Liquid Assets: Cloudstoberfest from Clouds Brewing

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Cloudstoberfest from Clouds Brewing

WRITTEN BY DAVE TOLLEFSEN | PHOTOGRAPHED BY JONATHAN FREDIN

Dave Tollefsen is one of the NCBeerGuys – they have been promoting North Carolina craft beer and breweries on their website, ncbeerguys. com, since 2012. He is an avid homebrewer for more than 10 years and is also part of the North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild.

ONE OF THE MOST COMMON types of beer in the world is the lager. Lager means “to store” and that’s part of the process that creates a beer that is crisp, clear and refreshing. Lagering a beer is to store it at near-freezing temperatures for weeks or months. It’s not one of the styles brewers can produce quickly.

Marzen is an amber lager and pronounced “mare-tsen” (not mar-sen). Saying it correctly at a brewery will get you cool beer cred. The German translation is “March beer,” but it’s a style you find around the fall. If it’s a March beer, why is it equated to a fall beer? The name is a reference to when it was historically brewed. It was then stored in the summer to have it ready for the fall.

Clouds Brewing releases their Cloudstoberfest at the beginning of August. It may seem like they are trying to rush the fall beer season, but they have a logical reason for the advanced release time. Fall introduces cooler weather and all things pumpkin, beers and otherwise. Breweries are releasing their pumpkin beers earlier every year, and they’re drowning out other wonderful fall-style beers.

Cloudstoberfest is a Marzen that is beautifully rich in toasty malt flavor and balanced with clean hop bitterness. What does that mean for you? A crisp malty lager with minimal hop flavor and the bitterness is there to offset extra malt sweetness. The result is a nice dry finish that is exceptionally refreshing, and at 6% ABV, you might consider trying another.

Clouds Brewing’s brewery and taproom is located at 1233 Front St. in Raleigh. They also have additional restaurants in downtown Raleigh and Brightleaf Square in Durham. At these locations it would be great to explore some beer and food pairings!