Märzenbier/Oktoberfestbier: A Beer for All Seasons

A beer style is often named after its place of origin or its key characteristic, or both. Typical examples are the Vienna lager, the Irish Stout, the London Porter, or the Bohemian Pilsner. Not so with the Märzen-Oktoberfestbier. It is named after two months of the calendar: March and October (spelled März and Oktober in German). In addition, the brew is labeled a "fest beer" (Festbier in German). In this long and obscure names lies the explanation of this uniquely Bavarian Beer style.

About half a millennium ago, brewers in Bavaria were not allowed to make beer during the hot days of summer. So they resorted to a simple but effective strategy to ensure a drinkable beer supply for the summer. They worked overtime in their brewhouses in late winter to make plenty of higher-alcohol and well-hopped "March" beer — and this is how the Märzen-Oktoberfestbier came to the Märzen part of its name.

Unfortunately, we have only vague hints as to the true composition of this original Märzen brew. It probably was full-bodied, had strong caramel notes in the flavor, and was darkish amber to deep brown in color.

After fermentation, the Märzen beer was stored in casks in cool cellars and mountain caves, some filled with ice from the winter. It was released gradually starting in late spring or early summer. The high alcohol content, the high acid and tannin levels from the hops, and the ideal storage conditions ensured that this beer kept well and actually matured and improved as summer turned into fall. It probably became especially good near the end of summer, when the hops would have mellowed out and the brew's malty character would have come fully to the fore. By October however, after the year's grain had been harvested, the last of the Märzen beers had to be consumed so that the precious casks could receive the new brewing season's fresh delectables. Now, combine the pressure to vacate the needed cooperage in a hurry with the Bavarians’ innate propensity for having a jolly good time, and the concept of an Oktoberfest emerges almost automatically. The first official Oktoberfest as a formal affair took place outside Munich in 1810. Within just a few years, beer stands had become a standard feature of the fest, and one of the beers the Munich revelers quaffed was the Märzen.

Like most medieval beer styles, however, the Märzen beer evolved with advances in the art of brewing. It underwent its first systematic, brew-technical change in 1841 at the hands of Gabriel Sedlmayr, the owner of the Spaten Brewery of Munich. Sedlmayr lightened the color of the traditional Märzen to deep-dark to a bright amber. Thirty years later, in 1871, the Spaten Brewery introduced a reformulated Märzen beer with a very pronounced malt aroma at that year's Munich Oktoberfest, marketed for the first time under the name of Oktoberfestbier, instead of the traditional Märzen beer.

Today, this beer is often marketed under the hyphenated designation of Märzen-Oktoberfestbier, and tends to have an alcohol by volume content of roughly 5 – 6%. If the beer is called just a Märzen, it probably stayed in the maturation tank for six to eight weeks after the end of fermentation. Such conditioning or “lagering” makes the beer taste particularly smooth and mellow. If it is called just an Oktoberfestbier, on the other hand, it may have stayed as long as 12 to 16 weeks in the tank, in order to acquire an exceptionally rich and delicate malt flavor.