German Oktoberfests which ones and where to find them

I love this style too, so I'd start here: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/29/

 

Mecktoberfest fresh is as good as anything out there IMO. Especially the fresh part over 6 month old Fest beer right now , that's a few months old right now.

 

Hacker Pschorr
Hofbrau
Spaten (if you can find it on draft - buy the green bottles at your own risk)

 

Paulaner Marzen is my favorite

Paulaner Oktoberfest Weisn if i can find it, ive only had it once, id drink all the time. So memorable of how clean it was.

As for domestic...

DuClaw Mad Bishop
Left Hand Oktoberfest

Those are my current favorite

I can not WAIT for this season. I only tried 9 different ones last year. Trying to double that.

 

Hard to find around here. Usually spaten is in the grocery. I am looking forward to any I can find. Hofbrau original was at the grocery briefly and I had their oktoberfest.last year. Wegmans carries ayinger but not the oktoberfest and I ask for hacker pschorr each year at the shop, still no.

 

All of the major German Oktoberfests that get wide distribution here are good. Plus the style variation is enough that it's hard to compare some head to head. My advice would be to try any you can find. My favorites last year were Ayinger and Hacker Pschorr, but the degree of separation in terms of enjoyment is small.

 

One of the German brewed Oktoberfest beers that I buy every year is Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier (a Pale Oktoberfest beer).

I also like Ayinger but the three bottles I bought last year tasted a bit old to me; I was bummed.

To re-enforce what Dale (@nc41) posted of “over 6 month old Fest beer right now, that's a few months old right now.” Why do the German breweries bottle these beers so early in the year (e.g., April 2016)? Do the logistics of German beer production and shipping require this? Makes no sense to me.

Cheers!

 

Oh, definitely.

Here's a list of all of the major ones that should be pretty easy to find-
Spaten (amber)
Paulaner (amber and pale)
Hofbrau (pale)
Hacker-Pschorr (amber)
Ayinger (amber)
Weihenstaphaner (pale)

Of those I tend to load up the most on Hofbrau and Spaten as my favorite examples of their respective types, but Ayinger is also heavily in the mix (and pretty unique, as well). The first 4 are from Munich; there are 2 more breweries in the old 'Big 6' the we don't really see, unfortunately, Lowenbrau and Augustiner.

 

It's my understanding that some of the German breweries (i.e. Paulaner) brew their Oktoberfest Märzen year round for export to the US because their sales are good. So a beer that was bottled in April 2016 may be meant for consumption now, not later in the year.

To answer the original question, Ayinger, Hacker Pschorr, and Paulaner Weisn are my personal favorites.

 

The Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier beers I purchased last year were bottled in April 2015. That beer is not a year round beer; it is a seasonal.

I have zero idea when my Ayinger Oktoberfest beers were brewed since Ayinger refuses to bottle date.

Cheers!

 

No particular brand, just try any German Oktoberfest you see on tap.

 

Yep, that's early! I don't know the reasoning behind this either.

 

You shouldn't have to search hard to find many of these beers. Not every one is going to be distributed to North Carolina, but a large-volume beer store should be getting them in soon, if not already. As with many of the 'best of' lists, the highly-ranked ones typically can be more difficult to find due to demand, but work your way down the list and you'll likely see some of them.

 

In terms of wide distribution, both Sam Adams and Yuengling make exceptional Marzens that absolutely do justice to the style.

In terms of Germans specifically, Weihenstephaner's Pale and Paulaner's pale are both great, and Ayinger's is my favorite. I tend to shy away from most domestic ones as I often find they are overhopped, and quite frankly the big guys SA and Yeungling do the best job preserving the style, at least in my opinion. Also there are specific malt qualities I look for in the style that those 2 do best.

 

I wish we had more available here. Lacking much in the way of choice I buy the ones that are stocked.

 

Our choices are very limited. I like Ayinger, but Mectoberfest a week old IMO is a better beer, as is SN Oktoberfest. Must be a logistics thing, but time doesn't do this style any favors, although with the nice malt backbone the star and not really the hops still very good as 6 months.

 

Honestly the best Oktoborfest I've ever had was the one I brewed out of a kit last year. Adventures In Homebrewing's Oktoberfest recipe kit. Absolutely delicious. Nice malt bill and a hop spiciness that is so great. If you brew at the right time, it goes well in Oktober as well as Thanksgiving

 

Thanks for the amber vs pale indicator. Not a fan of amber versions but after having the outstanding SN iteration last year I'm going to explore further into the pale variety. Cheers.

 

When I first saw this thread, I thought you were asking about Oktoberfests - as in events, not beers!

 

This. Absolutely.
Any of the imports (particularly on draft) are exponentially better than any of the American brewed ones. Not that the domestic ones are necessarily bad...they're just usually not as good. SN's last year was a gem, though.

The one bottled O-Fest beer I really miss is the Löwenbrau Märzen that used to be imported to the USA in the early '70s. Great stuff, it was.

 

I'd assume that most of the big German breweries who export are probably on the same brewing and bottling schedule to meet US demands. 6 month old beer is not fresh, as you mentioned it's a seasonal, for a seasonal beers it's definately not fresh. We don't get Mecktoberfest here anymore because on NCs archaic cap on small breweries to self distribute. We also don't get a lot of the bigger breweries here for whatever reason. Ayinger and HP for sure, Ayinger is usually the first to appear. SN Oktoberfest was great last year, I like the collaboration efforts, maybe the best I had last year.

 

Generally the less-than-fresh better beer trumps the fresh inferior version. With a handful of exceptions, this is particularly true with the Oktoberfest style, where the American versions are usually missing the depth of malt character elemental to it.

 

Exactly. Also, most American takes on the 'style' use caramel/crystal malts in the grist, which contribute malt character of a different kind compared to traditional German brews
.
With regard to the 'freshness' issues...As bizarre as this is going to sound (and I've been efficiently flamed in other forums for even suggesting this) in some cases, 'freshness' can be overrated. A fact that is all too often overlooked nowadays is that with some traditional 'styles' (like Märzen, Barleywine, Porter/Stout, Stock Ale, and others), time is a friend, not the enemy. Some 'styles' should be several months old (or older) even before they are packaged for sale and while such brews may certainly deteriorate in bottle over time like any beer or ale, they do tend to hold up quite a bit longer when long aged prior to packaging.
Just my own observations (shared also by some pro brewer friends)...and opinions will certainly vary (but that's after all what makes the world go 'round).

 

It is not my intention to "flame" here but unless the beer is a style which is intended to be cellared (e.g., Barleywine, Quad, etc.) age is not a benefit for beer. The fundamental aspect here is oxidation (staling). Oxygen and oxidation is the enemy of beer. For a beer style like an Oktoberfest once the lagering process is complete and the beer is packaged (i.e., bottled) that beer is best consumed fresh. I have homebrewed many Oktoberfest beers and all of those batches were best consumed fresher. And I used Munich malt to obtain depth of malt flavors (including melanoidans) in those beers vs. caramel malts.

Cheers!

 

It's all good. Commercially, there's plenty of choice and as homebrewers, we certainly have a choice of how to handle aging (or bypass it altogether). I like what happens with the aging process for most beers and the length of aging depends on the type of beer anyway. I suppose I'm just too old school/traditional in a lot of ways. A lot of the flavors touted in some beers these days as 'fresh' are (to my palate anyway) 'green' or immature flavors. I suppose that's why I more like the imported commercial O-Fest beers over domestic ones, and why I even bulk age my homebrewed version (95% Munich malt) for a minimum of 5 months.
It's just personal taste. It's also one of the reasons that for several decades now, more than 90% of the beer/ale I consume is homebrewed.

 

But you do realize that there is a difference between lagering and aging in the bottle, right? Very different processes are going on here.

If you want to "bulk age" (lager) for a "minimum of 5 months" I fully support that process. If you propose to age your bottles of Oktoberfest beer (commercially brewed or homebrewed) for 5 months before consuming the beer I will frankly and respectfully opine that you are nuts here.

Cheers!

 

While I understand your palate preferences, to me the import Oktos just have better malt flavor -- or at least: better to what I want/expect in an Okto. I've only had that character in a few U.S.-brewed Okto/Märzens -- 2 of which were well-brewed brewpub beers.

 

LOL.
I'm probably nuts for plenty of other reasons (I've been in show-biz for all of my adult life. LOL)... but yes...all of the traditional aging I do for my Festbiers, Porters, Stouts, Barleywine/Burtons, IPAs, etc., is in bulk (some of it cold aged, most at 58-60°F cellar temps). Over the last 45 years I've amassed a pretty good collection of cornies, carboys, etc in a variety of sizes and I do brew fairly often, so time/supply is rarely an issue (unless I've been on the road or on location for any unusual length of time). Thus I always somehow manage to have well aged (to my liking) brews on hand.
When work is plentiful and I run short of stock because of schedules, at least nowadays there are enough really good commercial choices more readily available to fill the gap.
Even 45 years ago was a great time to be a beer lover (if you knew where to look), but these days, it's downright phenomenal (though you do still need to be pretty selective).

 

Ayinger for me. I always like the Hofbrau too, though not many people seem to. Then again, I have 2 Hofbrauhaus locations within 2 hours of me. For what its worth, my favorite last year was Sierra Nevada's

 

FWIW, Bell's has announced that their Octoberfest will be back in distro this year (12 pack bottles) for the first time in 5 years.

 

Yup, there is an on-going thread on this topic: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/bells-octoberfest.437185/

Cheers!

 

Ayinger Oktoberfest-Marzen is my favorite beer and Trader Joe's carries it. I don't know when it will arrive this year.

 

The best one I've had in a long time is Dry Dock's Docktoberfest. They canned a ton of it this year, so it should be readily available for anyone in CO. At least it will be very soon when it's released.
Left Hand's is usually good, although sometimes it's excessively sweet. Last year's certainly was. All of the Munich (and Munich-area) ones are good as long as you aren't buying one from last year.

 

Yup.

I used to enjoy drinking Left Hand Oktoberfest but the variability of their releases and the propensity for the beer being too sweet for my palate has made this beer 'unworthy' for me.

Cheers!

 

I loved the SN last year, hope this year is in the ball park. I tip a few of Summit's Marzens. Cheap, decent, and 7%.

 

My kind of thread! Having said that...

Here's the "OF Course!" section:
Ayinger, Paulaner, Hofbrau, Spaten

Some of my other favorites:
Warsteiner, Weltenburger-Kloster, Hacker-Pschorr, Aktienbrauerie, Kulmbacher Festbier, Sierra Nevada (killed it two years in a row!)

Others that I enjoy and seem a bit overlooked:
Karl Strauss O'Fest, Firestone Walker Oaktoberfest

Honestly, I love 'em all! Prost, and happy hunting!

 

Guess I forgot the "Where to get them" part. A lot of these can be found at Total Wine or BevMo!, but I am lucky enough to have a couple German deli's and a bar/bottleshop that stock some, and a Bier Hall close by to enjoy on tap. Cheers!