwebs list that starkbiers are mostly bocks.

So, here is my confusion. They list it as a stout, describe it as a dark lager, but market it as a oat starkbier which is a bock. So then when the glass of beer comes to me it doesn’t look like a stout or a dark lager, it’s lighter in color than Firebrick. Now it does drink similar to Firebrick but has a different finish to it but not better than Firebrick.

I am very underwhelmed with this Snowstorm. I have truly liked their darker versions of this in the past over this version. It’s not a drain pour but when faced with the choice of Firebrick or Snowstorm this winter, I will choose Firebrick 9 out of 10 times over Snowstorm.

I now will be eagerly waiting the arrival of Bock season.