Danke Schoen Octoberfest Ferments on a Pilsner Yeast

Nickel's once-a-year Octoberfest is back on tap in Julian, built on all German malt and, less conventionally, a German pilsner yeast. The brewery says it is the best version yet.

Style: Oktoberfest Lager
Release Date: 2026-09-04
ABV: N/A
Nickel Beer Company (Julian, CA)

Nickel Beer Company brews this one once a year, and the interesting decision in it is the yeast.

The Julian brewery has its annual Danke Schoen Octoberfest on tap, made with all German malts and fermented with a German pilsner yeast. Owner and brewer Tom Nickel describes it as malty but not sweet, with a crisp, clean finish, and calls this year's batch the best version of the beer yet.

The pilsner strain is the part worth pausing on. An Oktoberfest is more often fermented with a Bavarian lager yeast, the kind selected to leave a fuller, rounder malt impression underneath the toast and caramel. Pilsner strains are chosen for a different result. They are prized for finishing dry and getting out of the way, letting the malt read as clean rather than rich.

Applied to an Oktoberfest, that pulls the beer toward the crisper end of the style, which is precisely the description the brewery is offering. It is a coherent recipe rather than a set of German-sounding parts, and the name follows the same logic. Danke Schoen means thank you very much, which suits a beer whose malt bill and yeast both came from the same country as the tradition.

The Octoberfest is pouring now at the brewery on Hollow Glen Road, half a mile east of downtown Julian, where the resident 1937 Chevy food truck is running through the holiday weekend. It is also one of the seven Nickel beers on tap at the Pub at Lake Cuyamaca.

Editor’s Take

There is a particular kind of confidence in naming your seasonal lager thank you very much and then quietly declining to brew it the obvious way. Everything about Danke Schoen Octoberfest points at tradition - all German malts, a German name, once a year, autumn in the mountains - and then the yeast turns out to be a pilsner strain rather than the Bavarian workhorse the rest of the recipe implies.\n\nIt is a small substitution with a real consequence. Oktoberfest is the beer style most likely to go slightly syrupy on you, all toasted malt and no exit, and a crisper strain is a direct answer to that. Nickel is describing malty but not sweet, with a clean finish, which is exactly what you would hope the swap buys. Once-a-year beers usually coast on the calendar. This one appears to have been thought about.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.