Maltgarden Bavarian Culture

by Browar Maltgarden

Oktoberfest originated in 1810 when King Ludwig basically organised a massive party for the city of Munich to celebrate his marriage.  It is held annually and gets bigger every year, and while many attendees may have no knowledge of the origins of the festival one thing that all look forward to are the Oktoberfest beers.

These ‘festbiers’ are made by one of the big six Munich breweries, to be served on the grounds of the Oktoberfest.  Only these six beers can be called traditional festbiers – all others must be noted as ‘fest-style’ beers, as is this one.

The fest beers are normally brewed in spring (hence the style name “Marzen’ meaning March) and allowed to lager through the summer months.  It is this extended lagering process, which is said to give the beers a rich, smooth malty body.

Slightly darker in colour to a standard lager, these amber lagers are also a little sweeter from the malt with a hoppy bitter finish.

Our beer is slightly lighter in colour than a Marzen, but definitely darker than a standard lager.  The early malt sweetness is there with a bready malt backbone with the earthy and slightly herbal hop bitterness joining mid-palate.  It finishes with a nice little spicy prickle and a dry and moderately bitter aftertaste.  And all too quickly – you can see why they serve this style of beer in steins!

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