Märzen
Camba Bavaria

Copenhagen 19/6 2016. 50 cl bottle from Meny, Bryggervangen, Kbh. Ø. Classic label design with something that looks like af fish with wings in the center.

Pours slightly hazy light amber orange with a white head. Stable. Settles as a 0,5 cm thick layer of foam just covering the surface off the beer. Moderate lacing.

Aroma is malty with sweet caramel and brown sugar but with a sharp bitter twist.

Light carbonation and a slightly thick palate. Almost flat texture.

Flavor has a nice caramel sweetness followed by a slightly rough bitterness. Well balanced aftertaste.

Nice - if not extraordinary Märzen.

 

 

Nice clear, mid-gold pour from 500ml bottle. Medium carbonation, light fluffy head. Classic marzen sweetness, with bread and dried stone fruit flavour. Lovely and malty seasonal beer.

A: Amber, clear, small head which disappeared fairly quickly without leaving much lacing.

S: Hints of strawberry and farmyard funk, more like a Pale Ale aroma.

T: Malt, slight citrus.

M: Medium to heavy body, moderate carbonation.

O: A brewery which is more craft than traditional produces a Märzen with Pale Ale characteristics. Fairly nice.

Unclear amber color with off-white head. Aroma is grainy with toasted malt notes with some earthy hops on top. Taste follows with bread crust and earthy bitterness on the finish.

 

L:
-pours a hazy amber with a small to medium,quickly dissipating,foamy,offwhite head
-medium carbonation visible
S:
-bready,candied fruits,cinnamon,sulfur,chocolate,raisins,vanilla,strawberry
T:
-bready,raisins,plums,chocolate,spicy,caramel
-finishes dry
F:
-medium carbonation
-light body
-faint alcohol warmth
O:
Good Märzen.Doesnt quite pop as much in the flavour and misses some hop bitterniss for the style.

 

 

 

 

Now to Camba Bavaria's Märzen. [After drinking their] Dunkel, which had a lot of qualities of a Märzen, I thought I'd just jump into their Märzen to compare them.

On the website, they say the beer was fermented in open vats and lagered in flat tanks. It's also available only September to December, and they say:

Das Wies‘n-Märzen und hier vor allem die Veränderung dieses Biertyps über die Jahrzehnte sind Vorbild für unser Camba Märzen. Eine feine Balance aus hellen, dunklen und Karamellmalzen geben diesem Bier die früher normale, kräftige kupferne Farbe und den malzig, karamellartigen Geschmack. Die Bekömmlichkeit unseres Märzens wird geprägt von einem hohen Vergärungsgrad, einer angenehmen Rezenz und einer deutlich wahrnehmbaren Bittere – getreu der heutigen Version des Oktoberfestbieres.

Which I translate as:
The Wies‘n-Märzen and especially the change in this type of beer over the decades are a role model for our Camba Märzen. A fine balance of light, dark and caramel malt give this beer the historically sturdy copper color and malty, caramel-like flavor. The wholesomeness of our Märzens is shaped by a high fermentation temperature, a pleasant sparkling and a clearly perceptible bitterness - true to the modern version of Oktoberfest beer.

First, notice they use Wies‘n-Märzen and second, that this is supposed to kind of a mix of older and modern versions of this style.

It's quite dark, very deep amber with more orange tints, cloudiness indicating bottle conditining.

The aroma is exactly the same as the Dunkel - München malt - yet this has hints of Noble hops lingering behind the malt smell.

The flavor isn't as strongly tilted roasted malts as the Dunkel. In the front you get a tartness that is verges on containing bitterness but really doesn't hit you over the head. The middle is full bore caramel malts from Münchner malts mixed with a Pils malt dryness, thus restraining and not letting the sweetness overtake the senses. In the back, as to be expected in a Märzen, it's all malt but also a hint of bitterness. It's a very round sweetness, not cloying, not sugary, rather just like you're sucking on a roasted caramel bon bon. At 5.6%, this clocks in exactly within the range for this style.

The mouthfeel is really thick, heavy but not vinous nor burdensome, instead, it's a nice blanket of Gemütlichkeit sliding around the mouth, thick enough that you feel the heft of a sublime serious while letting it slide around the mouth. You can literally feel a respect for and investment in quality ingredients. Finally, the aftertaste is even more sturdy malts but then you feel that tartness as a slight kick, almost forcing your arm to reach for the glass again. However, what I like best about it and makes me like it more is the mouthfeel. This beats a lot of Märzens I've had before simply on this point. "Sturdy" really is the best adjective here, like it's a long lost friend to depend on: not too flashy but hits all the right notes to relax you from all of life's stresses. Really, that's what this beer feels like. It's simply a balanced taste of malts and some tartness that verges on bitterness. This is a real October beer, for the times when the cool fall winds need a buffer from a thick blanket of beer to keep you warm.

For a Märzen, this is a top 10, maybe top 5. The flavor is near the best of them, heavily weighted to caramel but not overly sweet, being balanced by a small bit of tartness.