Oktoberfestbier

Appearance & taste

Oktoberfestbier is a bottom-fermented beer with 13.6 to 14.0 % original gravity and 5.3 to 6.6 % vol. alcohol. It is pale, golden, amber or dark and tastes full-bodied, very rounded, smooth or malty to lightly hopped with very mild bitterness, or strong and a little sweet. The bitterness is 16 to 28 units; according to the specification, the beers are therefore only slightly bitter, as has been preferred in southern Bavaria for decades. According to the specification, it differs from other festival beers in its water, the narrow range of original gravity, the higher alcohol content and the bitterness values.

Production

It is brewed according to the Munich purity law of 1487 in the form of the Vorläufiges Biergesetz (Provisional Beer Act). The ingredients are barley malt, hops, yeast and water. The water must come from the Tertiary layers of the Munich gravel plain within the city; depending on location, the deep wells reach about 140 to 250 m down. Munich’s municipal water does not meet these requirements.

The entire production process takes place in the city of Munich. It begins with milling the malt and mashing and ends after about 4 to 11 weeks of lagering, during which the young beer is naturally carbonated and matures.

Origin & history

The area is the territory of the city of Munich.

The Oktoberfest began in 1810 as a horse race on a meadow outside the city, on the occasion of the wedding of Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. According to the specification, beer was served even at the first festival. It takes place every year between mid-September and early October on the 42-hectare Theresienwiese and since 1950 has opened with the mayor tapping the first barrel. Under a municipal ordinance in force until 1850, only the 18 Munich innkeepers were allowed to serve beer from local breweries at the festival; innkeepers from the surrounding area with beer from Tölz were refused.

According to the specification, a dedicated Oktoberfestbier only became widespread after 1872, when a particularly strong beer with a high original gravity was served. After that, Märzen was the Wiesn beer par excellence until after the Second World War; after 1950 a paler variant was added, and according to the specification the amber colour is enjoying a renaissance today. According to the specification, Carl von Linde’s refrigeration machine of 1873, which was used in a Munich brewery, also contributed to the beer’s reputation: with it, large quantities of beer could be brewed and stored in advance for large events.