Pint Night

Every Monday night McNellies features a different beer you can drink and keep the glass. Pint night begins promptly at 5pm, and there is a limited supply of glassware, so the glasses usually go quickly. I've collected quite a few unique beer glasses over the years, and I added one more to my collection last night.

The beer of the night was Spaten Oktoberfest, which is my favorite pint night all year. It's a great beer and an awesome glass. Pint Night is a bit misleading for this one; Liter Night would be more accurate. Yep, this German stein holds a whole liter of beer. It's rather impractical to use for drinking purposes, as it's so huge and heavy I had to use both hands to lift it. I might have broken some kind of record for taking the longest amount of time to finish the beer; it took me two whole hours. You might think with all my practice I would be a bit faster, but a beer this strong (5.9% alcohol) and flavorful deserves to be savored. It was time well spent.

Spaten Oktoberfest is a seasonal beer, available primarily between August and October. It was created in 1872, making it the worlds first Oktoberfest beer. It has a dark amber color, medium body and pours with a foamy white head. The flavor encompasses carmel roasted malts with a nice balance of hops. I'm not a big fan of overly hoppy beers, so this one is perfect for me. It's very smooth and delicious, with no bitterness or sour aftertaste. McNellies will have Spaten Oktoberfest on tap for a few more weeks, so you should try one before the kegs run dry. All Oktoberfest beers on draft will be on special for $2.50 the last week of this month.

Next week's pint night is Franziskaner. Come down and get a glass. What else are you going to do on a Monday?