Rejoice, beer lovers! Spaten Oktoberfest is once again available in your local beer store. Yes, its that time of year again, time to enjoy sweet and malty Marzen beers while you munch bratwurst and listen to Oom-pah-pah music. What’s that you say? It’s only September? I’ll have you know that Oktoberfest in Germany begins the last week of September and runs into early October. So there!

Were you to travel to Munich for the original Oktoberfest, one of the breweries you would find best represented would in fact be Spaten. Spaten is one of the original Munich breweries, along with Lowenbrau (now part of Spaten), Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr (now part of Paulaner), Augustiner, and the Hofbrau Haus allowed to have tents at Oktoberfest. In fact, they are the only breweries in Germany who can legally call a beer “Oktoberfest”.

Spaten has a long tradition of brewing in Germany; its roots date all the way back to 1397. Anheuser-Busch, by contrast, has only been around since 1876. The brewery derives its name from the Spatt family, owners from 1622 to 1704. If you’re wondering where the shovel in the Spaten logo comes from, “Spatt” is German for shovel.

Spaten operates four beer tents at Oktoberfest. They are:

Schottenhamel
This is where Munich’s mayor taps the first keg of Oktoberfest beer. Seats 10,000.

Ochsenbraterei
You may have been to a pig roast, but how about a cow roast? They cook hundreds here, whole on a spit. Seats 7500.

Hippodrome
No, they don’t roast hippos here. A smaller tent with more upscale cuisine. Same great beer though. Seats 4000.

Glöckle Wirt
The inside favorite, smallest and most gourmet.

Of course, you’ll be able to find plenty of Spaten Fest beer pouring, but these days what you’ll get in your one-liter mass (drinking vessel) is more likely to be a light, malty helles than an amber nutty marzen. The Marzen style has been long associated with Oktoberfest beer both in Germany and abroad, though it does not date to the very first Oktoberfest back on October 17, 1810. That’s when Bavaria’s Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese of Sachsen-Hildburghausen on what came to be known the “theresienwiese”.. This inspired the event we now know as Oktoberfest, which has been held every year since 1819.

Marzen became all the rage in the 1840s, when mechanical refrigeration equipment was not yet available. The only way to serve lager beer during the hot summer months was to brew up large quantities at the end of spring (usually March) and store it in cool subterranean caves. An especially robust and malty brew of this last lager was called Marzen, and the last of it was generally consumed in September, when cooler weather arrived and lager brewing could soon recommence. Thus, the last of the Marzen quickly became the beer associated with the annual Oktoberfest.

The Spaten Oktoberfest you buy today is still loosely in the Marzen style. Spaten calls its brew “Ur-Marzen”, or original Marzen, mainly due to the fact that Gabriel Sedylmayr, an important figure in Spaten’s history, had a major hand in the evolution of the style.

Spaten Oktoberfest pours to an amber-reddish color with a thick head formation and a rich malty nose. The palate is slightly nutty and a tad toasty, though seems to be less so than in the past. There is a rich, sweetish, and slightly candyish malt character similar to that in Samuel Adams Oktoberfest. This is a smooth, creamy, very drinkable brew. The finish is balanced to slightly sweet. Seems a tad lighter than in the past, perhaps leaning toward the helles style all the rage in Munich today?

Still a classic.





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