Oktoberfest 2023: Ein Prosit, Oans, Zwoa, Drei, Gsuffa! The Beers of Oktoberfest

 ‘A toast, one, two, three, drink!’

I don’t like horses, but I can make an exception if they are delivering beer.

When you think about beer festivals, you think about how many different types of beer from a large number of breweries are available to you. However, the World’s most famous beer festival features beers from a total of six breweries, who supply roughly two styles of beer. Yep, six breweries. But this isn’t an issue, it’s tradition. The six breweries in question are Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Löwenbrau, Paulaner and Spaten-Franziskaner. Each year these Munich titans brew a special Festbier/Marzen for the festival. In simple terms it’s a stronger Helles beer, around 6% ABV. Don’t call it lager! There’s no such thing as lager… another time Dan. Each brewery follows ‘Reinheitsgebot’ aka German Purity Law. Written in 1516, this law states that beer can only be made from water, malted barely, hops and yeast. Don’t be fooled into thinking this means the beer is boring or bland, I argue it’s quite the opposite. Out of the over 6000 beers I’ve tried, the Oktoberfest beers are some of my favourites. Weiss beers from some of the big six breweries are available at Oktoberfest, but only in certain drinking areas. In the lager tents all the beer is sold in litre maß, a glass stein. In some of the smaller tents you can get beer in 0.5l servings. 

Speaking of drinking areas, Oktoberfest isn’t like the other German fair I’ve been to, you can only drink in designated areas. I’m going to talk you through the tents I visited at this year’s Oktoberfest and write about the beers available. I must confess, I’m not one to be in the centre of the party. Most of the time spent inside big tents was either on the periphery inside or outside in the beer garden. We were spoilt by the weather. Let’s get to it!

Ochsenbraterei

A large tent serving Spaten beer and featuring oxen on the menu, this was the first tent my friends and I visited this year. We sat in the beer garden, enjoyed the beer and watched the world go by.

I was pleasantly surprised by Spaten’s effort this year. In previous years I rated them as a mid tier option, but this year they were one of my favourites. The beer was everything I want from a Festbier, cold, crisp, strong and refreshing. It was a strong start to our visit to this year’s festival. 

Zierers Karussellbar:

A small Hofbräu tent themed to a carousel, it sadly wasn’t spinning when we were drinking there! Here you’ll find Hofbräu’s Weisse beer, served in 0.5L bottles. Weiss is a style I personally find quite hit and miss. This was certainly one of the better Weiss beers I’ve had. It was smooth in taste with a nice banana aftertaste. 

Museumszelt 

Situated in the Oide Wiesn area of the festival, this tent is actually inside of the museum. As with all of the tents in Oide Wiesn, the beer is served in ceramic steins. We opted for Franziskaner Weissbier Dunkle, a dark weisse beer. It was served from a bottle rather than draught. Not the best beer of the trip, but it accompanied my pretzel well. 

Kubler’s Bierstuberi

My least favourite place of the trip. This is one of the tiny outdoor bars. I had the Paulaner Weißbier Dunkel and it wasn’t great. This place is also right next to the bird whistle stand, which doesn’t get annoying at all. Disappointment all round.

Hofbräu Festzelt

The Wiesn’s largest tent, which is modelled after The Hofbräuhaus in Munich. We opted to sit in the beer garden here. 

The tent itself was rammed, but you could still enjoy the music from beer garden! The beer itself was my second favourite that I had at the festival. Crisp with a nice hopped taste is how I would describe it. A side note, the chicken here was very tasty! 

Fisch-Bäda

 

Fish tent on the inside, nice small beer garden on the outside. We stumped across this by chance, sort of. Firstly it was near Alpina Bahn and secondly it serves Hacker-Pschorr, which I had not had on this trip yet. 

Looking the part

We aimed to have a 0.5L here, which the person serving at the bar said they served, however we ended up with an accidental maß! Forced to drink a litre of delicious beer, it is a hard life. The beer was slightly darker in colour than the others. It had a lovely malty taste, which made it my favourite of the festival! 

Feisinger’s Kas und Weinstub’n

A place we discovered last year that remains a firm lunch favourite. Affectionally known as the cheese tent for obvious reasons, this is one of my fave tents for also very obvious reasons. 

One man band bringing the bangers out

Beer option is Franziskaner Weissbier. In my opinion the weakest of the Weiss beers on offer, but this tent is all about cheesy food! 

Cheesy potato salad!

Weinzelt

I know what you’re thinking, wine tent?! Yep, wine tent. Now I don’t drink wine, but this tent was fun! 

 Now this was to be our last drink at Oktoberfest 2023, sad face. We both swerved the wine and had Paulaner Weissbier. Probably my second favourite Weissbier of the trip, I remember it tasting so fresh. We sat upstairs in the Weinzelt and enjoyed the music. It was a fitting end to a brilliant trip. 

Plans are already in motion to return next year and I look forward to trying some new tents! 

Prost!