Beer · Light & sessionable

Märzen

Amber, toasty, and ceremonial — the original Oktoberfest pour.

How to order it: Brewed in March, cellared all summer, drained by October. Tradition tastes like this.

The story

A sixteenth-century Bavarian ordinance restricted brewing to the cooler months, so March beer — Märzen — was brewed a little stronger and cellared through summer, emerging toasty and amber for autumn drinking. Its fame fused with Oktoberfest, the festival born from a royal wedding celebration in 1810, where the amber lager refined by Munich's brewers in the nineteenth century became the ceremonial pour. The twist: modern Munich quietly switched its festival tents to a paler, lighter festbier in recent decades, meaning the classic amber Märzen now survives most vigorously in American craft Oktoberfest releases each fall. The Germans moved on; the rest of the world is still happily drinking their nineteenth century.

Adjacent pours