Variety of beers at Oktoberfest

Hi all.

First time to the Oktoberfest (any in fact). Just wondering whether there is much on offer beyond the staple Helles, Dunkel and Weiss? Do the brewers showcase any other of their own brands as they do a huge variety and is it possible to find out in advance, much in the same way as British beer festivals. I suspect the answer will be no as they will just want to turnover as much beer as possible but as a Camra member back in the UK I'm of the opinion that variety is the spice of life.

I'm over on the 21st and have a definate booking in the Hofbrau tent on the Monday (24th) afternoon. The rest will be pot luck.

Thanks.

your in for a surprise mate. you can get fest beer. The brewery that runs the tent serves their fest beer. This is a folks fest not a beer fest..

mainly all the beer is March Beer...as in brewed by the brewers in March. you wont find much else sold in the tents

As Iain says, if you're expecting something along the lines of a British beer festival then you're going to be disappointed. The emphasis here is on quantity not variety. Each brewery brews their own Festbier and so in each tent you'll have that brewery's Festbier, plus possibly a wheat beer.

Also, don't get excited about being able to try the Festbiers from all the different breweries - they all taste virtually identical. And at around 5.6%, your hangover in the morning will be worse than you're used to from the UK!

OK Thanks,

Apologies, its my first Oktoberfest, not my first time to Munich. So I've sampled the fare on many occasions.

Its what I expected so, no worries. As for the hangover, besides being an avid micro brewery fan and supporter I'm a foreign, esp Belgian, beer fan so regular 6.5 to 8%+ abv beers sessions are a regular. Quantity wise though, shifting 5l or more in an afternoon might leave me a bit on the wasted side.

"sip, and ye shall find"

If you're looking for variety, look elsewhere. Munich has 5 styles of beer and and 5 breweries which produce virtually identical clones of same. Don't get me wrong, you'll have a nice time, but it won't be because you're tasting interesting beer.

Don't worry, you won't be alone!

munich has more than 5 breweries, no???

there might be only 5 running the tents at the Okky-Fest, but there's plenty more that do decent beers but who can't smash the monopoly of the big 5 on the Wiesn-front
<sits back and waits for someone to tell her that Tegernsee doesn't count as Munich >

Even if you expand the definition of Munich to include, er, Tegernsee, you're still not increasing the variety especially dramatically. The only region in Germany with any true variety is the part of Franconia around Bamberg.

Augustiner (6 %): Augustiner-Festhalle, Fischer-Vroni (im Holzfass!)

Löwenbräu (6,1 %): Löwenbräu Festzelt, Schützenfestzelt

Hofbräu (6,3 %): Hofbräuzelt

Paulaner (6 %): Paulanerbräu (Winzerer Fähndl), Armbrustschützenzelt, Käfers Wiesnschänke, Nymphenburg Wein- und Sektzelt (nur Weißbier!)

Spaten-Franziskanerbräu (5,9 %): Schottenhamel, Hippodrom, Spatenbräu Festhalle und Ochsenbraterei

Hacker-Pschorr (5,8 %): Hackerbräu-Festhalle, Pschorrbräu Festhalle "Bräurosl"

Which isn't to say that the Munich area doesn't have a variety of beer - just don't expect to find many at the Oktoberfest. Although there are 14 major tents, they're only supplied by 4 (I think) breweries, and you'll be lucky if you find a tent that serves more than just the usual festival beer.

Ah, that'll be why I have a hangover today. Thought the Festbier was "only" around 5.6%. I'll have to find a Bavarian who can explain to me why beer intended to be drunk in large quantities is brewed even more strongly than usual.

depends what you mean with true variety. the getränkemarkt out in the sticks usually have such a big variety that finding the brand and make you want can be quite difficult.

actually I think it has historical reasons. The beer served at the end of the summer was he beer that had to be made stronger to last over the summer. The festivals tended to be a way for the breweries to get rid of beer before the winter came and the brewing season stared again (lagers could only be made during the winter when you could get ice.) the large size not only aids this but it also makes serving that many people possible.

Cheers Iain, makes sense.


I didn't mean variety in terms of numbers of different breweries, but in the actual styles of beer. Sure, a big Getränkemarkt will have beers from 20 or 30 different breweries, but it's still all Helles, Pils, Weissbier or Dunkles. In Franconia, these pigeon-holes barely exist. It's as close to anarchy up there as is possible in Germany.

Actually, people didn't wait until winter so that they could make lager, people made lager because they couldn't brew in the summer. Not sure the actual year, but for a very long time, brewing was banned during the summer months, because of a risk of fire. As a result, it was stored in caves or under ground to keep cool. Storing (or die Lagerhaltung) at cooler temperatures allowed the lager strain of yeast to evolve.

trees were grown on top of those under ground spaces to keep them cool which later led to the beergardens

You could in theory brew beer in the summer, it's just that the warmer temperatures made the yeast go a bit crazy, so the beer would end up tasting bad. Year-round brewing didn't start until refrigeration was invented.