What Exactly Is an Oktoberfest Beer?

Oktoberfest is a bit of an odd duck in the flock of beer styles, as they can be tricky to classify. The Oktoberfest beer category includes both brews specifically made for serving at the official Oktoberfest festival, as well as beers brewed in that style. The festival, which takes place annually in Munich, Germany, from mid-September to the first week of October, features only six local breweries that are permitted to serve their beers on the premises: Paulaner, Spaten, Hacker-Pschorr, Augustiner, Hofbrau, and Lowenbrau. Those are your true Oktoberfest beers in their purest form. 

However, you can find the Oktoberfest label on many other seasonal beers produced both inside and outside of Germany. While the flavor profiles vary, these beers often set out to mimic historical styles of Oktoberfest served at the official festival over the years and are almost invariably lagers.

"When talking about Oktoberfest, it's important to understand that the beer has changed since the first festival in 1810," says Goose Island R&D manager Mike Siegel, explaining what he believes to be the biggest misconception about the style. Siegel recently worked with Munich's Spaten Brauerei, one of the festival's official breweries, to create a new Oktoberfest beer for Goose Island.

In America, our Oktoberfests tend to be red-hued, slightly sweet beers known as a Märzen — a lager-style beer brewed in March and then aged until the fall. But at the actual festival, the beers are closer to what most of us think of when we think of a German lager — paler beers, similar to another German style known as a Dortmunder.

"[Back in 1810], the beer of Munich was Dunkel, a dark lager, and by 1872, the amber beer [aka Märzen] we are more accustomed to was introduced," Siegel elaborates. "As a result of using paler malts, it continued to get lighter in color throughout the 20th century. These days, the beer served at the Munich festival is golden, slightly more so than Helles (another pale, German lager style), but brewed to a higher gravity, resulting in a beer with a higher alcohol content. They are no longer the amber brews that American brewers make today, which use lots of Munich and Caramel malts for color and a sweet, full flavor."

To summarize, the Oktoberfest beers made in America intended to mimic the style served at Oktoberfest in Munich are often nothing like the actual Oktoberfest beers served at the actual German Oktoberfest. They are often based on an older style.

Conscious of this discrepancy, some American brewers do make Oktoberfest beers that are more in line with the modern German style, known as German-Style Oktoberfest/Wiesn, and conversely, aware of American perceptions, some German breweries export American-style Oktoberfest beers to the U.S, known as American-Style Märzen/Oktoberfest. 

With that, let's simply say, "Prost!" to the German Dortmunder-style Oktoberfest and the American Märzen-style Oktoberfest.