The Beginning of Oktoberfest

Tomorrow is the beginning of Oktoberfest in Munich.  While it's far, far away geographically, this is something that generally holds a great effect on my life, seeing as I work in a German restaurant.  This will be the ninth Oktoberfest I will be involved with at a German restaurant, and this is the high season.  It is also the low-brow, busy, busy, once-a-year-clientele time of year, where it seems I'm using my brain less than I am my body.  It's all right.  These things happen, and I turn a profit.

Back to what I was going to go on about though.  Oktoberfest officially starts on a Saturday and lasts sixteen days, ending on the first Sunday in October.  Originally, it was held later into October, but now, most of it is in September, but it has retained its name.  This all started in 1810 as a commemoration of the marriage of King Ludwig I of Bavaria.  For the last sixty years, it has been the way it is now: huge, sprawling drunkfest in the pedestrian area of central Munich.

So people come to my restaurant.  Due to the general misconception (thanks to its name) that Oktoberfest is an October festival, the "Oktoberfest season," as it were starts on Friday, the day before Oktoberfest starts in Munich, until the end of Oktober, generally seeing a muted conclusion in Halloween, when it seems practically no one goes out to eat.

This is all well and good.  Our food is plentiful and well-suited to please the festgoer.  Our traditional German varieties of beer (now down to about a fifth of our draft offerings) are available in liter mugs (that being 33.6 fluid ounces plus foam, to a grand total of 46 fluid ounces...a party in a glass.).  What I get the most pleasure from at my job, at least when it comes to interactions with customers, is beer talk.  We have a impressive, high-brow selection of drafts and bottles, especially our Belgians and American Crafts.  It allows for a great deal to talk about, but it all takes a back seat...today.

So, to allow these two things (beer and fest) to coalesce in my brain, I will leave with a few technical notes about Oktoberfest beer.

The water in and around Munich tends to be quite hard in its mineral content, which has a skunking effect on hops.  By European convention, beer is made stronger by the addition of more grain malt, which provides the sugar that the yeast converts into alcohol.  Grain malt contains a good deal of complex sugars that are not digestible by yeast, leaving a stronger beer sweeter.  Again, by convention, this sweetness is cut by the bitterness of hops, and so for all the malt added, so is hops added in abundance.

The problem in Munich, which is known to have been an issue for centuries, is that the hardness of the water would render a strong beer, where hops is added in proportion to malt, unpalatable.  This is why Doppelbock beer tends to be sweet and malty, since it is a native Munich style, while strong.  The Märzen variety, of which Oktoberfest is a subset, is a stonger beer made as an imitation of the Vienna Lager, which was an amber, stronger Lager developed by Anton Dreher around 1800.  Seeing as this was the fashionable brew in Munich at the time of the first Oktoberfest, this style has persisted.

Märzen beers tend to be a bit on the sweet and malty side, with a minimum of bitterness or aroma provided by hops.  I am not a great fan of this variety of beers, tending to prefer dry, effervescent varieties.  Enough whining though.  Right now, we have Spaten Oktoberfest Märzen, 5.9% ABV, with a bit of a dry finish, but only a bit; Ayinger Oktoberfest, 5.8% ABV, which is not the least bit dry, probably more of a quality brew, but definitely not something you could knock back too many of on account of the sweetness; and Three Floyds Munsterfest, 5.5% ABV and a bit on the grainy side for my taste, but really not bad at all once you're a couple sips in.  We have already run through our supply of Köstrizer Oktoberfest, 6.0% ABV, an export-only, relatively good Oktoberfest, much more similar to the Spaten Oktoberfest; and Left Hand Oktoberfest, 6.0% ABV, which is a lovingly-crafted, dead-on American rendition of a Munich-style Märzen, only even better balanced and smoother...possibly my favorite Oktoberfest I've had after the Mönchshof Festbier, which I'm looking forward to talking about soon, once it's back on, and my memory's refreshed.

Those are my short beer reviews of the day, with more to come.  Of the Oktoberfest beers mentioned, I give the following ratings out of 5 stars, with 3 not being average but still good, and 2 still not bad:

Spaten Oktoberfest: 3 stars
Ayinger Oktoberfest: 4 stars
Three Floyds Munsterfest: 2 stars
Köstritzer Oktoberfest: 3 stars
Left Hand Oktoberfest: 5 stars

Also tried recently:

Great Lakes Oktoberfest (6.5% ABV): 2 stars - This beer has a strange spiciness not appropriate for a Märzen, especially what is touted to be an imitation, not an interpretation.  Otherwise, drinkable and refreshing, but still, meh, and the ABV is a bit out of range to be appropriate, in my opinion, though I've heard that Avery has one in the 9% range, so I'll have to check that out soon enough.

Cheers, and look forward to a layout change and more and more and more about beer...and maybe linguistics.  We'll see.