German / Imported Märzens

Last year it was a good beer to fill a cooler with. Same thing this year.

Iow, "surprisingly good for the price" is the category that it's going for. I give the slight edge to last year, but it's still good stuff.

 

Weihenstephaner was my #1 Okto this year. I can see how the Ayinger is appealing, but I thought it was a little too much for me, personally. I never got a sense of the competing flavors meshing. That said, I'm definitely not going to knock anyone for placing it at the top of their list. This was the first year that I ranked the paler beers this high.

Still haven't tried the Hacker Pschorr or Benediktiner yet. Paulaner was OK, but didn't stand out as much as the Weihenstephaner or the Hofbrau Munchen.

 

To be honest I never understood how Paulaner labeling their Oktoberfest beer Wiesn for the US market made people assign the status of beer style to the term Wiesn. I thought they could have stopped and asked some questions first, instead of running with it. But yeah, an amber Oktoberfest beer using dark caramel malt. It seems caramel malt is a commonly used ingredient for new "specialty" German beer brands, it helps to set them apart color and flavorwise, with the hope no doubt of being able to charge more money for it (or rather, not having to discount it as much). Personally I would have been more interested in the approach taken by Hofstetten for their beer, of using a higher percentage of Munich malt, or Vienna, to get to that amber color. But that's not the trend nowadays, and this is certainly on trend as they themselves note.

 

That is more along the lines of how I remember it looking last year. Noticeably different.

 

It seems that festbiers agree with your taste better than marzens. I enjoy both on their own merits, but as far festbiers go I'd rate them the same: Weihenstephan, H-B, Paulaner Wiesn, although I think I like Paulaner a little more with every bottle.

 

Yeah, that’s a change from previous years. I used to be all over the less-sweet domestic Märzens with an occasional German beer. This year it’s the opposite and I’m perceiving more of the subtle nuances in the paler beers.

 

The only Festbier that is in town is the Weihenstephaner and I am happy with that.

 

The color might certainly be a touch different this year, but keep in mind how variable photos are when it comes to depicting color... and ditto for memory. Jack's pic above doesn't resemble the mental image I have in my head of last year's beer... nor my pic of it. I think the lighting and background behind the glass are really darkening the look... either that or he had an odd batch. Going through some 2019-2020 pics of the beer from other users, it's apparent that the beer can look very pale in one shot, and a good bit darker in others (regardless of the year). I see this picture variation whenever I look at pictures of any beer. This could be batch variation of course, but I think that's less likely than it simply being a lighting issue. For example, looking at the two pics below, one wouldn't think that the beer got lighter in 2020.

Here's one pic from 2019:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...-drinking-now-2565.625699/page-4#post-6677899

And here's one pic from 2020:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...-drinking-now-2883.646810/page-9#post-7024720

BTW, here's my own pic of it from 2019. To me, it doesn't look different than @EmperorBatman 's current pic (and in the posts I'm quoting in the link below, you can see just how much variance the other pictures have).
https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/new-beer-sunday-week-759.622555/page-4#post-6622010

 

I discussed this beer in a NBS thread:

"Appearance:

A medium golden color with a BIG white head which dissipates fairly quickly."

Regardless of photo/lighting aspects the beer I purchased last year was not very pale in color.

Cheers!

 

This was my experience as well as I associated Oktoberfest beers with the domestic, caramel and sweets ones I had tried previously and didn't really enjoy. I have enjoyed the Sierra Nevada co-labs over the years.

 

God, it's been so long. Which chain was before BevMo out here, Liquor Barn? Back in the 1980s one could find dozens of imports that were refrigerated(!) and sold as singles so mixed sixers were a great way to experiment. Danish Pilsner (with the Dog on the label) anyone?

 

Perhaps Tuborg Gold?

I don't remember any chains back then. Small independents were my bag. Still are.

 

Picked up what I think has not been mentioned yet in this thread - Freising. To my taste it's a really solid festbier - think Paulaner (Wiesn), but with a bit less carbonation. I quite like it.
Also - I pat myself on the back for jumping on okto's early and hard this year while everything was stock.

 

Which Paulaner?

 

Forgot there were two. The lighter one. Haven’t had the amber yet.

 

2019

2020


Still very good, but tasted a little “lighter” also

 

Also? The 2020 looks lighter to you?

 

It kinda does to me, but the top picture (2019) has a lot of condensation on the top half of the glass, and that's where it looks darker.

 

I picked the best picture rather than the ones with the greatest difference.
These are from 10/6/19

 

Right, but condensation doesn't count. The clear areas of both glasses look identical on both of my devices.