German / Imported Märzens

If past years are any indication, come September local Costco will have cases of Hacker-Pschorr, Spaten, and Hoffbrau. And that's where I am going to be.

 

Ugh, you guys suck. I see mentions of this Benediktiner, get curious, and see it's not distributed to MN. Sad.

 

On Untappd it looks like some kegs are still making their way to the US, but seems extremely few and far between. Latest review was in June in Hoboken NJ. There’s still a microscopic sliver of hope!

 

To answer the question though, here are my planned puchases this year:

Ayinger Marzen (my favorite of the amber ones)
Hacker Pschorr Marzen (solid and inexpensive)
Weihenstephaner Festbier (never had)
Hofbrauhaus Freising (never had)
Bitburger Festbier (brand new and excited)

I also like Paulaner Marzen and Hofbrau Festbier, but maybe not enough with the others I want. Still might get though. Paulaner Wiesn is decent too, but probably not worth it considering the options. And I have never been impressed with the Spaten Marzen, even if it is "Ur".

 

I checked too...

 

Hold the phone. It isn't on Untapped locater but I see their Weissbier at local Total Wines. So the Oktoberfest may come here.

 

Agreed, funny how fast a 4 pack of Fest-Marzen goes!

 

I bought it last year with fairly low expectations and it ended up being one of the best beers I had all year. Pretty sure it was less than $6 per 4-pack of 500 mL cans too. So it's a great value regardless.

 

From the OP: "I know it’s predictable but my favorite is Ayinger...

I used to be a HUGE fan of Ayinger Oktoberfest Märzen and I would always purchase several bottles of this beer every year despite the fact this beer is very pricey in my area. A couple/few years ago I purchased four bottles and all of those beers were off (i.e., stale). I was pissed for several reasons:

• I paid a lot of money for those four bottles
• I was really expecting to experience a lot of joy from those bottle since I am (well, was) a HUGE fan
• etc.

I have not purchased any Ayinger Oktoberfest Märzen since that experience; just not worth the risk. Plenty (more brands than I can buy) of other high quality Oktoberfest beers to choose from that I know will not taste stale.

Cheers!

 

A number of BAs are fans of this beer. I discussed Benediktiner Festbier last fall in New Beer Sunday. I thought it was good but this beer, despite its economical price, will not be a repeat purchase for me.

"Overall:

This beer is a tad one-dimensional but I enjoyed drinking it. It sorta reminds me of a Helles Bock."

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-sunday-week-760.623043/#post-6628052

Cheers!

 

Sliver indeed -- as mentioned, it's not listed at the Kostritzer web site, but neither is Spaten Ur Marzen listed at theirs -- export only. So cross your fingers that Kostritzer could be the same.

 

Nor on the website of the US importer, St. Killians (which also uses the 'dba' of "Bitburger, Intl") https://stkillian.com/beers/bitburger-braugruppe/ but a Köstritzer Pale Ale is. (Sierra Nevada influence?).

Nothing on TTB's COLA site (which is hardly definitive, tho') but interestingly looks like they did bring in kegs of Köstritzer Bockbier starting back in 2015.

 

You're fortunate.
From a post i made on 8/8/19

The manager claimed he never checked the date and would contact the distributor. He might have, but as of February the same beer was on the shelf.

 

Oh, but it's one'a them strong German beers, it'll last forever.

Yeah, I really heard that from a retailer once.

 

Not blaming the brewery. The fault lies with a combination of distributors wanting to unload old stock and stores wanting to at least have something on the shelf.
Personally I wrote prefer to see occasionally empty shelves than fully stocked with out of date beer.

 

So was it a pale Oktoberfest or an amber one?

I contacted Ayinger last year and discovered they brew this beer in March, and bottle it in April. So it’s already about four months old when it hits my area in August.

They claimed they brew it in March, because it’s a “Marzen”. It would be more helpful if they brewed it a couple months later so it was fresher when it arrived and into the fall months...we have refrigeration now, beer can be brewed in warmer months...

On the topic of the thread...

Amber Oktoberfest favorites:

Spaten
Paulaner
Hacker Pschorr

Pale Oktoberfest favorites:

Hofbrau
Andech’s Spezial Hell (technically their export Helles, but it gets released each fall on tap around here)
Weihenstephan (pick some up today, it’s July and possibly a record breaking temp of 100, but whatever)

 

It has a bottling date of 4 digits, with the first being the last digit of the year and the next 3 being the Julian date. So come August, you should find ones with somewhere around 0140, as they bottle it in April every year for an August release. Yeah, a little old but they have always done this. I am guessing that if you got stale ones, some shady distributor or store put out ones brewed in the previous year.