Festbier Follows the Munich Fairgrounds, Not the Marzen

Guggman Haus has called its Festbier a modern one, and the adjective is load-bearing. The Indianapolis brewery is pouring it now as part of its own Oktoberfest, and the beer it is aiming at is the one currently served at the Munich fairgrounds rather than the darker lager many American drinkers still expect in September.

That distinction is the reason the word is there at all. Oktoberfest long meant Marzen, an amber beer with real caramel weight to it. The pale gold version poured on the Wiesn today came later, and it is what the large Munich houses have been serving for a long stretch now. Guggman Haus has gone after the second one.

The grist follows suit. It is Pilsner and Vienna malt, and the brewery credits that pair with the beer's grainy sweetness. Vienna malt is kilned a shade further than Pilsner malt, which adds a light toasted depth without dragging the color toward amber. That is the usual way to keep a Festbier gold and still give it something underneath to stand on.

Hallertau Mittelfruh does the hopping. It is the same noble variety Guggman Haus used in Odenwald, the German pilsner it put out the week before, and here the brewery describes light bready and sweet floral notes over a finish it calls smooth and crisp.

At 5.6 percent, the beer sits about where a Festbier is supposed to sit. That is a step up from a helles and a step down from a Marzen, which is the practical point of the style: strong enough to feel like an occasion, restrained enough to last one.

The Festbier is on tap now as part of the brewery's Oktoberfest celebration.