By Dan O’Shea
After deeply immersing myself in the world of pumpkin beers the last few years, I decided to all but swear off that love-it-or-hate-it seasonal style this October, and focus on a whole different seasonal – the Oktoberfest beer.
The real, traditional Oktoberfestbier is only made in Munich. However, the basic Oktoberfest-style beer is the marzen, which many brewers all over the world cook up on a regular basis. Marzen comes from the German word for “March,” suggesting it’s traditionally brewed in the spring, but consumed straight through the summer to the beginning of fall, with its flavor evolving the longer it’s left in the barrel.
Most of the marzens you’ll find on shelves in the fall will have a prevalent caramel or toffee kind of flavor, bready or nutty in the background, and an overall malty sweet element. If you’re a hophead, marzens are not your thing, considering they rarely taste hoppy or spicy at all.
Most of the beers I’ve chose to highlight here stick pretty closely to that flavor profile, with one notable exception.
Posted on October 20, 2014
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