German / Imported Märzens

That's pretty much the last one I have to track down. Does Augustein put out a festbier that's available stateside?

 

It has been mentioned in many previous replies, but -

+1 for Hacker Pschorr Marzen

 

That's one I still haven't tried, and have only seen it in 12pks this year. Great price around $14 for 12 bottles, but with so many others I don't really want to get a 12pk just to try Hacker Pschorr and Paulaner. I thought I got Hacker Pschorr in the past but it was the one I passed up when I tried Hofbrau and Paulaner Marzen. Still haven't tried the pale Paulaner Wiesn Oktoberfest Bier which is also in 12pks for the same price here, less than $15 at one place. Got a 4pk of Ayinger and a 6pk of Bitburger bottles the other day. Hopefully that holds me over for the season with all the domestic and local versions too. If I find single bottles of the HP or Paulaner pale I'll give them a try, maybe 6pk if I'm running low too. Also saw Warsteiner and Weltenburger Kloster Anno 1050 for the first time. Think I have plenty of fest beers for now though. Looking forward to the Oktoberfest tasting!

 

according to the importer (Global Village https://www.gviimports.com/our-products) the only Augustiner available in the US are Edelstoff Export and Maximator Doppelbock

 

I picked up some Weihenstephaner Festbier today, bottled May 26th. Always enjoyable and Casper seems to have great luck in getting their beers.

 

Finally found Paulaner Wiesn not in 1L cans. My first impression is that of 6 German beers I tried this season I like it the least. It is noticeably hoppier up front than the others, and, to my taste, too harsh to drink on its own, without a meal. I'll definitely go with Hofbrau and/or Weihenstephan next year. Still need to find Spaten - local store was out yesterday - a byproduct of being priced $7.49 for a 6-pack I imagine.

 

@steveh, @jesskidden, just following up again as I got a reply from Merchant du Vin this morning:

Thanks for contacting us, and for the kind words.

Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen is selling very well nationally this year. We have not heard of any errors with our retail beer search, which is based on delivery invoices. It’s possible that an account you checked had received their shipment, and sold out quickly.

Can you please mention your city and state, or your zip code? If you recall any of the specific places that listed Ay OFM in stock but didn’t have it, I’ll check that out as well.

So for future reference, now at least we know that their "Find Our Beer" page should generally be pretty accurate.

 

Speaking of this beer, saw a four pack at my local, but unfortunately it didn’t have the canning date sticker on the four pack holder.

Anyone picked this up recently and happen to know the canning date?

Tasted good, not GREAT, but it was good. Didn’t have that overly bacon/meaty flavor that Rauchbier’s can get with time.

Speaking of the Edelstoff, picked up a single yesterday. Damn, it’s so good. There’s no bottling date but I flipped it end over end to see if it was clear, and that was good enough for me to sway me to purchase a single.

Will probably go back and pick up more.

If I recall correctly you probably aren’t traveling to this area anytime soon, but a week or two ago I picked up six packs of both H-P and Paulaner’s Oktoberfest Bier at Redstone in Stoneham. So they do have them in a non-12 pack format some places.

 

Yeah, some of those Schlenkerla rauchbiers can be very much hit or miss, but even though it's been years since I last had it I still remember really liking the Marzen. The smokiness was really incorporated nicely into the profile, just like peat in a good Islay single-malt.

Here's an excerpt from my review of Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock, which definitely missed the mark for me. But the review is from 2011 and I'm sure my palate has evolved somewhat, so I might give it another shot if I can find it.

Aroma is a combination of Robitussin cough syrup and root beer. I've had a few Schlenkerla rauchbiers, all of which I've really liked - and this is the first one that doesn't smell good to me. There's this cherry syrup aroma I just can't get past.

Taste also has a medicinal quality, but more of a numbing Chloraseptic taste. I've picked this sensation/taste up in other rauchbiers too, and it has to be a function of the smoke - but it has never been so pronounced. Thankfully the cherry syrup characteristic I picked up in the aroma is diminished in the taste, or I might not be able to finish this.
...
Note: Given the early responses to this thread http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read/4151434 I might give this one another shot.

 

So I finally found some Hacker-Pschorr this year and am sitting here drinking one, looking at the new bottle... and I see that it’s now only 11.2 oz! What’s up with that?

(Sorry if this was mentioned upthread— I don’t recall seeing it mentioned)

 

That is the standard European equivalent of the 12 oz bottle in the USA. It is labeled 11.2 oz for us 'Mer'cans... It is actually 330 ml. Their (European) "12 oz" cans for beer and soft drinks are also 330ml.

 

They are mostly so amazingly mediocre. Ayinger is good, Spaten is OK, end of list.

 

Sucks to have *your* palate! But that just means more for me, I guess.

 

Based on that impression, I'm betting you had some very old stock.

 

Your Schlenkerla Märzen is probably at worst an end of April canning (the very end) - so 4.5 months old max. It's unfiltered and unpasteurized. Couldn't tell you if there were later cannings. I would not assume a better shelf life than what Schlenkerla bottles.

 

I actually followed up with the store owner where I bought the beer, something I almost never do. I remember this, even though it happened almost a decade ago, because this was a new store, the guy had just opened up his place recently (I think at the time he was the only employee), and his enthusiasm for beer was infectious, which quickly made his —so much so that it became one of my favorite beer stores in town, even though it's extremely inconvenient for me to get to. Sadly he passed away just a few months ago from some rare disorder, I believe he was younger than me—but his store is still open, taken over by his widow, and when I stopped by last Friday it seemed to be doing pretty good business.

Anyway, we looked at whatever codes were on the bottle and determined that it was not an old bottle or anything like that. I believe he just gave me a free beer of my choice, which I thought was cool.

It could be that I'm just hypersensitive to certain aromas/flavors—for example, I love cilantro but I know that a certain percentage of people think it tastes like soap or something.

 

It's just the cough syrup/medicinal flavors you were getting seem a long way from any Schlenkerla Ur Bock I ever had (and the Ur Bock is my favorite of their beers), but maybe it's how you perceive the smokiness -- dunno. I just know that I've had some stronger, malty, older beers that get a little winy and could be considered medicinal.

 

Well I will try it again and see how I like it now that I have 10 years of serious beer consumption under my belt (literally). I'm not one to have a very photographic memory about beers, but both this one and Dark Lord stand out for me, and neither one in a good way...

 

Both smoke and medicinal fall under the umbrella of 'phenolic', so I suppose there could be differences of perception going on.

 

This year, for me, my favorites have been:
Weihenstephaner Festbier
Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest
Hofbrau Oktoberfest
Paulaner Oktoberfestbier

As much as I love these, IMO, the US versions really stepped up their game to compete. Live Oak (always equal), but Real Ale and Rahr seem very authentic this year too!