I often feel a bit sorry for myself in the latter part of September. The weather is crumbling, the days are getting shorter, and I am in Edmonton, not Munich. Was I in Munich I could partake in the world’s largest beer party. Don’t get me wrong, I am not romanticizing Munich’s Oktoberfest. I know it is mostly tourists, young yabbos looking to get drunk and very little beer appreciation. Still. It seems like one of those things every beer geek needs to do at least once in their life and thus it remains on my to-do list. And each year around now I start feeling sorry for myself that I am not going. It passes just as sure as October will bring a snowfall.

But for now I find solace in the long overdue return of Alley Kat’s Ein Prosit, their take on an Oktoberfest. I remember trying it for the first time about 8 or 10 years ago (can’t remember exactly when). I was in a downtown pub with a friend and was slack-jawed at its bready maltiness. There weren’t a lot of Oktoberfests around Alberta at that time, and I think the server described it as some kind of “amber lager”. So the complexity and maltiness was a pleasant surprise.

Alas, when I went looking for it, I discovered it was a seasonal – one that returned very infrequently, meaning I had to find other malty pursuits. I think it has been five or so years since the last time they brewed it. Before last week, that is. Ein Prosit is back, and over the weekend I tried a bottle or two.

It is a gorgeous deep orange-copper with a thin white head and great clarity. The aroma takes me back to that downtown pub – bready malt sweetness, some graininess and touchesof toffee and brown sugar. The flavour continues the complex malt character. I get bread, toast, biscuit and some toffee as well. But I shouldn’t overlook the sharper edge of the beer as well. It has only a wisp of hops but the malt holds enough graininess to create some balance. The beer finishes rather sweet, surprisingly, as the sharpness doesn’t seem to make it to the end.

The bready character is very enticing and finds a way to be assertive without overdoing it. In a way the body does seem a bit too big and the beer finishes a bit too sweet. I would have liked a bit more drying in the finish to transition me to the next sip more smoothly. But that is a nitpick. It remains a very enjoyable and solace-finding quaff.