German / Imported Märzens

Well NW Beverages lists Merchant du Vin as one of their brands (not Ayinger specifically) but MdV provides more info about where to find each of its beers. NW Beverages seems to be the folks who drive the trucks around delivering the beer. Based on replies in this thread I'm feeling more like this will turn up eventually and is just delayed this year for some reason.

EDIT: Oh and I've never seen this in 4-packs, only the individual 500mL bottles. That's what I've been looking for. Generally I've just seen one or two other Ayinger offerings but not the Oktoberfest.

 

It didn't particularly remind me of any German Marzen that I've had. It certainly didn't remind me of the far more robust Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier. With the variety of American "Oktoberfests," I wouldn't be surprised if it resembled some of them. Heck, the ABV of the blend is the same as Sam Adam's Oktoberfest (5.3%)... not that you'd confuse the two though (and yeah, you did say traditional). It's the sort of thing I'd really need to try in a blind side by side to see how much it stands out.

 

Yeah, NW is the wholesale distributor which supplies the MdV brands in King and the other counties. The way I understand it, the brewers'/importers' "FIND OUR BEER" pages are all working off the info they get from their distributors (how else could be?) but distributors often don't have the sort of info on their own sites.

 

Local TW has it, Bevmo does not. Que sera sera.

 

I'll have to track down a Von Trapp variety pack and try this. Although I think I've never had Hofbräu so maybe I should find some single bottles. From that picture I wouldn't know the Original was a helles. A bit of education on my part is needed.

 

I bet if you play with the ratio you'd get closer to an amber O'fest flavor profile, maybe 2/3rds or even 3/4ths helles.

 

Better late than never. Having one now and it's outstanding, malty and rich with a surprising amount of liveliness and punch. I'll have to put it to a real test, but it's in the running for fave so far.

 

Don't get me wrong, I like Ayinger and wouldn't turn one down, but it always seems thinner and less complex than the other import Amber Marzens to me.

It's also more pricy around here, so I rarely get more than one .5 a season.

 

Love the glass! Coincidentally, Ayinger and Hofbräu make my two favorite dunkels. Have been fortunate to have fresh Hofbräu Dunkel on tap a few times and I feel that's when it really shines. Cool idea with the 50/50 blend. I wonder how they would react if you asked for that at the Hofbräuhaus?

 

I bet the Von Trapp blend would be very different from the one that I did... but still tasty.

While drinking, I was wondering how a blend with more of the Original would be... but I didn't change up what was in the glass and I didn't want to.

Tagging @guinness77 because I should have tagged him from the start.

 

Awesome stuff. Your idea seems solid. It's very interesting how standardized the font is as an industry custom. That "M" always has that specific look.

 

To add to this the font on most of the barrels look alot like the font used to denote the old German currency Goldmark:.ℳ, in use between 1873-1914, and the later Reichsmark ℛℳ.

 

Those are the same slackers who got fired from the Ace Hardware and then the A&P for asking, "Hey, it's early October, shouldn't we wait to put out the Christmas decorations?" and "Hey, July Fourth was only a week ago, shouldn't we wait to put out these Halloween candies?"

 

But probably nearer to the beers Germans drink during Ofest.

 

I heard they switched to a lighter, more "drinkable" style starting sometime during the 1970s

Before that, more like that we brew in the states (minus sweetness, perhaps)

 

Not really, HB Festbier, Paulaner Wiesn (now labeled as Oktoberfestbier) and Weihenstephaner Fest are that style.

Ayinger is more of a "traditional" Amber Marzen like Spaten, H-P, and Paulaner's *other* Oktoberfest.

 

I thought I would give an update on the Paulaner Oktoberfestbier. I had this beer again yesterday as the first beer of the night and the hops really stood out, even compared against the Weihenstephaner Festbier I had after, which I recall being noticably hoppy last year and in line with Löwenbräu. I don't have access to Löwenbräu Oktoberfestbier this year to compare against but in this year's lineup of Oktoberfest beers (Hofbräu and Paulaner) and Festbiere (Zoller Hof, Karmeliten, Weihenstephaner, Höss O'Zapft Is) it's the hoppiest of the bunch. The freshness most likely helps it as well. I would still call the hop flavor mild, but it's brighter and more apparent than I first percieved it as. Goes to show, yet again, how a beer can benefit from being tasted in a different order and on different occasions and allow you to pick up on an aspect of the beer which may not have stood out the first time around.

 

@steveh, @jesskidden, just wanted to follow up since you both tried to help yesterday. My statement above was spot-on. Found a huge stack of Ayinger today at the market where I most expected to see it (and always do)—I grabbed four and already kind of wish I'd picked up a couple more. The frustrating thing was, it was nowhere near the beer department—there was a separate Oktoberfest area over near meat/seafood. But all's well that ends well. Now if we can just do something about our yellowish/grayish smoke-filled skies...

 

Looks like there's plenty left for you -- and the price is much better than around here!

I see that happen a lot -- always look everywhere I can, or corral the liquor dept. manager to ask.

Hope those fires can get under control soon -- I'd like to send some of our sixth-day-of-rain up that way!

 

I picked up a 6 of the Bitburger Festbier ($8 something), it's surprisingly good.
Pale amber and mildly sweet with a crisp dry finish. Very drinkable.