Guten Tag! Today's Brewer's Corner is distinctly German focused as this is the most wonderful time of the year in the lager world: Oktoberfest!
We've got our own Oktoberfest Kickoff Party tomorrow, September 16th, at our St. Charles brewery and this year we brewed a special beer for it: our Fox Fest Festbier.
What's a festbier you ask? How is that different from the normal Oktoberfest beer I've been drinking since I cracked open an amber colored, caramelly Sam Adams Octoberfest for the first time? What’s the difference between Märzen and Festbier? Well, I'll tell you.
I'm not going to go into detail about THE Oktoberfest itself here, though it's a really interesting history that started with a wedding. If you want, read up on it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest
In my early craft beer years, I was an Oktoberfest beer fanatic. Trips to the Bavarian Lodge in Lisle during this time of year carried the same excitement as a kid on Christmas morning. I loved all the copper colored, malty lagers I could get my hands on.
The thing I found interesting though when I looked at pictures of Oktoberfest in Munich was that the beer people were drinking didn't look like any Oktoberfest Märzen I was familiar with, it looked more like a golden pale lager.
Finally, I got to go to Munich in 2010 and experience the Munich Oktoberfest first hand. The moment I had my first liter of Spaten Oktoberfestbier placed in front of me and took a big sip, I was hooked on Festbier. Several more liters (too many, I became what they refer to as a "beer corpse") followed as this new-to-me style was immensely drinkable, but still packed a bit of ABV punch.
Sometime after pale lager became the most popular beer style in the world, the beer served at Munich's Oktoberfest transitioned from the more traditional copper/amber Märzen style into the paler Festbier in the interest of drinkabilty, and thus I'm sure, increased beer sales. Most of you are probably familiar with a Märzen style Oktoberfest beer. Think notes of slightly toasted bread crust, fresh baked biscuits, and maybe a little caramel while hopefully not ever really tasting sweet.
The lesser known style outside of the Oktoberfest itself is the Festbier. This beer is almost like a Munich Helles after it's been hitting the weights. Everything is amped up, but not into Maibock territory. Festbier is stronger, maltier, and hoppier than Helles, but never loses that balance and always retains its drinkability.
So, in celebration of this Tale of Two Oktoberfests, we bring you two seasonal lagers to be celebrated this weekend. Though both have been on our tap list for a bit, our party is their time to shine. Scarecrows in Lederhosen, our fall staple since our first year, returns, but no longer tiptoeing the line between the styles. We committed to the Märzen style Oktoberfest this year with Scarecrows, featuring a heavier emphasis on its malt character.
We also, for the first time, are serving up Fox Fest German-Style Festbier, our attempt to bring the beer consumed on the Theresienwiese in Munich home to you!
Enjoy a liter of each this Saturday with me during our Oktoberfest in St. Charles. I'll be walking around in my Lederhosen, hopefully looking in better shape than this picture of me on Oktoberfest day one in Munich over a decade ago.
- Eric Bramwell,
Co-Founder & Head Brewer
Riverland Brewing Company
