A new Sam Adams beer - Festbier

It's a Vienna and Munich malt "amber lager" and an American Festbier Märzen.

 

Oktoberfest/Märzen and Festbier are 2 different styles of beer with the Fest being paler in color with more finish hop note, in my book anyway.

 

Not in Harrisburg. Boo. We have Appalachian Brewing Company local and their beers are poor/mediocre at best. A few others but I don't get out much.

 

Is this festbier available nationwide? I have not seen it here in Florida.

 

FYI, the brewer of that beer would disagree (for what it's worth). They call it a Festbier "Märzen/Oktoberfest." They even put all three words on the front label. It's also not a pale golden beer. If you give it another look, you might find that it clashes with your take on it being proper for you. But... unlike some American brewers, they actually understand that Märzen and Festbier aren't two distinct styles of beer separated by color.

 

Unless you add "Amber," "Traditional," or "Original" to Marzen like Spaten, Paulaner, and Hacker-Pschorr do.

 

Wherever Sam Adams is sold... or their distributors deem customers worthy.

 

Nah my friend. Those are all Festbier too (regardless of shade). They’re even genuine Oktoberfestbier. (But you know that of course)

 

Ah, the classic argument about what is a Märzen/Oktoberfest/Festbier had come out of hibernation.

I’m of the opinion that Märzen remains a strength classification of between 5.5%-6% ABV, in a niche between 5% Vollbier and 7-9% Bock. Like Vollbier and Bock, there are color subsets of the category.

Helles Vollbier (Helles/Pilsner)
Dunkles Vollbier (Dunkel)
“Amber” Vollbier (Vienna Lager)

- Helles Märzenbier (Modern Festbier, came to Oktoberfest around the 80s/90s, or can mean referred the Export type made by some breweries)
- Dunkles Märzenbier (traditional/original beer of Oktoberfest, last existing example is Hoffenstetter’s Hochzeitsbier 1810)
- Amber Märzenbier (“classic” variant, Oktoberfest [beer] in US nomenclature)

- Heller Bock/Maibock
- Dunkler Bock
- Amber Bock (theoretical category, commercial examples do not exist)


Color itself is merely determined by the specific malt bill (lighter colored beers will use Pilsner, a combination of Vienna and Munich will create Amber and Dunkel beers), as well as specific mashing practices, like decoction mashing.

 

Personally, I would use OG Plato instead of ABV... and remove the "modern Festbier" bit. As far as I know, Festbier is often Märzenbier, but not bound to it (nor color). It's just a beer brewed for a festival (or at least in spirit). There's never been an Oktoberfestbier that wasn't a Festbier.

 

Yeah, I was hoping the whole dead end debate of Marzen vs. Fest could be avoided this year -- the evolution of style designation and legal designation has changed things so much over the years.

I like to stick with Amber Marzen and Fest as my own designation -- never turning down either style.

@zid -- I'm not going to argue with 600+ year-old breweries, but I would like to discuss the evolution of the styles with their brewmasters. Over liters, of course.

 

Me too... but the whole "one is amber and the other is gold" stuff has a weed-like tenacity that just won't go away.

... And I just don't get why it's soooo tenacious (but I'm probably being very naive). Last year, someone mentioned the common BA member style motto: "There's the (insert foreign country here) way of doing it, but this is the current American way of doing it." Aside from the notion that that doesn't make much sense when talking about German words for German types of beers, that comment caused me to pay some attention to how US brewers were actually labeling their product in the pics people posted here last year... and I was scratching my head because it seemed to me like there was enough American product on BA that didn't follow that formula and should help bury the "either or" thinking just a little. Victory's being an extremely visible one. This Sam Adams product won't help.

 

FWIW -- the H-P Okto label reads: "Traditional Recipe."

Screw that new-fangled, bath-water, Festbier swill.

@zid

 

@steveh, @zid, and others...

You guys whine about this Festbier and Märzen distinction every year. It's almost as much a harbinger of fall as pumpkin beers!

 

Guess you missed our apologies -- And I never really whine, I've resigned myself to the 2 styles (as I see them) and enjoy them both.

I've said it for years, I love them equally and will never turn away from either*.

*See my ravings elsewhere about a new local Festbier I stumbled on.

 

It's just me. I'm not proud.

 

Just teasing...

 

I am. Okto (of both ilks) has been my favorite "style" going on 30 (40?) years now.

 

"Classic"? Hmmm... others might put it a different way...

Wait, I see they already have!

Oh, that's really uncalled for!