Name: Marzen
Brand: Abandoned Rail Brewing Co.
Availability: InStock

Two medallions are printed on the front of the can, just under the name. British Columbia Beer Awards, first place, 2022. British Columbia Beer Awards, second place, 2023. Abandoned Rail Brewing Co. opened in March of 2022, which makes that a fairly brisk start.

The beer is back for the season. Abandoned Rail describes Marzen as a full bodied, copper colored Bavarian lager with caramel, light hop notes and a warm, toasty finish. The can says much the same thing in fewer words: traditionally brewed, malt forward, lightly hopped, toasty. It runs 5.7 percent ABV and 22 IBU. That second number is the one worth pausing on. Twenty-two is about as far into the background as hops can retreat in a beer of this size.

Which puts the whole burden on the grain, and that is where this particular brewery has an unusual advantage. Abandoned Rail farms five acres of barley on site at its Naramata Bench property, and calls itself one of only a handful of farm breweries in the province. The brewery is family owned and operated by Nicole and Scott Breier, who opened it alongside Peter Schulz, a certified German brewmaster. A Bavarian lager built almost entirely out of malt is a reasonable thing for that particular combination of people to be good at.

The style name is a piece of scheduling. Marzen means March, and it refers to the last month Bavarian brewers could work before warm weather made summer brewing impractical. Those March batches were made a little stronger, cellared through the hot months, and drunk down in the autumn to make room for the new brewing year. Oktoberfest inherited the beer along with the calendar.

That calendar is now in motion. Munich's Oktoberfest runs September 19 through October 4 this year, its 191st edition. Abandoned Rail holds its own version at the brewery on Saturday, September 26, with stein holding, a keg toss, German-inspired food, and a limited Oktoberfest beer of its own. The kitchen is running a pretzel alongside the Marzen for the duration.

Marzen is pouring now at the Penticton taproom in 8 and 16 ounce servings, with four-packs to go.

Editor’s Take

Twenty-two IBU. That is the entire hop contribution here, and I raise it not as a complaint but as a job description. Strip the hops back that far and what is left standing is barley, water, yeast, and whatever the brewer has decided toasty ought to mean. Abandoned Rail grows five acres of that barley in the ground the taproom sits on, which turns the usual farm-to-glass gesture into something with actual consequences. The field is the flavour.

Then there is the name, which is simply the German word for March, because March was the last month Bavarians were allowed to brew before the summer shut them down. A beer named after a deadline. The brewery, as it happens, opened its doors in March as well. I would like to believe that was deliberate. I strongly suspect it was not, and I find I enjoy it considerably more that way.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

Marzen Leans Entirely on Malt, and the Barley Grows on Site

Abandoned Rail's Marzen is back for Oktoberfest season at 5.7 percent and 22 IBU. In a malt-forward lager the grain does nearly all of the work, and this brewery grows five acres of its own barley.

Source & Editorial