For the past few years I’ve taken on the challenge of determining what my favorite Oktoberfest/Märzen bier for the year is. Most of those past years I’ve focused on the German big three — Späten, Paulaner, and Hacker-Pschorr, but this year thanks to Max’s German Beer Fest, and a better understanding of what’s going on, I’ve come to some new conclusions. I know more about the beer this year than I did in the past — yes — but the real proof with this ranking still comes down to my preference even if I’m doing my best to judge things all BJCP-style.
The rankings for 2009:
While definitely NOT purely BJCP, Kantian “subjective but universal” judging style, the below is what I think is a fairly good representation of the best Oktoberfest beers I tried this year. I’d bought a bevy of American Oktoberfests before my in-laws’ fire, but lost them all when the house went up, so that section is a little less thorough. If I find one that I think is amazing, I’ll update that section later. (more…)
I got to brew my favorite beer with