American Made Marzens

Miller Märzen or Miller Münchener?

Hey, wait - that pic's a 'snip' from your wedding reception, isn't it?

Can't believe your wore that red jacket and insisted on pouring my beer (the Münchener keg had kicked early). But, whatever - we had a great time and I can't believe our gift was lost by the airline !

 

Tease.

 

Millstream's Oktoberfest is one of the most underrated American beers of any style.

 

Yeah, maybe you're right on the Munchener, but mine is a squarish handle, opaque white.

And you must be mistaken on the wedding, I've only been married for 12 years.

 

Say what?

 

Oh scheiss, you're right. Took care of it.

 

Hah! I went to look after your first reply and saw you'd been busy.

Good on ya!

 

This sounds like a political commercial.

Would like to know what awards it's won -- 'cause I find it hard to believe it would be well received in Bavaria as an "Oktoberfest."

 

Are we talking aboot this beer or something else?

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/142/186547/

 

That's the Festbier Spaten sells in Germany and at the Oktoberfest proper. It's the pale Wiesn style like Paulaner Wiesn or HB's Oktoberfest that's sold here.

The copper-amber Ur-Marzen is the only Spaten Okto I've ever seen stateside.

 

Gotcha. Googling provided zero help for me.

 

Luna Lupulus ?
Yeah. Loved that one . Hope they bring it back sometime.

 

Nope, it was this one:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/26520/308406/

https://jacksabby.com/beers/marzen/

Luna was brewed in 2019. I heard great things but didn't get a chance to try it.

 

my favorite part of Luna was drinking that style in a time of year that I never do. I wanna say I drank it at the end of April. It instantly put me in later summer/early fall, it was bizarre that a taste could do something like that so strongly. It was also a quite tasty beer.

 

Yup, that's the one I'm referring to.

That's the pale style, and I have never seen it in the states. Would love it if I did though!

If you search hard enough or ask your local, you can try to get Spaten's or Paulaner's. Those are brewed year round for export, but most stores don't order them other than in the late summer/fall.

 

It's funny how tastes can do that and how we associate them with different times of the year. A brewery I've been wanting to check out just canned a Dopplebock... in August. They're typically winter beers to me. If it's good, I don't really care all that much when I drink it. But it's definitely something I'm more in the mood for when there is snow on the ground, as opposed to an upper 90s heat wave.

 

And then there is this:

“Two years ago, that moment arrived for American craft beers at Octoberfest in Munich. "And they announced the gold medal for the best Octoberfest in the world went to — gasp — Samuel Adams' Octoberfest. The air went out of the room," said Koch. That's not just Koch patting his back, said Jörgen Hasselqvist. "For Sam Adams to win that in Germany, I mean that's just mind blowing. And if the beer was that good it deserved to win." Hasselqvist added that the Germans have been doing beer the same way since the 16th century. And that maybe they also could use a bit of change.”

https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-06-28/europeans-discovering-american-craft-beers

Cheers!

 

As another example, Ayinger makes a beer called Kirtabier IIRC. Served at the Kirta fest at a neighboring town. It is a little darker and maltier than what we see here.

 

It is brewed for the “Kirchweih” church fest:

“The “Kirtabier” is the only type of beer that can be classified between “March” beer and dark export beer. It is brewed for one of the most important festival days in Bavaria, the “Kirchweih” church fest. The intensive double decoction mashing with the mixture of three malts gives the beer a warm, brown color and a well-balanced, full-bodied, solid aromatic malty quality. The salubrious character of Kirtabier is distinguished by a high degree of fermentation, a pleasant sparkle and a distinctly perceptible bitter quality. The Kirtabier comes “premium cloudy” to the bar, which means unfiltered with that full cellar taste.”

https://www.ayinger.de/cms/index.php/kirtabier-274.html

I had the pleasure of drinking this beer served from cask at the annual Philly German Bierfest.

Cheers!

 

Man, that bottle on the top sure looks familiar. Not recent familiar, decades ago familiar.