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Home / German Beer Styles / Märzen
Märzen (March) beer dates back to the days before refrigeration was widely available to brewers and the only way to achieve the cold temperatures necessary for bottom fermented lagers was to brew in the winter. Brewing had to end around March, as the high temperatures of summer spoiled the beer. The Bavarian brewers would store or "lager" the beer in cold, icy caves throughout the summer and it would be consumed in the autumn celebrations like the Oktoberfest. First brewed in nineteenth century Vienna and adapted by the Munich brewers. Märzen is difficult to find in the UK, but well worth the effort.
Märzens were traditionally amber or reddish-bronze coloured but Oktoberfest beers now tend to be lighter in colour. Genuine Märzen is harder to find.
In an attempt to sort out the sheep from the lambs of Oktoberfest beers, I assembled a selection of bottled Oktoberfest beers and did a blind tasting with my friend Bob Thompson. We had all of the main Munich beers: HB, Spaten, Löwenbräu, Paulaner and Augustiner. Unfortunately, my order of Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfestbier hadn't arrived. We added Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Munich style Oktoberfest bier and a couple of wildcards: Mönchshof Weinachts Bier and Faust Festbier. These were all 2004 versions.
We tasted them one by one, in plain glasses, served by a friend, so we didn't know which was which. When tasting the beers we looked for flavours that were a good example of the disctinctiveness of Oktoberfest biers: not just a strong version of a South German Pils or a Helles. We looked for a deeper colour with more amber richness, a fuller flavour with more sweet-juicy malt depth than Pils or Helles and less prominent hops.
The results were a little disappointing in many cases. Most of the beers were Pils-pale, with too little malt richness and too much hop bitterness. Paulaner, Löwenbräu, Augustiner and Spaten all fell into this category but there were two clear joint winners.
The Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier was "properly amber, big, deep, rich malt nose and taste; suitably modest finish, wafts of tamarind". With an equal amount of points was a "proper Oktoberfestbier, amber colour, big tastes, almost ale-like, with a good balance of richness and hops; rich, deep and substantial with dark-fruit tones and lingering, rich finish; rich mouthfeel... a beer of substance... slight sherry notes and woody hints.". This last beer was Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Munich Style Oktoberfest Bier, brewed by London's Meantime Brewery.
I've no doubt some Münchners will be furious that a London beer was the joint winner, but it was a fair, blind tasting and the Meantime head brewer did train at Weihenstephaner. Maybe Munich's brewers should give some thought to how they protect their brewing heritage. I'm sure that strong-Pils-style beers go down well with the tourists who want something unchallenging and familiar, but if Oktoberfest beer loses its disctinctiveness, some of the appeal of the event is lost.
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Last updated: 30th May 2005
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