Fall Beer Sightings? (2021)

You've probably noticed this in the US pics, but over here, Ayinger's label states: "Oktober Fest-Marzen." It's cool to see your more cautious Festmarzen version since I don't recall ever seeing the beer on the German Ayinger site.

 

I wonder if the beer they export is the same as their Kirtabier, except that the export version is filtered. They both are 5.8% and they are of a very similar color.

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



Part of the description says "It is brewed for one of the most important festival days in Bavaria, the “Kirchweih” church fest." It would be smart on their part to just give it a different name for the market they're sending it to--the label here says it is a 'festival beer'

Just my speculation.

 

Yeah I've noticed it's absence too and wondered what the deal was, if it is the same beer as Kirtabier or not (see picture and discussion below). This is the first time I've seen the Festmärzen label.

This has been my speculation too, similar to how Celebrator and Winterbock have identical abv and original gravity specs, but as can be seen on the back label the original gravity of the Festmärzen is 13.5% while the Kirtabier is 13.8% (at least per the current website, I've been unable to find a back label picture for it). That doesn't necessarily mean that the recipes are all that different of course, but it makes me all the more curious to try both beers. Merchant Du Vin on their website lists the OG as 1.054, which would be around 13.33%. Could be an old number but it at least indicates that the US beer isn't the same as the Kirtabier either. Both the Festmärzen and Kirtabier are sold through the online shop Biershop Bayern, so they are both available in the German market it seems (on a regional basis one would assume).

 

Checked a couple more spots for HB Okto and nada.

Beer dept. manager at one spot said the distro only mentioned mini-kegs to her. WTF?

 

Total Wine shows it as in stock here, but... it is Total Wine, so it may be last year's.

 

Found the Bitburger Festbier today courtesy of the St Killian beer finder. Most stores seem to be out in the far west burbs but Garfield's in Palatine had it in stock (sixers in the cooler to boot! 12pks on the floor). They also had sixers of HB in the cooler so picked one up as well.

 

Closest to me is the McHenry Binny's -- and still a 26 mile round trip.

Got enough good Festbier right now, not going out of my way just for Bitburger.

Hey Jay, do you recall the pricing? Palatine is Cook County, isn't it?

 

9.99 per sixer. Yes, it is CC.

 

It's here. I picked a case at Mettawa Costco yesterday,

 

Can you send me your membership number?

 

I was going to suggest getting a day pass, but it turns out buying alcohol without membership is a Michigan thing and does not work in Illinois.

 

Yeah, I'd heard that.

Mettawa isn't too far, I can meet you there.

(Kidding, not that hard up for more beer)

 

A while back people were asking about these larger boxes. I know this one references the bottles but I actually ran into one of these larger boxes at Total Wine and it did say cans. I was pretty excited but when I went to pick up the box it was empty. I looked closer at the box, and evidently it is the "case" that contains the mugs with the cans inside. The store was using the outer box on the shelf as billboard/advertisement. Just a fair warning if you do see these in the wild...

 

Narwhal has dropped. 6 x 12 oz bottles at 10.2% ABV for $11.99 at TW.