Oktoberfest bier X Märzen X Festbier: What are the differences?

How about drinking liters of a dark and bitter Oktoberfest bier? Can’t do it? This is why the recipe has changed over the years, to make it more drinkable. The story of the Oktoberfest bier backs to the 16th century, when the Märzen style was brewed in March, with more hops and alcohol, and kept in cellars to last until the end of the summer, period that starts the Oktoberfest.

This beer was originally dark brown, full-bodied, and bitter. Only in 1872 turned into the official Oktoberfest beer style, after registration of the first official recipe by Spaten in 1841. This way, technically, they brewed the very first Oktoberfest bier of history, as well as the first Helles.

Although some of the breweries like to call it Märzen nowadays, The “Modern” Oktoberfest bier, the one sold at the festival, is today an official style known as Festbier, and it’s pale and golden, with a very low bitterness, but it’s still a malt forward beer, as the Märzen. This remodeling of the Märzen into a Festbier was driven by Paulaner around 1970, to make it more drinkable. Maybe this is why some people say that the best Oktoberfestbier are Paulaner’s, because they (re)invented it? Could be. The fact is that it only turned into the official beer style of Oktoberfest in 1990. Some craft breweries, mostly americans, brew Oktoberfestbier the old-fashioned way, as a Märzen. Probably because bitterness is something that doesn’t scare them.

And how about Oktoberfest bier? These beers today are in fact Festbiers, and the Oktoberfestbier is just a trademark, that only the “big 6” are allowed by the City of Munich to use it on the labels. These 6 breweries are the biggest of Munich and the only ones participating on Theresienwiese, at the Oktoberfest.

Prost!