Oktoberfest Ur-Märzen - Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu, Munich

I'm not real sure about this beer... Spaten is a brand I don't drink too often and I've never really been able to explain why in a meaningful way. I don't hate Spaten, but I don't love their beers either. Generally speaking, their beers are about 80% of the way there. They taste vaguely German, kinda how unsauced sweet and sour chicken pieces taste vaguely like chicken nuggets. All of the ingredients are there but something's just... off. Spaten's Oktoberfest plays right into all of my preconceived notions of what a Spaten is, or isn't. This beer follows the Oktoberfest archetype pretty well, it looks and smells like a Märzen style beer. It tastes, however, like someone was meaning to make an Oktoberfest but cut as many corners as possible to do it.

Spaten's Oktoberfest isn't a horrible beer, not by any means. It just isn't up to par with other traditional Märzen style beers. This beer tastes a little too bitter, a little too thin and a little over filtered. What this beer does right is the salty and grainy oat flavor that feels warm on the palate. This beer's aroma is its best characteristic, it smells like a beer that has been brewed with the same four ingredients for several hundred years. In short, it smells like what you'd expect a proud German Oktoberfest beer to smell like. Even if everything else is a bit of a disappointment, if Spaten is the best you can do when Oktoberfest rolls around, you'll have a good time.