I like Marzens. What else should I try?

You could try other malty beers like brown ales, doppelbocks and porters. You might also enjoy amber ales.

 

Dunkels (Ayinger Altbairish, Hoffbrau) and bocks (Einbecker Urbock) should fit the bill nicely.

Of course, some Marzens are available year-round, like Spaten and Paulaner.

 

Vienna lagers are something of a smaller 'fest. Great Lakes' Eliot Ness is a favorite of mine, and actually happens to approach fests' strength.

 

Well, you seem to have a ‘baseline’ of Flying Dog’s Dogtoberfest. I personally haven’t had that beer but a quick look at some recent reviews indicate:

“A very American octoberfest, and by that I mean pretty malty. Its a little outside what I think the style should entail, if you want me to get nerdy about it.”

“This beer has a fairly strong caramely finish, certainly too sweet for the style. This is probably because they are using ale yeasts and lower attenuation fermentations.”

It sound like Dogtoberfest is on the sweet/caramel side of the spectrum which is sometimes found in American versions of Oktoberfest beers so it seems that is what you should be looking for in terms of other Oktoberfest beers. I would suggest that you concentrate on American brewed Oktoberfest beers. Since I have a preference for Oktoberfest beers that are not too sweet I personally cannot make specific recommendations to the OP.

The Oktoberfest celebration in Munich started this past weekend (Saturday 9/22/12). I started my own Oktoberfest celebration of sorts yesterday by drinking some Oktoberfest beers while watching football. I had four different beers:

· Left Hand Oktoberfest: amber colored and a tad too sweet/caramel for my palate.
· Weihenstephan Oktoberfestbier: golden color with a nice bready malty taste. I really liked this one.
· Sly Fox Oktoberfest: a light amber color with just a hint of sweetness and a nice toasty malty taste. This beer was a ‘winner’!
· Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen: a light amber color with a nice biscuit malt flavor. I also really enjoyed drinking this beer.

Now that fall is here, bring on the Oktoberfest beers!

Cheers!

 

Fullers ESB or even Red Hook ESB -- just to get completely away from the Amber Lager trend and toward something different, but similar.

 

Again -- untrue. Spaten is only available year-round in certain parts of the country -- mostly east coast and north-eastern areas (though I've also heard of some west coast areas too) -- this is what comes from having 2 import/export arms on each side of the continent.

 

Aah, that does seem to ring a bell- hopefully it'll stick in my brain this time. OP is in Washington DC, though, so maybe still has access.

 

Ayinger Ayinger Ayinger

 

Sorry -- didn't mean to insinuate and single you out -- the "year-round" question pops up all the time... and I'm tired of hearing all of you who get Spaten Okto year-round bragging about it!!

(kiddin')

 

Just as long as it's Fresh Fresh Fresh! Nothing worse than a sour Ayinger Oktoberfest.

But the OP says he already likes Märzens and wants to try similar beers.

 

It's cool- I meant it more sincerely than defensively, anyway.

Cheers!

 

Here is my brag about it. We get it "year round", and by that I mean the cases on display at my local were bottled in late 2011. This isnt old bottles gathering dust on a shelf or in a cooler, this is on their big Oktoberfest display with cases from bunches of different breweries, but with Spaten the biggest mound. Since this went in back in late August, Im guessing these were "fresh" from the distribution at that time. The Schlafly Ofest sitting next to it was bottled 14 days ago.

 

if you're ever in Austin, TX i suggest you seek out Live Oak's Oaktoberfest....i hear its excellent.

as far as your area i'm not too sure. i liked Flying Fish's OktoberFish in NJ. Sly Fox makes a great Oktoberfest. Victory Fest is one of my favorites.

i recently had Jack's Abby Copper Legend octoberfest (MA local)....it was excellent.

 

Eeh... not sure Spaten dates their cases -- they sure don't date their bottles. I have a feeling that may not be a year that's marked.

 

I figured as much, but I also didn't want to look like I was singling anyone out.

 

Excellent choices. I would also say try some Munich Helles (Hacker, Paulaner, etc.) to go toward the lighter end of the spectrum as well.

 

Another great choice. I love Marzen's and also love me some Fullers ESB

 

Doing some less-than-in-depth research it looks like Spaten is using the Julian dating code on their bottles these days (anyone can confirm or decry this as I have no solid proof yet).

So the code would be something like L 0872 1 D -- the letter initials are unclear, but the first 3 numerals of 0872 are the 87th day of the year (March 28) and 2 is the last digit of the year (2012). The 1 indicates the bottling line.

 

Also, from some previous conversation with Spaten USA: