About the beer: Ah yes, the crisp air of the fall season can only mean two things for beer lovers: 1. Pumpkin flavored everything & 2. Oktoberfest style beers! Being a native New Englander means being lucky enough to experience all four seasons, but it also comes with the unapologetic love for all of the Sam Adams seasonal varietals. And what’s not to love about a new beer for every season?
As we’ve discussed before, Berliner Weisse is a tart wheat beer that was popular in Germany up through the 19th century. Today this style is actually pretty rare, but Southern California’s The Bruery gives us a great example in the Hottenroth. This unusual breed is known for its tart flavor and is commonly served with a fruit syrup to add some sweet to the the sourness caused by fermentation processes or (as in most cases today) the addition of natural bacteria into the brew. Coming in at around 3.1%, this brew is pretty typical to its style – light, mild, tart, and refreshing.
Now that the warmer weather is finally here it’s a great time to start drinking wheat beers. The light, yet full-bodied flavor of most wheat brews make it the perfect way to chill out on a hot day. While most fans of craft beer are familiar with hefeweizen and other popular wheat styles, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of Berliner weisse, an oft over looked wheat beer. Today we take a quick look at this tasty brew.
Although Oktoberfest in Munich ended last Sunday, there’s no reason why we can’t continue to enjoy all the great Oktoberfest beer that’s produced every year. Today we’re going to take a look at the history and characteristics of this wonderful German style of beer.
Oktoberfest first took place on October 10, 1810 as a 16 day celebration of the marriage between Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. The main attraction for the 40,000 Bavarians at the festival wasn’t the beer but rather a horse race. Over the next few years, the attention shifted away from the horse race and wedding anniversary and toward a celebration of the fall harvest. When food and beer stands were introduced in 1818, this transition was complete, and the Oktoberfest as we know it was born. Since that time, Oktoberfest celebrations have spread to the rest of Germany, and today, Oktoberfest type celebrations are held throughout the world each fall.
Some brewers have a tendency to make whatever beer they want and call it “Oktoberfest,” but the real stuff has its roots in the strong traditions of German beer. Oktoberfest is usually brewed in the Marzen style, a beer brewed in the late spring for consumption over the hot summer months. A type of lager, Oktoberfest/Marzen typically has a copper to red color with a lightly malty or sweet taste. The hops are generally mild and take a backseat to the malts. These balanced qualities make Oktoberfest/Marzen the perfect brew for the fall. It’s right between the lighter summer styles and the heavier winter styles.
Sam Adams’ take on Oktoberfest is probably the most well known American version, but be sure to try some German varieties for something slightly more authentic. Paulaner, Spaten and Ayinger are three great German breweries who each make a mean Oktoberfest that’s slightly sweeter than Sam Adams.
What’s your favorite Oktoberfest beer? Let us know next time you have it by tweeting your beer and adding the ‘#mybeer’ hashtag.
A copy of the 1516 German beer purity law, the Reinheitsgebot
Today beer is commonly defined as containing four main ingredients: Water, barley, yeast and hops, but there are plenty of exceptions to this definition. There are the folks at Dogfish Head Brewery who have been known to throw everything from juniper to strawberries into their world class beers, and on the other end macro-brewers like Anheuser-Busch who use corn and rice to make their cheap lagers even cheaper. Despite these outliers beer has generally stuck to these basic four ingredients. Although there are many contributing factors, beer’s adherence to these rules can largely be traced back to the Reinheitsgebot, the German law enacted by Wilhelm IV of Bavaria on April 23, 1516 stating:
The only ingredients used for the brewing of beer must be barley, hops and water. Whosoever knowingly disregards or transgresses upon this ordinance, shall be punished by the Court authorities’ confiscating such barrels of beer, without fail.
The wording of this law of course omits the all-important ingredient of yeast, but that was because folks at the time weren’t aware of its existence. Yeast as well as wheat were later added to the list of acceptable ingredients and the law remained in effect until 1987. Because this rule applied to not only beer made in Germany but beer sold there as well the law ended up dictating the habits of brewers not just in Germany but all across Europe as no one wanted to be excluded from the profitable German market.
There were two main reasons for enacting this law. The first was an issue of health. Back in the 16th century much of the water available, especially in more urban areas, was not fit for drinking; beer was what folks drank morning, noon and night. With so many people relying on their daily share of beer for basic hydration, this law esured that the beer was made with only safe and trusted ingredients.
The second reason the purity law was put into effect was a matter of economics. The land’s barley fields were owned by the aristocrats of the land, and making it illegal to brew with anything else meant that the wealthy land owners were basically able to guarantee themselves a virtual monopoly on the grains bought for brewing.
Although the Reinheitsgebot certainly stifled a great deal of creativity among brewers it also ensured that beer would become a consistent and lasting part of Western culture, so in many ways it’s a mixed blessing, but one that I’ll toast to either way.
