My friend and much-decorated homebrewer Shane Caple conjured an old-school Märzen for Oktoberfest, and the result is shown above. Compare it with the appearance of Weihenstephaner’s new-school Festbier, pictured below.
They’re both Oktoberfest lagers. Märzen is the older and more traditional approach, while Festbier has come to embody modernity—say, the past 40 or so years of adaptation, with the style redefined to suit changing tastes, even in conservative Bavaria.
As a reminder, while lagers like these are released in America in late July, Oktoberfest in Munich actually begins in September (this year it’s the 17th), and usually only the last two or three hangover mornings extend into the festival’s namesake month.
Why? For one, northern European summers historically were shorter than ours, and harvest celebrations might begin as early as the end of August (insert climate change game-changer here).
In Munich, a 19th-century royal wedding fete coincided with the usual fall revelry, providing a...
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