Festbier specifics from the Big 6 breweries 2019

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ebbelwoi

ebbelwoi

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Just ran across this article. It gives a nice rundown of the Festbier served at the 2019 Oktoberfest. It has OG, ABV and IBU for the beers from the six contributing breweries: Augustiner, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Spaten, Löwenbräu and Hofbräu.

It's in German, but a browser-based translation should get you the important info.

https://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.d...ier.37fca599-7dd2-4a31-9f5a-de4f07111aa3.html
 
Nice. Thanks for sharing. I'm thirsty and it's only 9:23am!
 
All around six percent and then served in 1l jugs..... Man...... That's too much for me. Did that once, cannot remember how I got home, not fun.
 
Jag75 said:
Isnt marzen beers supposed to be copperish or amber in color and festbiers are lighter like a yellow ?
Click to expand...
More or less - Festbiers are yellow to gold (often golden). The VAST majority (like 90%+) of what gets served at Oktoberfest are pale or golden Festbiers like those in the article, but for some reason Americans think Oktoberfest is all about the Marzen.
Look at pretty much every American "Oktoberfest" beer - they are Marzens. That's not what Germans drink at fests.
 
ebbelwoi said:
Just ran across this article. It gives a nice rundown of the Festbier served at the 2019 Oktoberfest. It has OG, ABV and IBU for the beers from the six contributing breweries: Augustiner, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Spaten, Löwenbräu and Hofbräu.

It's in German, but a browser-based translation should get you the important info.

https://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.d...ier.37fca599-7dd2-4a31-9f5a-de4f07111aa3.html
Click to expand...

These are spot on. We were there for opening weekend and then 2nd week. Was able to slide into several different tents but I think our best time was in the Ochsenbraterei, of course that could be just a fuzzy memory after 6 or so liters of Spaten. I do think though that Augustiner was my favorite. While Weißbiers generally aren't my thing, I really did enjoy whatever they were serving outside at the Käfer Wiesn-Schänke beer garden, I think it was Paulaner. Very quenching on a warm Sunday afternoon. Sat there with a family from Boston that had been living in Munich for the last two years. All in all, the whole experience was a lot of fun.
 
Cavpilot2000 said:
More or less - Festbiers are yellow to gold (often golden). The VAST majority (like 90%+) of what gets served at Oktoberfest are pale or golden Festbiers like those in the article, but for some reason Americans think Oktoberfest is all about the Marzen.
Look at pretty much every American "Oktoberfest" beer - they are Marzens. That's not what Germans drink at fests.
Click to expand...


Ok so most of the beers served at Oktoberfest in Germany are festbiers , I didnt know that . Your saying the Marzen is an American Oktoberfest beer?
 
one of my locals put on an "octoberfestbier" and when i asked if it was a festbier or a marzen (preferring the latter), I was told its actually its own style. That prompted me to do some research of course, and I learned some interesting history. The answer to my immediate question was actually that an octoberfestbier is any beer served in the tents at octoberfest. Only those served there can truly be called one (kind of like champagne) and therefore it means one of the big 6 in the article above, and in current times it means its a festbier.

now for the history. I had read a number of articles but this one does a decent enough job of providing it.

https://www.craftbeering.com/oktoberfest-vs-marzen-oktoberfest-style-beer/

In short, the original beers at octoberfest were actually very dark akin to dunkels because the kilning tech of the time only allowed for dark malts. The UK improved on kilning methods and eventually were able to provide lighter kilned malts that the Germans soon adopted. in the mid 1800s, amber lagers, which eventually became Marzens, were introduced. This was the official beer of the octoberfest for like a century...which must be why americans consider it to be THE octoberfest beer. The german immigrants to the US that eventually founded BEST brewing (later Pabst) and budweiser were introduced around the same time. While these two breweries obviously made it big, i'm sure there were many more local german brewing immigrants that were already producing amber lagers in the states and why it became the beer americans think of when someone says octoberfest (that last line is pure conjecture).

It wasn't until the 70s that the lighter festbier was introduced and in the early 90s (i feel like i read 1989 somewhere) did it become the official beer of octoberfest.
 
Technically, an Octoberfest beer is any beer purposely brewed for the festival, which where historical Marzen's ( as in beers brewed in march for lagering through the summer).

Most Marzen's don't ever become octoberfest because, well as you know, when you have a bunch of beers sitting around...

The Festbier as delicious as it is, is a more modern invention.

The Marzen that is brewed in America is nothing like any of them.

If my expirence a genuine Marzen is a rare beast nowadays and it would be nice to see more of it.
 
My marzen turned out fantastic. It was so hard leaving it Lager for 5 months . Grain bill was just Pilsner , Munich and Crystal 40.
 
The six large breweries within the city limits, members of the "Association of Munich Brewers," are the only ones allowed to pour at the Wiesn. The smaller breweries in the city, excluded from this association, as well as any outside of the city, are forbidden. The word "Oktoberfest" is also exclusively reserved by the Big Six, for which reason you'll see other German brewers using names that are allusive but slippery enough to escape the lawyers, like "Oktober Festbier" or some such.
 

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