Read a breakdown of beer types and descriptors here!
See a list of beer-related events here!
Read Oklahoma Gazette's Fall Brew Review here!
When did beer get so complicated?
When people start drinking beer, it’s usually whatever they can get. There are the big names — Budweiser, Miller, Coors — and a few off-brand brews at a lower price point, but mostly it comes from a keg at a party or in a suitcase of cans from the convenience store.
But something changed. The beers of the world began trickling into the Oklahoma marketplace, and people took notice. Home brewers started selling their own versions of these different styles of beer and became their own industry. People who were once content to drink whatever they could get became connoisseurs.
Oklahoma City is becoming a beer lover’s frontier. New brewers open regularly and with them a passel of new varieties and tastes. It can be confusing (and expensive) to keep up with new releases here at home, much less the ever-expanding roster of craft brewers from across the country bringing their wares into the marketplace.
As always, Oklahoma Gazette is here to help.
We gathered seasonally available beers from local brewers and others available for sale in Oklahoma City and put our panel of beer experts — local beer enthusiast Emerson Mounger, The McNellie’s Group catering and events manager Nettie Jo Mann, Freeman’s Liquor Mart sales consultant Brett Fieldcamp, Oak & Ore owner Micah Andrews, Freeman’s Liquor Mart beer specialist and certified Cicerone beer server Maurice Pérez and Gazette staff reporter Greg Elwell — to work tasting, testing and recommending. Their sacrifice — the Gazette’s Fall Brew Review — is now in your hands. Please enjoy our guide to make buying and drinking the best beers in Oklahoma City a little easier.
Methodology
The inaugural Oklahoma Gazette brew review panel recently convened to taste and score 36 seasonally and locally available beers in five categories: aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel and overall impression. The six-member panel blind-tasted each one knowing only what type of beer it was sampling in order to score it according to style. This method was chosen so beers only compete with the ideal of the stated style and not against each other. Panel judges submitted score sheets before brewers and beers were revealed.Scoring
Appearance, mouthfeel and overall impression were each scored on 6-point scales. Aroma and taste were scored on 10-point scales. The highest possible combined score is 38.Beer scores listed are combined average scores from the six-judge panel. The top 24 beers are listed here with comments aggregated from the entire six-judge panel.
Average scores
26-38: Outstanding — world-class example of style21-25: Excellent — exemplifies style well; might need minor fine-tuning
16-20: Very good — generally within style parameters; some minor flaws
11-15: Good — misses the mark on style and/or has minor flaws
6-10: Fair — off flavors, aromas or major style deficiencies
0-5: Problematic — major off flavors and aromas dominate
