Bottoms Up: Four Local German-Style Craft Beers

Celebrate Oktoberfest—and the local craft-beer scene—with these German-style suds.

german-style craft beers, oktoberfest

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The Beer: Fumata Nera

The Brewery: High & Mighty

Each fall, this Holyoke company crafts a smoky take on a Schwarzbier, or black lager. The signature flavor comes from smoked malt that’s sourced from Bamberg, Germany.

 

The Beer: Ever Weisse

The Brewery: Night Shift

This brand-new wheat beer for autumn is available only at the Everett brewery. Make the trek, though, and you’ll be rewarded with a fruity, sour, rose-colored, Berliner-style Weissbier that’s been aged with strawberries, kiwi, and hibiscus flowers.

 

The Beer: Rising Sun

The Brewery: Slumbrew

Made in Somerville, this beer is an excellent introduction to Dampfbier, an obscure brew with heaps of malt (a mix of barley, Pilsen, and caramel malts, to be exact), a red hue, and a warming, spiced finish.

 

The Beer: Polotmavy

The Brewery: Notch Brewing

While this amber lager is technically a Czech beer, it’s brewed in the Märzen (or Oktoberfest) style, with a drier, more-bitter character to please hop heads.