Bitburger Brewery Releases Festbier

And, it's a Weizen isn't it? Erdinger started jumping on the bandwagon back in the late 90s, but they still don't let them in the tents.

 

No need to "dare" with me. For my palate Sly Fox Oktoberfest is indeed better than the German imports. A combination of high quality brewing and it is fresh to boot. A classic win-win IMO.

Cheers!

 

Yeah, it is essentially an Amber Hefeweizen with elevated abv, at 5.7%

 

It's a good Weizen, a friend and I were served it by mistake at a tavern in Munich once -- but we didn't turn it back.

Still not my idea of an Oktoberfest Bier.

 

Of course it isn't, which is why I said "sorta". I just like getting a slightly unique, somewhat fresh Hefe from Germany. And the malt has a titch of that Marzen taste. Just a titch.

 

Did you get glassware? A couple years ago they were selling a set of 2 bottles and 2 branded Weizen glasses.

 

No. Just a standard sixer. I have a couple nice Weizen glasses

 

It's not so much when they brew the beers, it's when they bottle it and, one assumes for most of the large firms, pasteurize it (and those that don't likely heavily filter the beer). If German brewers are brewing their Oktoberfest/Fest/Marzen for their local market in March to be "traditional", that's fine. If they long lager it through the summer - hey, even more traditional.

BUT, in the case of the bottles exported to the US, they are - apparently - packaging it in the last spring after a typical, modern short lagering period (based on the typical 1 year "Best by" dating) and all that extra time is NOT lagering, but an allowance for the long lead times for shipping the beer to the European port, ocean transport and then further shipping from the US docks to the US importer and/or then to their local distributors.

As MillerCoors' now defunct Date Code pdf used to explain the much longer shelf life periods they gave their imported beers vs. their US-brewed brands:

* They gave Pilsner Urquell (the best known example) 9 months - wouldn't be surprised if some other of their Euro brands were the more typical 1 year.

This current beer geek concept that only well-hopped beers need to be fresh misunderstands beer freshness. The US macro brewers with their flagship and light beers with little to no hops (and little in the way of maltiness, as well) still use 3-4 months as the shelf life of most of their beers.

 

And to re-enforce what you posted there, IMO a brewery like AB has top notch QC/QA practices in their brewing process. If any brewery could optimize beer shelf life for lagers it would be them.

A beer like an Oktoberfest lager is not intended to be consumed many months after packaging.

Cheers!

 

Prost’s is a beautiful burnt orange this year fwiw

 

@JackHorzempa sent me a link to a Youtube video about Beck's brewing process a while back (). One thing that stood out to me as being very surprising was that pasteurization of their bottles at the time of this video took almost an hour with the bottles being exposed to the highest temperature for 20 minutes. They must have been targeting a VERY high level of pasteurization. I wonder if European breweries do this regularly to this day and if that is one of the reasons they give a longer shelf life than BMC who have equally good (or better) quality control as anyone.

 

There is a beer garden in the area that has both Spaten and Tucher Festbier on draft. With it being 100 degrees and humid here, I think I’ll pass on the early Festbier this time of year.

 

Tucher? Another Weizen marketing ploy?

I see the Festival Bier at their website -- never seen that one available. ISO.

 

Well I think that the input of @honkey and @jesskidden has "solved" this question for me. Ensuring that you are able to overcome physical and licensing barriers in time to get your product on shelves early rather than late seems like a very logical reason to brew these beers so early.

I will say that its a true testament to the skill of German brewers that the few imports I try each year are superior beers to most of the us brewed examples I try

 

I am very sorry to hear about what is available to you as regards US brewed Oktoberfest beers. In my area I have a totally opposite situation and I feel very fortunate in this regard.

Cheers!

 

Bitburger and festbier! I am in!!!

 

Ya you are in a bit of a beer paradise, especially if you enjoy more traditional euro styles. I'm in what I would consider a below average beer market, which mostly just means I have to rely on sparse and older imports if I want to get good examples.of some classic styles. It does get better every year though. We ate all lucky to live in such rich times for US beer

 

And let's all celebrate that!

Cheers!

 

Really? Which breweries are you buying? I'm in what I would consider a beer desert and most of the available US beers are better tasting than the available German beers.

 

Last year, for us versions i had access to the sierra Nevada collab (good but arguably not or barely us brewed), sudwerks (good and at least on the level of imports, better than many), dustbowl (terrible), a local that doesn't package any beer called Gypo Ale Mill who's version was also very.good, and I think that's about it

The west coast, south of Portland metro, has a very limited history of brewers focused on traditional euro styles and a huge beer culture rooted in modern hoppy ales