Early Autumn Means Festival Beers!

I like many styles of beer, but this time of the year affords me many opportunities to drink one of my favorites. The Marzen is a rich malty lager that has been enjoyed in Germany for centuries, and the Oktoberfest beer is the most well-known version of it. It gained prominence in 1810 when a festival was held for the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig, and Queen Theresia in Munich, Bavaria. Since that time, harvest festivals have featured this beer, the most famous being Munich’s Oktoberfest, held for 16 days every late September. Marzens are made and enjoyed throughout the warm months, but late August every year for me means a plethora of Oktoberfest beers on the shelf!

I was able to attend a beer festival last weekend, and had two excellent examples of Oktoberfest beers! One was from Anderson’s Guardian Brewing, and the other was from Westfield’s Field Brewing. You can find one made at many breweries which is a far cry from 20 years ago when I was able to get one from Sam Adams, and Penn Brewing in Pittsburgh. Now there are so many available that it’s almost impossible to try them all in one season!

While many great Oktoberfest beers are produced in the US, I feel it is important to appreciate the German made ones as well. The top picture features two excellent ones including Weihenstephan, which is the worlds oldest brewery dating back to 1040. Paulaner, along with Augustiner, Hofbrau, Hacker Pschorr, Lowenbrau, and Spaten are the only six Oktoberfest beers permitted to be served at the official Oktoberfest in Munich. I particularly like Spaten, and a Taproom I worked at six years ago featured it as a seasonal beer. Normally you can find many of these beers at better liquor stores, but it’s been harder this year because of Covid

There are many good Oktoberfest beers to choose from. Sam Adams has been giving us one for decades, and I’ve been able to try nearly every vintage. Sierra Nevada has been collaborating with German breweries such as Bitberger, and Brauhaus Riegale for their Oktoberfest beer, but it looks like this year they didn’t do a collaboration, and it might be partly due to Covid. And as you can see from the picture above plenty of other top notch breweries offer this beer as well, and given the German heritage of the Midwest, I would expect nothing else!

One of the great things about Marzen is how well it pairs up with food. The festivals in which this Beer comes from were certainly laden with delicacies of all natures, but I firmly believe that it is poultry that tastes the best with Oktoberfest beer. In America we have our own harvest fest, and we call it Thanksgiving. If you can manage this, I suggest you save a few bottles of whatever Oktoberfest beer you like to have with your turkey. There’s plenty of beer right now, so there’s no reason you can’t stock up!

I have been really enjoying the Oktoberfest beers I’ve had so far this year. I have a few more varieties to try, and I’m looking forward to that as well. I’m doing some traveling this weekend, and I look forward to even more options. I’m also excited that a friend of mine just returned from Texas, and brought me back some Oktoberfest from Houston’s excellent Saint Arnold Brewery. I’m not sure yet what my plans are for Thanksgiving, but I should have plenty of my stock pile of Founders Oktoberfest for the day!

I know you like beer,and if your reading this, odds are good that you’ve had a few Oktoberfest beers in your time. I truly hope you enjoy the style, and found this article informative. I am looking forward to drinking some when I get a chance, and as always, I toast you all!