Let's Talk About Weihenstephaner

Yikes I've only had the Hefeweissbier, I need to try more of their brews!

 

I love the Vitus, Great brewery

 

I rarely drink them anymore, but when they are relatively fresh, (6 months or less) they are the best, especially the Hefe and Vitus. Freshness is the only hesitation I have about recommending them to new craft beer drinkers, otherwise I would rather a newcomer try any of the Weihenstephaner beers than the latest hop bomb or sour I am probably soiling my taste buds with,...

 

Weihenstephaner is great! I've been a big fan of every one that I've tried. I recently turned my wife on to the Original (she's pretty picky about beers and mostly sticks to a couple different pilsners).

 

Well then, it sounds like the terms conspiracy and extortion can be added to the indictment .

 

The only time I've been disappointed by Weihenstephaner is their Festbier, which I don't think is even allowed at the real Oktoberfest for some reason. The brewery should be on everyone's bucket list to visit in my opinion.

 

It's because the brewery isn't within the city of Munich.

 

I love that one, it's so flavorful for such a pale beer.

I think the only reason they aren't at the festival is because they are not a Munich brewery.

 

The Okteberfest biers are from the big Munich breweries. Weihenstephan is located outside of Munich in the town of Feising.

@steveh beat me too it.

One could also say Andechs and Ayinger aren't allowed, and it is for the same reason.

 

And Forschungsbrauerei. But I believe they all have their own festivals during the same time.

 

I thought their Festbier was unimaginably drinkable. Admittedly, not my favorite style of Oktoberfest, but it's one that's so quaffable, I imagine that being the intention- Pour a couple in a stein and drink an excessive amount of it

 

Hell yeah! It's one of my favorite styles, and I look forward to drinking a ton every year.

 

My theory was that it was economics. A little less expensive to make without the specialty malts for all of the revelers who drop their full Maßkrug.

 

This is a solid theory. I feel it may be a combination of this, and the fact that multiple light beers were gaining significant ground in US sales in the 1990s. With Bud Light finally surpassing Budweiser in the early 2000s.

Perhaps the Munich breweries felt that not only would they save money, but that tourists expected a beer for mass consumption to be both lighter in color and body.

 

This is what I found in the BJCP 2015 Guidelines about Festbier:

"Since 1990, the majority of beer served at Oktoberfest in Munich has been this style. Export beer specifically made for the United States is still mainly of the traditional amber style, as are US-produced interpretations. Paulaner first created the golden version in the mid-1970s because they thought the traditional Oktoberfest was too filling. So they developed a lighter, more drinkable but still malty version that they wanted to be “more poundable” (according to the head brewer at Paulaner). But the actual type of beer served at Oktoberfest is set by a Munich city committee."

Also in the 2015 guidlines under festbier:

"This style represents the modern German beer served at Oktoberfest (although it is not solely reserved for Oktoberfest; it can be found at many other ‘fests’), and is sometimes called Wiesn (“the meadow” or local name for the Oktoberfest festival). We chose to call this style Festbier since by German and EU regulations, Oktoberfestbier is a protected appellation for beer produced at large breweries within the Munich city limits for consumption at Oktoberfest. Other countries are not bound by these rules, so many craft breweries in the US produce beer called Oktoberfest, but based on the traditional style described in these guidelines as Märzen."

 

The irony is Paulaner's export Marzen is the weaker of the two in terms of ABV.

 

That is funny.

Paulaner's festbier version, at 6.0%

Their darker Marzen is 5.8%

I know BJCP isn't the end all be all, but it does list 5.8% - 6.3% as the range for both styles

 

I don't know about "light" beers, but it's been said that the popularity of lighter bodied beers was rising in Germany right about the time the Fest Beers took over the Oktoberfest.

But I still like my theory of all the Munich brewmasters watching the drinkers get out of hand and slopping their well-crafted Amber Märzens all over the Wies'n and wondering why they were wasting good malt on drinkers who really didn't appreciate it.

 

On Paulaner's US website on their Oktoberfest page they explain it thusly:

With German beer tax laws being the way they were in the post-war period the original gravity of the Oktoberfest Märzen beers would not have been much different in say the 1960s and 1970s compared with today. What Paulaner most likely did was to up the degree of attenuation in the 70s to produce a lighter bodied beer (and thus with more alcohol) with a similar original gravity (today's Oktoberfest beers are all between 13.5-14% OG, hovering below the cap for original gravity for the vollbier tax class which was in place until 1992). What they did essentially (I think) was to draw inspiration from the Dortmunder Export style, which in its original form had a similar original gravity to the Bavarian Märzen beers at this point, but was known for its higher degree of attenuation and had been for much of the 1900s, in contrast with the traditionally lower attenuated Bavarian lager beers (dark and pale). My understanding is that pale Export-style beers was the most popular style of beer in Germany in the post-war period, prior to the rise and eventual dominance of pilsner beers from the 70s and onwards.

 

I before E, except after...