Bitburger Brewery Releases Festbier

Augustiner makes the same claim on their website: https://www.augustiner-braeu.de/en/oktoberfest/historie.html

This is from the English language version of the page: "Naturally, beer had already been flowing before that: the earliest visual proof of our Augustiner-Bier being served at the Oktoberfest dates back to 1867. We served our, nowadays classic, "Wiesn-Edelstoff" for the first time in 1953. This then new, lighter festival beer was so popular that it gradually replaced the at the time customary “Märzenbier”, (special kind of Bavarian lager beer). Of course, in the meantime we also introduced our "Augustiner Oktoberfestbier", a special brew that exists only during the Wiesn."

 

Thanks for posting this. I couldn't access it via Chrome for some reason but it works fine in Microsoft Edge.

 

I will let Ron (@patto1ro) respond to your question. To the best of my recollection he was the first person advocating that Märzen means a beer strength designation vs. meaning a specific beer style.

Cheers!

 

A five week production process would leave around a week for primary fermentation and around 4 weeks for lagering. Interesting. And brewed in April.

On Löwenbräu's website they have a short timeline for the brewing of the Oktoberfest beer where they note for calendar week 18, so depending on the year either late April or early May, they brew the first batches and since Oktoberfest is a long ways away still the first brews are intended for export. For calendar weeks 26 and 27, so late June or early July, they note that the beer is ready for filtration and packaging after 8 weeks of lagering. Now, how long this text has remained the same on their website is anyone's guess. Does Löwenbräu still lager the beer for 8 weeks or is it more along the lines of Hofbräu's circa 4 weeks? Who knows, but it gives us some more data points on this subject at least, albeit perhaps outdated.

 

I've mentioned it before, but when I visited the Oktoberfest for my first time in the early 90s I never saw any beer as light as the Wiesn Fest in the tents -- and I was used to drinking Spaten, Paulaner, and Hacker-Pschorr Oktos here in the U.S. for many years; in fact, I specifically went to a tavern the night before my trip to drink Spaten Okto so its memory would be in my mind when I got to Munich.

That said, I honestly can't remember going into the Augustiner tent. I know I was outside, between the backs of the H-P and Augustiner tents because I have a picture of an Augustiner employee rolling a full-sized beer barrel into the serving area.

When I returned a couple years later all the beer at the Fest was Wiesn Fest in style. I'd been told by some that Helles was being served, but I could taste that it was amped up from a regular Helles.

I sort of wish social media, smart phones, and BA had been around back then -- in the meantime I just have to look harder for my old pics from then.

 

Couldn't it be possible that the amber Märzens were served at the tents you were in, while the pale ones were being served in some of the others? Or did you stop into most of the tents?

 

Sipping on it now... Very much on the Marzen end of the spectrum. Caramel/Munich malt richness. A touch of nuttiness. Really tasty! I really like this.

Had it right after the Weihenstephaner, fantastic compliment. Have a Paulaner on deck!

 

How would you characterize the level of caramel flavor? Is is notable? Is it just a hint? Is it...?

Cheers!

 

isn't there a hofbrau brewery in Cincinnati?

 

That's what I was inferring when I said I couldn't honestly remember going into the Augustiner tent -- to drink or even look around.

Went to Augustiner Marienplatz, but I drank the Dunkel there.

 

It's a sanctioned brewery/restaurant like the ones in Chicago & Las Vegas, they don't brew beer to sell in retailers -- just on premise.

 

Yes. And Columbus and Cleveland.

 

I came across a picture I took from 2015 (taken September 5th) of Hofbräu's Oktoberfestbier which shows a best before date of July 21st 2016. I'm thinking that the beer made for the other EU markets might be handled the same as the domestic German beer, thanks to the EU's internal market, while beer intended for outside of the EU is handled differently.


Here's Spaten Oktoberfest from September 4th the same year:

 

@steveh , we were discussing this beer last year. If you recall, I was of the position that a Weizen can be an Oktoberfestbier (even though I can obviously see it causing consumer confusion and can sympathize with that). It wasn't the type of beer, but rather the brewer that made me wonder about the appropriateness of the Oktoberfest label (considering "the big six").

After that exchange, I decided to try the beer last year. The brewer's website claimed:

My reaction to that description was "sounds like a lot of marketing and nothing more." After having the 2019 beer, I was extremely surprised to think that it seems like there is something to the claim. Here was the eye opening part for me: I had the beer blind alongside other Oktoberfestbier and Weissbier in two separate incidences (I included the flagship Erdinger Weissbier in one case).

In both cases, the Erdinger Oktoberfest stood out from the other O-fests to a certain extent, but not at the same level as the other Weissbiers. It was fruity and spicy, but not to the extent of the other ones. It also seemed hoppier than the other Weissbiers. I came away thinking that there was some legitimacy to the marketing description... at least in the sense that the recipe formulation and brewing process might deviate a good bit from your average German Hefeweizen. I could be essentially wrong too.

None of this causes me to think that it legitimizes its label - cause as said, I was theoretically OK with a Weissbier being called an Oktoberfestbier from the start. It was all just a very interesting surprise regardless.

Side note: With regard to the Märzen discussion in the other thread in Beer Talk, the Erdinger Okto is 5.7% ABV and 13.2° Plato (compared to the 5.3% and 12.6 °P of their flagship Weissbier).

@TongoRad

 

I got a Bitburger Festbier yesterday at my local bottle shop and best before date is 3.30.21. Dang it’s delicious! Having one now and will buy more. I like it better then most Märzen and Oktoberfest beers I have drank. Guess my palate prefers Festbiers will seek out more of that style for sure. Wish it had more then 11.2 oz but I guess that’s the nature of the beast. Just have to crack open a 2nd bottle now I guess. Goes down very smoothly. I can see myself drinking big ole Steins of this beer!

 

Without going back over old threads, it seems that the bullet points are:
A Festbier is simply a beer brewed for a festival

An Oktoberfest bier is specifically brewed for the Munich Oktoberfest. Only brewers within city limits are allowed to use the term for the official festival.

Gravity is regulated, but not color or even style.

Edinger may be getting away with a technicality here.

 

Well, the above mirrors my POV except I don't know if there is any technicality involved with Erdinger. I really don't know how Erdinger gets away with the label (regarding brewer exclusivity, not in terms of beer type). Regarding last year's thread, a beer I mentioned was Schneider's Festbier called Festweisse that they served at Oktoberfest back when they had a Munich brewery... but that’s another story. I thought I'd chime in on the Erdinger talk above - not because of any legitimacy of the label, but to just talk about my odd take on it as a beer in general.

 

The last time I tried it I didn't notice it being anything more than a usual Weizen, but that was a while ago. Who knows, maybe they've developed a new recipe over the years. If I see it this season I'll have to give it some attention.

 

Yeah, after re-reading your post I see where you're coming from now. And it does look like they're just outside of Munich proper, so I guess I'm still a little confused about that as well.

 

Since I am a Broadcast Engineer who likes to cook, I likely would make a decent ale brewer.