BY MATT STEVENS for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 10/2/2026
I found one of the last sunny days in September and snuck a midafternoon trip down to Redd Dog Brewing Company in downtown Tacoma. I hadn’t been in since they had dramatically expanded their patio space. They added seven picnic tables and several hundred seats along with a couple score Adirondack chairs on a grassy berm. There are few places better to bring your kid and dog and enjoy a beer in Tacoma.
Redd Dog has been leaning into its Oktoberfest celebration. The most important thing to remember about any sort of Oktoberfest celebration, whether it’s the time of year, the style of beer, or the expected dress code, is that it is all made-up rules, and everything about the history is in dispute (including the spelling), other than that it all goes better with a great German-style lager.
The first one I ordered was the Vienna lager called Kellerhund. Vienna lagers are spot on for Oktoberfest if they are more copper-colored and maltier than the classic beers you may see people sloshing through at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich.
The Kellerhund pours a gorgeous copper that really shines when I carry it outside to enjoy the beautiful sunlight. The head is a pretty white that fills to the top of the goblet. I do appreciate the wide variety of mugs that Redd Dog pours its beers in; I don’t think the dimple mug does much to optimize the nose or flavors of any beer, but variety is fun, and thank God it’s not a shaker-style pint glass.
Smell-wise, the Vienna malt starts well and is followed up by the well-rounded flavors and a great bready, chewy beer. This beer is super inviting.
The first sip has the toasty, rich character I associate with excellent Vienna malt. There’s the roundedness of caramelized malt but no real roast flavors. The breadiness is there again, in a very enjoyable way.
I had a beer at an unmentioned brewery a couple weeks ago where they hadn’t removed the yeast very well and the beer was overpowered by those bready-yeast flavors. This is not that flavor; this is an extremely enjoyable character that pairs well with the malt body.
Mouthfeel: This is a great medium-bodied beer. It has that creaminess and smoothness and is overall a mouth-filling beer. As I dig more into it, I am starting to get just the lightest of floral hop flavors, which help even out the sweetness of the amber malts. Overall, it’s an extremely well put together beer.
This beer is also a great Oktoberfest because it’s a beer you can drink several of over a couple of hours and enjoy the time with friends and music; if you are at Redd Dog, you can enjoy it with a couple of dogs on the patio.
Redd Dog Brewing Company, 2302 Fawcett Ave., Tacoma, WA
