American Made Marzens

For some reason, "we" call all of these various codes "Julian." Bests me why. I guess anything not Gregorian is Julian.

 

I’m not sure if it’s power of suggestion or not. But I definitely get the chocolate you get too. It’s subtle but I definitely notice it. I’ve never thought to describe this beer as having a chocolate note but I agree with you now for sure.

 

The word "underrated" is overrated.

 

The gold standard for me is Sam Adams' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Perhaps, but if someone was asked to name the top breweries in the Delaware Valley/ NJ I doubt they’d be mentioned in the top 5, maybe top 10, maybe.

 

@officerbill I emailed von trapp to confirm about their dates. I was off by a month, they responded super fast (response below):


I checked with our Brewery GM and he said the following:

Our best by dates are 5 months from the born on date. If a batch is packaged, 7/2/20 our best by would date would be 12/2/20. I hope this is helpful

 

Dale, the number of high quality craft breweries in SEPA has greatly increased in the past few years. I suspect that Yards would not now be in the top 10. Not so much because they are not deserving but because there is so much competition and beer geeks value new.

Cheers!

 

Thanks,
I guess it is this year's batch; just doesn't seem to have the same body as last year.

 

Sam Adams says their Octoberfest (they use a C) won an award in Germany?

I'll have to look that up, but I'll bet it wasn't Bavaria.

As @AlcahueteJ said, Sam Octo is much sweeter than any of the Bavarian import Marzens.

 

I've meant to ask you guys about this for years: back in 1994 I went to Oktoberfest in a small village in Germany (https://www.kirmes-weiterode.de/) to the hometown of a friend, and the beer served in the tents was common yellow fizzy lager. It was fine, but definitely not the higher-ABV amber marzens discussed here.

We drank for 8 days from breakfast, throughout the day during various activities, until the tents closed each night, so I guarantee it wasn't much over 5%. I don't know what brand it was, but photos I have show "Eschweger Klosterbrau Lager" signs on the walls of the tent. That's a 5.4% Euro Pale Lager, so I doubt it was that. I mean, we really drank all day long, and that's too high of an ABV to be possible. A man's got to know his limitations, and I do.

So, what was that beer? I'm thinking maybe a Konig, Radeberger, or Krombacher Pilsner (4.8%).

 

Here's an article from a few years ago (it does not mention American craft brewers brewing the pale style, so it is a bit dated at this point). (I don't vouch for the history details, but it SEEMS more or less correct.)

OKTOBERFESTBIER VS MÄRZEN VS FESTBIER

 

I've never seen it in these parts--is it draft only or bottled?

 

Yeah, @officerbill -- where have you seen Spaten's Festbier?

Also, while their Amber Marzen is available from the importer year-round, it has to be stressed that a local distro needs to order it, but many (most?) don't because it doesn't sell well off-season.

 

What's really strange to me is how little evidence I've ever found of US-brewed Oktoberfest beers in the pre-craft era, especially considering how big seasonal Bock Beer was. Most every lager brewer put out a Bock, state and city brewers organization did co-op advertising and some state ABC's actually regulated the legal sales dates.

You'd think they'd have done the same for a fall seasonal beer. You can find more examples of "winter" beers, Holiday/Christmas beers and even "(Brown) October Ales" but very few US-brewed and labeled Ok(c)toberfest Beers.

Some brewers even famously held Oktoberfest festivals at their breweries (the largest maybe Heileman's in La Crosse, WI) but if they brewed a special beer for it, they didn't market it.

In the very early days of the mid-1970s US "beer revival", C. Schmidt's & Sons released the best known one.

 

I have never seen Spaten's Oktoberfestbier in the States. Maybe you're thinking of the Paulaner Wiesn?

 

Eschweger (https://www.eschweger-klosterbrauerei.de/) is the closest brewery to Weiterode (Bebra) and bills itself as the “regional” brewery.
In Germany it's common for the regional and local breweries to brew a “festbier” solely to be served at fests, particularly at multi-day festivals; these beers normally aren't bottled or offered as part of the usual line up.
Eschweger's pils is 4.8%, but what you drank was likely a lower ABV beer brewed just to be served at that fest.

 

@steveh @Jacobier10
Please ignore what I said about Spaten.
I had a senior moment and referenced the wrong beer
Looking back I find that it was Paulaner I was thinking of not Spaten

 

Somewhere in my archives I have a Miller Märzen tap-handle from the 50s or 60s -- but who knows what the beer being poured really was?

 

Sure... lead us on and disappoint!

FWIW -- there are a lot of reviews under the BA Spaten Festbier listing that are obvious reviews of the Ur Märzen... @Bitterbill, I'm looking at you!

 

Anyone try founders yet?