The 9 best Oktoberfest beers now that the most wonderful time of the year is upon us
The air is getting crisp. Football is on our televisions. And, crucially, märzens are on tap and polka bands across the country and gears up for their busy season.
This can only mean one thing; it's Oktoberfest time.
There's no better time to enjoy sports and beer. The middle of September through early October is a perfect intersection of ideal outdoor weather, football-packed weekends and my favorite beer style. Märzens are the official beer of the ongoing, nearly two century celebration of King Ludwig I's wedding to Princess Therese. These festbiers are served in big, liter steins for a reason; they're loaded with rich, malty flavor and easy to drink.
In honor of this stretch of playoff-adjacent baseball, college football and the opening notes of the NFL season, let's talk about these great beers. Here are my favorite märzens, in no particular order.
Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen
We've got to start at the source, sifting through the six core breweries who have tents at Munich's original and ongoing Oktoberfest celebration. Hacker-Pschorr makes my favorite of the big German conglomerates, a big bodied mix of roasted malt and sweet caramel with just enough of a bitter finish to snap off each sip cleanly.
The essence of a good märzen is its ability to be sipped three bottles worth at a time out of a big, bubbled stein (or smooth stoneware mug). It has to have great re-drinkability and the ability to retain its flavor even as it warms and its bubbles dissipate. Hacker-Pschorr hits that mark better than any of its its local competitors, but that's just my opinion.
Spaten Uz-Märzen
Rather than make this list all German imports, I'll stop here -- though I'll happily hear all arguments for Augustiner, Lowenbrau, Hofbrau or Paulaner, which are all great beers in general that shine once September begins. Spaten's Ur-Märzen clocks in a little drier than its Munich compatriots, giving it a crisp, clean finish.
That all comes after a proper balance of malt and hops. It doesn't approach the sweetness of some of the other beers on this list, instead leaning into a slightly bready, toasted profile. It's a little closer to a dark lager, if that's your thing, but it works.
For Wisconsinites: New Glarus Staghorn AND Hop Haus's Oktoberfest
The proof Wisconsin is a blessed place isn't just the presence of New Glarus Brewing, but the fact their Staghorn is the cheapest of the Oktoberfest options at my local Woodman's grocery store. There's no American märzen I'd take over Staghorn. Put me in a blind taste test and I might prefer it over the big Munich breweries offerings as well.
It's a dark caramel/copper colored beer with incredible depths of roasted, malty goodness. It stretches to the borders of everything that makes a good festbier, big flavors up front, a low-key sweetness underneath, just enough hops to keep everything balanced and, importantly, the dry finish that keeps you coming back for more.
And if you happen to be near the Badger State's Swisstown from September 26 to 29, you should make it a point to stop by New Glarus's Oktoberfest -- a festival that shuts down one of the city's main streets to accommodate a tent of polka music, food trucks and roughly 1,000 kegs of incredible beer brewed literal blocks away.
Of course, if driving that extra 15 minutes out of Madison is too much, Hop Haus in neighboring Verona is home to what's been my favorite local märzen this summer-fall interlude. The microbrewer, coming up on its 10th year of existence, has exactly the kind of piney, citrus beers you'd expect from its name, but some of its darker beers truly shine. That applies to year-round standby Plaid Panther, but this year's crop of malty marzen beer is loaded with sweet, roasted flavor that makes it perfect for an oversized mug and a brass band.
Karbach Karbachtoberfest
From an upcoming review of the Texas beer:
Three Floyds Munsterfest
Three Floyds has long been steeped in the waters of my beer circle of trust, not unlike fellow listees Firestone Walker and Toppling Goliath. That made this sixer an easy pickup, and the Indiana-based brewer did not disappoint.
Munsterfest is a bit sweeter than most in the category, with the caramel endemic to the style blending into an almost graham cracker-y feel. It's a little thicker than the German märzen, but that extra density doesn't hold it back. This is the kind of malt bomb I want when the temperatures begin to drop.
Urban Chestnut O-Katz
Welp, here's another regional beer that may not exist within 500 miles of some of y'all. But Urban Chestnut's German-inspired beers are always a hit, from their signature Zwickel to a whole bunch of great bocks (plus, that Grove bierhall is delightful). If you're ever in the St. Louis area, it's one of many breweries worth a stop.
Their Oachkatzlschwoaf -- you can see why they went with O-Katz -- leans hard into its toasted malt to make a beer that's both light and heavy at the same time. You get an up-front sweetness that transitions into a little toast and a little grape nut vibe. It feels a little boozier than most, and for me it feels a little better when the temperature drops into the 50s rather than the 60s. But there's no wrong time to drink it.
Samuel Adams Flannel Fest
We're stretching the limits of Oktoberfests here, as this is a "Munich-style dunkel." But I like dunkels almost as much as I like marzens, and you should too. They're the darker malt-forward cousin of those festbiers, perfect for when the weather gets a touch colder.
Sam Adams' Flannel Fest doesn't smell any heavier than your typical September beer, but it pours a richer caramel color. Once the lacy white head dissipates, you tuck into a malty, chocolatey and sweet brew. It lacks the dryness of some of the other beers on this list but makes up for it in depth. There's a lot to work through here, and even though it doesn't hit the full-bodied richness of the best heavy brews, there's still a lot to like.
That leaves it closer to a märzen than a dunkel, so here we are. Where Samuel Adams' Oktoberfest has generally left me stranded at the border between "totally fine" and "pretty good," Flannel Fest sets up camp in the latter. There's a lot of caramel flavor here weaved into that roasted malt. It's missing the dry finish that makes the other beers on this list so redrinkable, but it makes it up to you with a complex, rewarding beer.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: The 9 best Oktoberfest beers now that the most wonderful time of the year is upon us
