American Made Marzens

Went into my local watering hole, Patrick asks "the usual?" I scan the tapper lineup and see SA Octoberfest. I tell Patrick " a short one of Octoberfest" which he gives me. I taste malt and sweetness, and barely anything else. Patrick must have seen me visibly recoil and says "OK, let me get you a Yeung." Blecch! Time to go Marzen hunting.

 

I was originally going to post that, but I figured someone would chime in that they've had a great example that uses caramel malts...so I took the high road.

Does that mean breweries outside of Munich can use the word "Oktoberfest" as long as the word "bier" isn't with it?

 

So, hedging is the high road? Switching to that career in politics, I see.

 

Well, it at least means that only the Munich 6 can label a beer "Oktoberfestbier" in Germany.

Beyond that, IDK.

But given that (AFAIK) no brewery other than the 6 even label a beer intended for the domestic German market just "Oktoberfest", there is at least some kind of pressure to stop them from doing so (perhaps as simple as customer negative reaction).

 

I’m lucky the local brew pub (Trap Rock) brews an excellent Marzen called Hathor Red Lager year round. More than worth trying if you are in the area.

 

My most recent New Beer Sunday (err... New Beer Weekend, sorry... old habits dying extremely hard ) entry is a review for Queen City Oktoberfest. These guys are well-regarded for their older-world styles, so I had high expectations.

Happy to say it is worth a look. Should've gotten a few more cans!

 

hey. i had planned to do a dampfbier, but the timing with tank space at our host brewery didn't work out. so we actually ended up doing a steinbier. another local brewer gathered some blue granite (and had a tank free), so we got a grain bill together that wasn't all that different from what I was planning for the dampfbier and heated some stones to 1200F or so and used then to get the brew boiling. pretty cool, I have to admit. tasting good so far...using the ayinger strain for that more-immediate maltiness it kicks out. we'll see....

 

The only Steinbier I've sampled was brewed for a presentation at HomebrewCon. Annie Johnson was the "head brewer" and presenter. It was a club brew, many people were needed to hear and get the rocks moved into the boil. I've seen some use a forklift to move the rocks on a commercial scale.

 

we used a forklift and a metal mesh basket to move them into place for heating. it was a smaller system, so we couldn't submerge the whole basket into the brew kettle. instead we added the rocks using tongs; as they showed in the old rauchenfels steinbier logo. was super cool to see them hiss and sizzle as the sugars caramelized onto them.

 

I dunno, fork lifts - rocks - beer - all kinda' incites bad memories.

 

I prefer to call them STONES, not rocks.

Ah crap, probably gonna get sued now.

 

Stein = stone
Felsen = Rock

So Steinbier works for me.

 

I agree.

 

Wait'll I tell Boulder what you're up to.

 

Now *you're* gonna get sued!

 

Only if they have a US trade mark for Steinbier, or Stein.

 

But you already translated it for them -- they're gonna be on your tail!

 

I gotta say: this years batch(es) of Copper Legend just hits all the right spots for me. I've always loved this beer and I know they've always been relatively consistent....but for whatever reason this beer has been my jam this Autumn.

Plus the 12 pack format doesn't hurt. Hope they do the same with Red Tape this winter

 

I had this year's Copper Legend (first time I had this beer) and I really enjoyed it. Almost as good as Sly Fox Oktoberfest for my palate.

For your palate what distinguished this year's Copper Legend from past years? What was the 'change'?

Cheers!

 

I also found Zero Gravity to be up there this year, perhaps even better than Copper Legend.