Oktoberfest: Wiesn and Märzen

Was at a German neighbor's house last night for dinner and for our kids to play. Brought a growler of my homebrewed Koelsch. He really liked it and found it to be very authentic. When it was gone, he followed it up with some Victory Festbier. He remarked that he finds the large majority of U.S. takes on German styles to taste too "gamey." I thought that was a pretty apt description and will be using it myself in the future.

 

"Gamey" .... interesting. That's a term I've always used for beers with a very strong brettanomyces character. Brett can have a wild game iron/mineral character at times.

 

"Gamey" .... I find that a bit confusing when I think of the differnece between Victory's Festbier and something like the Paulaner or the Hacker-Pschorr currently in my fridge. (Nor do I find it in the Sly Fox in the fridge.)

As does Domingo I think of "gamey" more in conjunction with Brett beers since in my growing up years I had more than one opportunity to eat wild game (duck, goose, pheasant, venison, elk, etc.) and compare the flavor of those meats with domestically raised versions. (BTW none of them taste like chicken... .)

Was he using "gamey" to apply to Victory's Festbier or to many of the others that he was not serving?

 

I wonder if that's because they aren't good, clean lagers? What's his opinion on Old Meck beers?

 

Hasn't had the Olde Meck beers yet. And, yes, I interpreted it to mean that the U.S. beers don't taste as clean as the German ones he's used to.

 

My first Shiner this year fit your earlier comments quite nicely. I'd suggest you revisit it with a fresh palate before giving up on it. If what one has for lunch can affect the palate 6-7 hours later, surely the kolsch you were drinking earlier in the evening can be expected to have an effect on most any Oktoberfest.

 

Got a couple left in the fridge that I plan on cracking very soon (is it 5 yet? wait...kein Bier vor 4?). Will revisit on a clean palate and report back. Not giving up yet!

 

Still a tad sweet, but now my palate is picking up the hops again and all is back in better balance. It is amazing how changeable your palate can be from one day -- and frequently one beer -- to the next. Prost!

 

The amber lager category has a subcategory of American Oktoberfest, fwiw

 

Thanks for the update! Yeah, lots of people are convinced their palate remains the same regardless and blame the beer. I remember somebody who drank a notoriouly bitter IPA and followed it with a Yuengling Lager and then claimed the Yuengling was totally tasteless... Nothing anyone said could convince him that it was the effect of the IPA....

 

I know a segment of an entire demographic that regularly drinks notoriously bitter IPAs and then claims all lagers are tasteless.

 

Hey... you don't mean..?

 

I've heard great things about Left Hand and finally gave it a try. I've had two out of the three I bought, and I personally can't say I'm a huge fan. Tasted far too sweet for my palate, and what made it worse is my roommate had some Ayinger so I was able to try them side-by-side. The Ayinger was so much cleaner and breadier, not cloyingly sweet at all like the Lefthand (again, this is for my palate, maybe you'd prefer it a bit sweeter). The Lefthand wasn't a mess like the Sam Adams, but just wasn't my cup of tea. For American Marzens I'd take the Victory Festbier (still lagging behind Ayinger though) so far this year.

The Spaten on draft was tasty, and my second favorite this year would be Weihenstaphaner's Oktoberfestbier.

Hacker-Pschorr is usually my second favorite, and I was also underwhelmed by Paulaner's "Wies'n". These two are typically ones I enjoy, but they both tasted a bit "stale", and judging by the bottling dates both were older than three months I believe.

Next up, Hofbrau on tap hopefully! Had the Spaten on draft at the same bar this weekend, they have Hackor Pschorr, Spaten, Paulaner (amber and pale), Hofbrau, Ayinger, Warsteiner, and Weihenstephaner's....so I have some work to do.

 

But I love lagers! I have a six pack of the latest IPL in my fridge right now.

 

I decided to conduct a side-by-side tasting of Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier and Paulaner Oktoberfest Wiesn. A battle of the Wiesn (or Helles Marzen if you prefer) beers!

Appearance

Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier: Beautiful golden color with a big fluffy, long lasting head.

Paulaner Oktoberfest Wiesn: Beautiful golden color with a thin head that dissipated rather quickly.

Aroma

Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier: Bready malt aroma with just a very slight hint of caramel; a noticeable lemony Noble hop aroma (Saaz, I would guess).

Paulaner Oktoberfest Wiesn: Bready malt aroma

Taste

Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier: Nice, well rounded bready malt flavor with a subtle but nicely balanced Noble hop flavor.

Paulaner Oktoberfest Wiesn: Bready malt flavors with a more subdued hop presence; sufficiently balanced.

Mouthfeel

Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier: Light bodied but a pleasing mouthfeel.

Paulaner Oktoberfest Wiesn: Same as above.

Overall

Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier: A very well crafted beer! The bready malt flavors and the Noble hop aroma/flavor are very well balanced (perfectly balanced?)

Paulaner Oktoberfest Wiesn: A tasty beer to drink. It pales (no pun intended) in comparison to the Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier. This is no doubt a good beer to drink at the Oktoberfest celebration.

Prost!

 

There's too many friggin' categories and the only reason they do this is so there are more winners and no loosers. Which makes everyone a looser. It's like a graduation ceremony when you finish 3rd grade.

 

Well, to the point of palate calibration (or shock, depending on your views), last night while prepping dinner I started with an HB Wiesn Märzen, switched to a Spaten Amber Märzen, then decided to have one of my Left Hand Oktoberfests.

The 2 German beers were rich and smooth; full of toasted bread characters that I love so much, finishing clean and lightly dry. The Left Hand hit me with immediate caramel and nutty characters, very much like most Ami Oktos I've had (Summit, Victory, Goose Island, Sam Adams, even New Glarus to some extent).

In this, my favorite of all beer "seasons", I've decided to separate my judgement between German and American versions -- there is just too much distinction between the two interpretations of one style, unfortunately. To the sunnier side of that street; at least I can still find the sort of Märzen I always enjoy most.

 

This last weekend we went back to Bad Orb on a tip there was a Bierfest with 30+ beers. We got there and were underwhelmed with this event. There were 4 beer brands there, and except for Paulaner's Oktoberfest Bier, there wasn't anything to speak of. Maybe that 30+ number was the total of ALL the beers combined?

Anyway, here's what it looked like. This really is all there was, plus a few more tables behind where I'm taking the pic. It was a sleepy fest and sleepier people. Bad Orb is a retirement village in the literal sense, a la Florida. We drank our one beer and left within an hour.



Anyway, we drank Paulaner'sOktoberfest Bier, and again I was surprisingly underwhelmed. It really tasted like a slightly maltier version of a Pils. I got the 1L Maß and my girlfriend a 0.3L glass. What's interesting in the pic below is how the beer looks darker and has more orange in the Maß, yet lighter and yellower in the smaller glass. The actual color was closer to the yellowish, smaller glass.


The flavor was exceedingly boring, I thought. Not more more than a slightly less hopped and slightly maltier Pils, really. I'd planned to take notes but with this beer, both I and my girlfriend looked at each other and exchanged comments that basically were: tastes like a Pils. I really expected more from a beer, considering Paulaner's pedigree and history. I didn't even finish the full liter, and poured the last ¼ onto the grass. Also, this beer came from a keg, not a bottle.

After having excellent Festbiers, such as Pfungstädter's 1831 or Camba Bavaria's Märzen recently, I could only think that drinking this Paulaner was wasted time and money.


A side note. Notice the "Weisn-Genuss" slogan. Genuss = Enjoyment. It's like they're relying on marketing rather than flavor to sell this beer. I hope anyone who's tried Paulaner's Oktoberfest Bier has had better experiences.

 

Density. Take note of how dark your home-brew looks in the fermentation vessel compared to when poured into a glass. Me? I'd take the Maß color as more authentic -- traditional serving vessel and all.

Not you too! And a language teacher at that!

 

I'm afraid you're 100% completely wrong. The real color of the beer is what it looks like when you directly down at it from the top when the foam is all gone, which I did, and I can tell you for a fact that it's golden-yellow. Basta. No orange, no amber. Yellow. The difference is color is only on the photo, and not in real life; I think the iPhone camera is to blame here.

I give up, what do you mean?