Ein Märzen im Februar

One of the many corners of the world that has escaped the clutches of the modern craft beer movement is Munich's Oktoberfest - or Wiesn to the locals. The inverse is of course not true - modern breweries around the world capitalise on the annual event with artisan takes on any beer with an umlaut in its name, much to my benefit.

Munich doesn't have a huge number of crafty bottle shops to begin with, but once you hit those fair grounds, your beverage options become rather limited. If you made your September pilgrimmage to Munich sometime in the last twenty years, you were more than likely lifting (and drinking) Festbier. A golden lager with a balanced hop-malt profile that varies in alcohol from tent to tent but tends to hover around 6% ABV.

But Festbier hasn't always been the drink of Oktoberfest. If you were lucky enough to visit in the 20th century, you might have been drinking what's called a Märzen - an amber lager with a bit more malt and a bit less hop. Creatively named after the month it was brewed, the fermented liquid would be lagered for six months before it finally made it into your Maß.

I've applied a similar principle to the Cloudwater X Beer Kulture Märzen I'm trying today. Only instead of lagering it for six months, I've left it forgotten in my cellar for about as much time.

Cloudwater w/ Beer Kulture | Märzen

^{Alc 5.0% | Canned on 15.10.2020}

Colour

Deep Amber

Nose

Werther's Originals, butterscotch ice cream, generic sweets.

Mouth

Malt driven - it'll be the first and last thing you taste - but not in an overbearing way. Think crackers for cheese before putting on the cheese. There's some hop bitterness trying to break through at the halfway mark which keeps the malt ride from being too sweet.

7/10

This was quite a good representation of the style. I don't feel too bad leaving it for this long - the hop is supposed to bring biterness, not aroma or character. That said, I can't imagine drinking more than a can, let alone an entire stein of the stuff. I bet Oktoberfest in the 80s would have been a sight to see, but I'm glad the "Märzen at Oktoberfest" period has passed.

jay