Beer Spotlight!

Spaten Oktoberfest

Normally $12.99 / Now on Sale for $11.96
Märzen Lager

Oktoberfest began this past Saturday! So this week begins our spotlights on our Oktoberfest beers! We’ll start with what, in our hearts, is the kaiser of Oktoberfest breweries.

Spaten-Franziskaner Brewery has been making beers in Munich under different names and different owners for hundreds of years. By 1807 (some 300 to 600 years into its history, depending on when you start counting), it was the smallest brewery in Munich. That’s when royal court brewer Gabriel Sedlmayr purchased it and started a dynastic run that would see Spaten become Munich’s largest at the end of the 19th century and the only German brewery to receive a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris. (Those are his initials with the spade in Spaten’s logo — “spaten” is German for “spade.”)

(Of course, Charlottesville old-timers will better value its local distinction of holding a tap at Court Square Tavern for decades. ;) )

Today, Spaten-Franziskaner is one of the official six breweries at Oktoberfest in Munich, and it’s just not Oktoberfest for us if we don’t have Spaten in the shop. (What are the others? Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Löwenbräu, and Paulaner.)

The things that always surprise us about the Spaten Oktoberfest are, one, it’s always lighter-bodied than we remembered, and two, there’s almost a fruitiness to it, a cherry note that regally presents itself before discreetly bowing out flanked by spicy hops at the finish. Fortunately, it’s the best kind of party crasher — the one that makes the affair more interesting and is missed when it’s gone.

Remember!

You can see our entire beer inventory on Untappd.com!