Tucher Festbier

Festbier is a great example of a festbier. It is brewed to celebrate Fruhlingsfest and may be available year-round.

Brewer's Notes: I could not find this beer on the brewer's web page. The following quote is from Beeradvocate. I think BA took it from the brewer.

To many, the festbiers of Bavaria are a liquid voyage to the tents of Oktoberfest. For Tucher, nestled in its home in northern Bavaria and out of reach of the festivals that overtake Munich’s fairgrounds each fall, the focus is on Fruhlingsfest and celebrating the end of the cold winter months. As such, this festbier is brewed as a fuller-bodied helles lager with a slightly louder presence of old world hops instead of a marzen and is available to festivals year-round!

Tasting Notes
20260414: I think that my four-pack is almost a year old. I want a fresh one!

20260327: I drank the second can after drinking a can of Surly Hell. Hell is good. Festbier is better. I has more flavor and complexity. 

On my bike ride a day after writing the review, I kept thinking about the beer and how good it and Surly Hell are. I am upgrading the rating.

Rating: 6 glasses

20260326: I drank the first can in a four-pack. I drank at least two four-packs back in the fall during Oktoberfest time but must have failed to write a review then. I really liked it and followed the first four-pack with at least one more.

The beer did not disappoint. As in the brewer's description, it is a full-bodied Helles. It is quaffable. It has a tiche of sweet. It has flavor but is not big or heavy. It is just what you want in a Festbier. It may become a regular visitor to my "cellar".

Old rating: 5.5 glasses

Weihenstephaner Festbier

 

Brewer's Notes: A full rich bodied, hoppy, seasonal lager. Especially brewed for the Festbier season. This beer truly represents the Bavarian way of celebrating. Deep gold color, great mouth-feel and lots of flavor. Prost! 

BeerAdvocate

Festbier v. Märzen

Tasting Notes

August 2023

Nov 2022

I am updating the rating. I went back to buy more and keep liking it more and more.

Rating = 5.5 glasses

02 Oct 2022

I am back to really liking the beer. It drinks easy and goes great with food. One bottle calls for another.

Rating = 5 glasses and I thought about 5.5

10 Oct. 2020

With more tastes, I am downgrading the rating to 4 glasses. 

Rating = 4 glasses.

05 Oct. 2020

Festbier is a great Oktoberfest beer. It is light enough to encourage drinking massive quantities and flavorful enough to enjoy every sip and gulp. The more I drink Oktoberfest beers, the more I appreciate ones that are more delicate and quaffable. Festbier fits the bill. 

I like it better than the raters on BeerAdvocate. Some of them complain that the beer is more a Helles or Pilsner than an Oktoberfest beer. I call it good.

Rating = 5 glasses.

Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest (2025)

Brewer's Notes: Our authentic Oktoberfest is a collaboration with Störtebeker, an award-winning German brewer internationally recognized for quality and innovation.

This modern Festbier leans into a rich, smooth malt backbone with notes of fresh-baked bread and honey. Traditional German hops provide balanced bitterness and herbal-spicy aroma, rounding out the crisp, clean finish. Prost!

Malts: Bonlander, Caramel Munich, Pale, Pilsner
Hops: Opal, Perle, Spalter Select, Tradition

Beer Advocate

Tasting Notes

Sept. 2025

I have been tasting this festbier, Weihenstephaner Festbier, Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen, and Tucher Festbier. While I like this beer, I like it the least of the four. It lacks complexity.

Rating: 5 glasses

Aug. 2025: A wonderful festbier. A nice sweetness balanced by hops. Easy to drink and I want more.

Rating: 5.5 glasses

Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen

Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen is an easy-drinking and flavorful Märzen. It is currently my favorite beer of the style. It combines a robust flavor with quaffability. 

Brewer's Notes: Forbidden as it was to brew in summer, a stronger beer – the Märzen – was brewed earlier in March. It would finally be served at the Oktoberfest, under the “Heaven of Bavaria”. We have returned once again to the age-old recipe and recreated that gloriously smooth, honey-coloured piece of history from times gone by. And all is brewed with due reverence to the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516.

BeerAdvocate

Tasting Notes
Sept. 2025: I have been tasting this festbier, Weihenstephaner Festbier, Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest (2025), and Tucher Festbier. I like this beer and Tucher Festbier the best. It is malty (but not too much), flavorful, quaffable, easy-drinking, and complex.

Rating: 6 glasses

Aug. 2025: A delightful Oktoberfest. An Uber lager.

September 2023: I have been drinking this beer for a while but failed to write a review. The more I drink it, the more I like it. It is a titch less malty and more quaffable than Great Lakes. Has more bready malts and hops than a "lager" beer.

Rating = 5.5 glasses

Great Lakes Oktoberfest

Great Lakes Oktoberfest is a delightful Märzen-style oktoberfest. 

Brewer's notes: Prost! Our take on this classic German style is a celebration of maltiness— packed with rustic, autumnal flavors to put a little more oomph into your oom-pah-pah.

Über smooth with vibrant malt flavors and a festive flourish of noble hops (lederhosen not included).

World Beer Championships
4-Time Medal Winner (Gold, Silver

Beeradvocate

Tasting Notes

Aug. 2025: A tiche too malty. I like Hacker-Pschorr's version is better.

Rating = 4.5 glasses

Oct 2023: Liking it better and upgraded the rating. A tiche malty but not overbearing.

Rating = 5 glasses

Sept 2023: I am liking this beer less - too malty - and think Hacker-Pschorr's version is better.

Rating = 4.5

Aug 27, 2023

I had the first of a six pack last night. My preference for Oktoberfest beers is increasing and this one is my current favorite of the Märzen style. The flavor combines toasty malts with some spicy hops. The beer has flavor and is made to drink in quantity.

Rating = 5.5 glasses. (Downgraded to 6 in 2022, to 5.5 in 2023)

Aug 25, 2019

Last night I drank a Great Lakes Oktoberfest. It is delightful. Extremely quaffable with a nice toasty malt flavor. The first one calls for a second. Maybe the perfect beer when you want to drink beer. It fits perfectly the line from an old ad for Schaefer, "The one beer to have when you're having more than one."

Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest Festbier (2023)

Brewer's Notes: This collab with Kehrwieder is 20 years in the making, back when our brewmasters were classmates in Berlin. Today, Kehrwieder is turning German-style craft beer on its head - just like we did stateside - and out mutual passion is fused in this Festbier that's bright like polished copper, rich with biscuity malts, and balanced with a punchy blend of German and American hops.

BeerAdvocate

Festbier v. Märzen

Tasting Notes
Oct 2023: I am liking the beer more and more. I titch malty for a festbier but still quite quaffable.

Rating = 5 glasses

August 2023: I was surprised to see Oktoberfest beers on the shelved of Total Wine at the end of July. I figured I should buy some immediately to get stuff that is fresh. I picked up a six-pack of Weihenstepaner Festbier and the 2023 release from Sierra Nevada. This year's version from SN is bold and hoppy for a Festbier IMO. I think it is more a Märzen. I was not impressed by my first can but enjoyed the second (different night). The second can was flavorful and easy to drink.

Rating: 4 glasses. The rating may climb as I drink more of the six-pack and other Oktoberfests.

3 Floyds Munsterfest

Brewer's Notes: A Märzen-style fest bier brewed with the finest German malted barley, aromatic Bavarian noble hops and traditional lager yeast. This rich, malty lager is one of the few that remain true to the tradition of fest beers originally brewed to honor the marriage of Prince Ludwig in 1810. We hope you enjoy this fall offering. Es ist nicht normal!

BeerAdvocate

Tasting Notes
September 2023: I did not finish the second bottle. I think that the problem is that the beer is too sweet and too malty. The taste is what I imagine a sweet Scotch ale would have. Maybe I will use the last four bottles to make beer biscuits.

Rating: 0 glasses

September 2023: I bought this on a whim because I generally like beers from Three Floyds. They missed on this one. I taste bread, toast, honey, and apple. The body is thin. 

Rating = 1 glass

Festbier v. Märzen

I have sampled several Oktoberfest beers recently and think that I have figured out the difference between Festbier and Märzen. Festbier ressembles an Imperial Helles. Märzen ressembles a hoppy Scotish Ale with a clean lager finish and a malty flavor that accentuates toast or biscuit rather than barley or peat. Festbier is lighter, more quaffable, and simpler. Weihenstephaner Festbier is a great example of Festbier and Great Lakes Oktoberfest is a great example of Märzen. What BeerAdvocate says about the two styles follows below.

BeerAdvocate
Festbier is the modern day "Oktoberfestbier" that's served at the official Oktoberfest in Germany, as governed by the Munich city committee. Traditionally, the majority of the beer served was the dark, rich Märzen lagers that we've all come to love and associate with Oktoberfest, but that hasn't been the case since the 1990s. Now, it's all about Festbier, which is a bright and golden beer that's akin to an export-style (slightly stronger and maltier) Helles lager. Paulaner Brauerei is credited with creating the style back in the mid-1970s. According to many sources, their brewmaster wanted to give the people something "more poundable." Gotta love that.

Drinkers can expect Festbiers to showcase a clean, but strong malty backbone, light hop profile, and incredible drinkability.

And you might see the style referred to as Wiesnbier, Wies'n, or Wiesn. The latter is what locals in Munich call Oktoberfest, based on Theresienwiese, which is the meadow/fairgrounds where it's hosted. This is not to be confused with Weissbier, Weißbier, or Weizenbier (wheat beer).

BeerAdvocate

Märzenbier ranges from dark amber to deep copper in color. It's a full-bodied lager that's rich, malty (toasty, bready, biscuity, caramel, roasty), moderately hopped (floral, spicy, herbal), and finishes clean and dry like a good lager should. Alcohol can bite and warm a bit, but overall should be tame.

Historically, Märzen (March in German) was brewed in the spring, lagered in caves (stored cold) during the summer months, and served in the fall. From 1872 to the 1990s, the style was served at, and widely associated with, Oktoberfest in Munich until the lighter Festbier became popular and adopted as the official Oktoberfestbier. That said, brewers around the world still brew "Oktoberfest" and "Fest" beers that lean toward the Märzen style.

Spaten Oktoberfestbier Ur-Märzen

Festbier v. Märzen

02 Oct. 2020

After drinking this and Weihenstephaner I have decided that Spaten is a titch too heavy and lacks complexity. Rating of 4 glasses is perfect.

23 Sept. 2020

Oktoberfestbier Ur-Märzen is a delightful Oktoberfest. Easy, easy drinking. A nice example of what folks in Munich are drinking as I write. Spaten is one of six official brewers at Oktoberfest.

I like it better than the raters @ BeerAdvocate.

Rating = (at least) 4 glasses.

Ayinger Oktober Fest-Märzen

Festbier v. Märzen

Oktober Fest-Märzen is a delightful Oktoberfest. Easy drinking AND flavorful. Toasty + subtle hop bite.

BeerAdvocate loves it. It is the 4th highest rated Oktoberfest and "Outstanding".

Rating = 5 glasses. This is an upgrade from my previous review.

Devil's Backbone O-fest

Festbier v. Märzen

A decent Oktoberfest. A titch tinny. Had one on draft at Post Bellum. Liked it enough to have another

Rating = 2 glasses.

Oktober Fest-Märzen

Brewer: Ayinger

Style: Oktoberfest

Tasting notes: (1010) Lightly buttered toast. A good example of the style but Brooklyn is more quaffable.

Rating: 4 glasses

Joseph Brau Oktoberfest

Brewer: Trader Joe's

Style: Oktoberfest

Tasting notes: (1010) Downgraded from 3 glasses. (1010) Toasty, easy drinking, and cheap.

Comment: A contract brew.

Previous Ratings: 3 glasses

Rating: 2 glasses

Octoberfest

Brewer: Legend

Style: Oktoberfest

Tasting notes: (1009) Butter on burnt toast. Missed my mark.

Rating: 0 glasses

Octoberfest

Brewer: Bells

Style: Oktoberfest


Tasting notes: (1009) On draft @ Caliente's. Some caramel malt, some toast, some hop. Easy drinking.


Rating: 4 glasses

Oktoberfest Beer

Brewer: Brooklyn

Style: Oktoberfest

Tasting notes: (1008) Made for drinking. Thinking about 6 glasses. (1008) A definite 5. (1008) Buttered toast. May rate 4 glasses but left the rating @ 5 because it is my favorite example of the style and something I want to buy each year. (0809) Toasty with hops to balance. Flavorful and easy drinking. I should get another 6-pack next year. Torn between a 4 and a 5 rating.

Rating: 5 glasses

Octoberfest

Brewer: Samuel Adams

Style: Octoberfest

Tasting notes: (0910) A freebie @ a reception. Some interesting flavor. A tiche metalic. I moved to water after one bottle but would have been happy to have another freebie if not driving and "saving room" for better beers later that night. (0810) A glass @ Home Team Sports. Nice but a tiche watery. May rate 3 glasses.

Rating: 2 glasses