Bitburger Brewery Releases Festbier

Jack, I respect your opinions. Sly Fox O’Fest really that good huh? Might have to look for it now.

 

Never mind the color. Look at all of those umlauts! On a consonant! I think even one of the umlauts has an umlaut.

Looks delicious, by the way.

 

Haha... yeah none of those umlauts are supposed to be there but the can designer seemed to enjoy it

 

Best damn Oktoberfest (US and Germany) IMO. Every year I buy at least a case (24 cans) of this beer. A bonus here is that Sly Fox does not brew this beer in the spring (April, May, June) like many (most?) of the German breweries.

Needless to say this is the best for my palate. YMMV.

Cheers!

 

Only an issue if one cares to drink Oktoberfest/Festbier in specific months only.

Around me, Warsteiner, Hofbrau and it appears Paulaner are already hitting. Have not seen Paulaner yet, but I assume it's close... Probably within the week to my area. Been enjoying these beers for over a week already now.

Speaking of, just cracked into this last night... And it was glorious. "Canned" 6 weeks ago, which is super, super fresh by import standards. It tasted every bit as good as it was fresh, too. The bottles I believe are a week or two fresher than the mini-keg. Hofbrau is always a favorite of ours (wins or in 2nd/3rd each year at my annual blind tasting of some 20+ domestic/imports). Warsteiner is really damn impressive this year as well, too. Yum.



But I am one of those that see Oktoberfest/Marzen/Festbier for what it is... A fantastic lager. Could drink it year round (and I do, as I brew my own in the 'offseason' often). As soon as they start to hit, we keep buying and enjoying the imports especially as fresh as possible. Come September or so, we tend to stick with just fresher domestics as the ship has sailed on the imports. But that's fine, as we likely have gone through cases by that point.

I absolutely plan to pick up another mini-keg while the freshness is there.

 

Bitte ein Bit!

 

An umlaut over an "s"?

 

Response from Bitburger

So about 3-4 months old depending upon when it hits the shelf

 

And that is me, I drink Oktoberfest beers during their intended 'season': September - October. I am not alone here.

Drinking a beer in September that was packaged in April is not ideal IMO.

Cheers!

 

It also has an umlaut on the e in Golden. There is no umlaut on an e in German, but there is in Albanian.

Oh, an Läger would be pronounced as Lay-ger, not Lay-ger.

 

Graphic designers who didn't take 2 semesters of German.

Admittedly, the rest of the design is well-crafted -- just need to keep the artist away from the option-U combination (wonder if that even works with consonants?).

 

I appreciate and respect the fresh beer motivation, but don't you think a style like this that is mainly malty and not very hop oriented would still be good 5-6 months later? I recently had a local pilsner that was 10 months old and I couldn't believe when I saw the date because it was almost better than fresh to me because the hops were a little less prominent and bitter I think. Wouldn't a nice malty marzen/festbier be good to drink and maybe even be better around 5 months of age because the hops wouldn't be so upfront and maybe bitter? I suppose having it fresh would be good to have as an option too. Maybe they should start selling Oktoberfestbiers in the summer and let people drink them when they please, hopefully saving some for Oktoberfest... It seems like the German brewers want the beer to be more malty upfront and less hoppy, maybe that's why some package it early.

 

To be fair, it is April 30th, so if you drink it on August 30th, it would be 4 months old, and generally speaking, I think German beers (especially non Pils) are just fine at 4 months. And they purposefully brewed it at that time for release in August, so they must feel that the beer is strong with that age. Otherwise, why wouldn't they brew it June 30th? But I must admit, I do wonder why they didn't just wait a couple months to brew it.

 

I am sure that you appreciate that "good" is a relative thing. There are some beers that are 'built' for aging (e.g., Barleywine, Quad, etc.) but an Oktoberfest beer is a beer style intended to be consumed fresh. Perhaps a 5-6 month old Oktoberfest beer is still "good" for your palate but it will most definitely be past its prime IMO.

You get to choose how you want to spend your beer money so as Nike says "Do it".

Cheers!

 

Isn't it the traditional way, to brew these beers in the spring? Isn't it called "marzen" because it is the beer traditionally brewed in march?

 

Similar to what I posted above, "fine" is a subjective term. Personally when I purchase beer I would prefer the beer to be better than "fine".

And I too wonder here.

Cheers!

 

The Sierra Nevada Summerfest 12-pack I've been slowly drinking was bottled late March; I can taste the fade in both hops and malts already. Malt can stale as easily as hops -- maybe even more-so, since hops are considered a preservative.

 

Are the beers consumed at Oktoberfest in Munich brewed in the late summer or are.they also.brewed in the spring? As I noted above, I am under the impression that the Germans call them "marzen" because they brew them in "marz"

 

That was indeed the situation before refrigeration was invented in the 1800's. The German brewers would stop brewing beer in March and place their beers in the various ice caves for beer consumption at later dates.

Thank goodness for refrigeration so breweries can now brew year round.

Cheers!