Oktoberfest...Prost!

As I write this, it’s only the day after Labor Day, but this won’t appear in print until October. So, let’s be October-ish and set aside our usual wine discussions to talk about Oktoberfest beer.

October or not, by the time you are reading this, Oktoberfest will either be ending or over. The dates vary from year to year (in 2019 it runs from September 21st to October 6th). But it always ends the first weekend of October – so it’s mostly in September.  

So, what exactly is this September beer called Oktoberfest beer? Well, THEY are all lagers. In the 200+ years of Oktoberfest, there have been many styles of Oktoberfest beer. The style served up at the first Oktoberfest in 1810 was Dunkel – a dark, malty, lager that finishes slightly bitter. Many breweries, large and craft alike, continue to produce this style. But by the late 19th Century the style had shifted away from the Dunkel, giving way to a lighter, reddish, and slightly sweet lager style known as Märzen.

Paler and paler malts were used throughout the 20th Century so that as we head toward the quarter mark of the 21st Century, the Oktoberfest brew is no longer the amber Märzen lager we think of as Oktoberfest beer, but something closer to a Dortmunder lager, although it is a higher gravity brew that registers 6.0% - 6.5% ABV vs. the +/- 5% of a Dortmunder (DAB is a widely available Dortmunder).

There are only 6 Munich based breweries pouring at Oktoberfest, and they are all familiar to Americans who drink German beers: Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Lowenbräu, Paulaner, and Späten. While the beers they serve at Oktoberfest fit the description immediately above, and are referred to as Oktoberfest Wiesn, the Oktoberfest beers they export to the US, are Oktoberfest Märzen beers (in major part because it is what Americans expect an Oktoberfest beer to be). So, there are really two Oktoberfest beers, the Wiesn and the Märzen – and both are “authentic.” Wiesn is the modern version and Märzen is Oktoberfest-past.

März is German for March. In the years before refrigeration the Bavarian beer purity laws only allowed beer to be brewed between September 29th and April 23rd, so it would usually be brewed in March, and cellared for use through the end of September, when beer could once again be brewed.

Brewers in the US generally produce Oktoberfest beers in the Märzen style, and label them as such. The good news for those who love this style of beer is that Märzen beers are produced throughout the year, so even when it’s not the Oktoberfest season you can still drink the March beer of September’s October beer festival – you just have to look for it. Oktoberfest Wiesn beers are difficult to find here.  

To enhance my enjoyment of writing this article, I tasted a Späten Oktoberfest Märzen, and then a Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest (Chico, CA), a Two Roads Ok2berfest (Stratford, CT), a Left Hand Brewing Oktoberfest (Longmont, CO), and CZIG Meister Brewing Oktoberfest (Hackettstown, NJ), all of which the producers indicate are also Märzen style beers.  

According to the 2019 official website for Oktoberfest, the 6 Munich brews that will be served in a couple of weeks, come in at 5.8% to 6.3% ABV – the Späten is 5.9%. Our 4 domestics come in at 6.0%, 5.8%, 6.6%, and 5.3% respectively. So, the Left Hand is a little higher and the CZIG is significantly lower.

The Späten is a reddish amber, noticeably darker than the domestics which were a more golden amber. While the hop finish on the Späten was ever so slightly bitter giving it nice lift, the 4 domestics were less so, though stylistically correct, with Two Roads, Left Hand and CZIG, slightly sweeter than the Späten and Sierra. I thought that the CZIG lacked substance relative to the others. While similar, there is enough difference among them to please a wide range of palates. Stop in and take some home. Prost!