Märzen

What is Märzen?

Märzen is a lager beer originating in the Bavarian region of Germany. It is also known as the Oktoberfest beer. The beer is named after the month of March as it was originally brewed in March.

Märzen is a malty beer with medium bitterness and a slightly bready aroma and taste. Stylistically, it is very similar to Vienna lager but with a somewhat sweeter aftertaste.

Origin Story

Märzen beer’s origins date back to 16th-century Bavaria. According to the beer regulations of 1553, brewing was prohibited in Bavaria between 23 April (St. George’s Day) and 29 September due to the high risk of spoilage in warmer weather.

Therefore, märzen beers were brewed slightly stronger than usual to better preserve them. Throughout the summer, they were stored in cool cellars and mountain caves filled with ice collected during the winter. All stocks of beer had to be consumed by October to make room in the ice cellars for new production as brewing resumed at the beginning of October. Consequently, märzen was offered at Oktoberfest celebrations.

Originally, it was a dark lager because the malting technology (direct heat) of the time only allowed for the production of dark beers.

However, märzen became an official beer style only in 1841 when Spaten Brewery in Munich introduced the first officially labelled märzenbier at that year’s Oktoberfest. 

The owner of Spaten Brewery, Gabriel Sedlmayr, travelled to England with Viennese brewmaster Anton Dreher to improve his brewing skills. As a result of this trip, he developed Munich malt and a more stable and complete märzenbier. Meanwhile, Dreher developed Viennese malt and Vienna lager. Therefore, these two beers are very similar.

In 1872, Spaten Brewery first used the term ‘Oktoberfestbier’ for märzen-style beer brewed specifically for that year’s Oktoberfest. Today, only six breweries in Germany – Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräuhaus, Löwenbräu, Paulaner, and Spaten – are allowed to use the name Oktoberfestbier and serve their beer at the Munich Oktoberfest. All other breweries use the term märzen for their Oktoberfest-style beers.