OK, I admit it, Oktober, er October is my favorite month of the year. So many great beers hit the shelves. Thought I’d do a redux of yesterday’s fun by blowing the dust off my 19th century Spaten Maßkrug and filling it with delicious Spaten Märzen. Actually this is Ur-Märzen, which means the really good stuff!
We’ve talked before about Gabriel Sedlmayr and his bringing lighter clean tasting malts into Germany. Spaten is one of the original brew houses in Munich, going all the way back to 1397. I can see many of my ancestors, winter months sitting around in their rickety hovels with dirt floors, the animals sleeping nearby, warming up to a copper bucket-full of Spaten by the log firepit. Shower? What shower? Ah, those were the days.
Spaten Oktoberfest is a clean 5.9% ABV lager, tasting a bit more like a Festbier to me than a heavy Märzenbier. Easy to drink, yet darker than the other Festbiers out there, so we’ll stick with the Märzen moniker. Shipping UV-transparent green bottles to me is always a risk, but they seemed to have dodged the bullet here, maybe the darker color and low hopping levels and quick turn-around are buying them a few more months protection. The last Spaten I had was a skunker. These ones are OK.
The Spaten-Brau (Spade Beer), Spade logo has GS initials on it for Gabriel Sedlmayr. It still takes 3 of the babyflaschen to slake my thirst, but at lease these ones come to you in a 12 ounce size rather than the even wimpier 11.2’s. Great Beer… Prost!