At noon Saturday in Munich, Germany, the city’s Mayor, Dominik Krause, (at right in photo below), took a mere two hits to open the keg, cry, “O’zapft is!” (“It’s been tapped!”) and officially open Oktoberfest 2026, presenting the first beer to Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder (left). (These photos by Michael Nagy, Presseamt München.)
Of course, this followed a morning parade of brewers, brewery wagons, marching bands, waitresses—some 1,000 marchers and 50 floats—to the traditional Theresienwiese site for what is called the world’s largest folk festival. But why take my word for it?; there are a variety of Oktoberfest webcams that give eyewitness views of the doings (keeping in mind that Munich is six hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time).
I’ve written about Oktoberfest and its Märzen beer style plenty of times here at the website, tombedell.golf; here’s one representative example from ten years ago, “Beery Odes to Autumn.”
The quick review is that it all began in Munich in 1810 as a celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig I and Princess Therese. If called Oktoberfest, it takes place mostly in September, running for sixteen days until the first Sunday in October. The late beer writer Michael Jackson said everyone should go to Oktoberfest once, “And once may be enough.”
I’ve been to one wild German festival (a wine festival in name, but there was plenty of beer being served), but I’ve yet to make it to the big one. Bucket list.
This year is the 191st iteration of the annual beer and food orgy. At the 190th food sales were up (though roast chicken surprisingly outsells wursts) and a whopping 6.5 million liters of beer were consumed, or 13.7 million U.S. pints. Some 4,500 items wound up in the lost and found.
Oktoberfest, the beer, is actually a style called Märzen (or Vienna lager). In pre-refrigeration days of the mid-19th century Bavarian brewers began producing full-bodied, malty beers in March (Märzen) and then lagering them in cool caves until it was time to celebrate Oktoberfest. The style has existed ever since, an amber to darkish beer of moderate strength. That’s what you’re liable to find here, though I’ve heard that in Munich these days you’re more likely to run into a somewhat lighter in color Fest Bier.
Anyway, the bready malt aromas combined with crisp hop finishes make these beers one of my favorite styles. I rounded up a few that are now on the local market, shown here, three from Vermont, one from California, one from Munich—Paulaner, one of the six breweries allowed to serve at Oktoberfest (the others being Augustiner-Bräu, Hacker-Pschorr, Löwenbräu, Spaten and Staatliches Hofbräuhaus München).
A couple of later entries were the Samuel Adams Octoberfest and another Vermont entry, the Whetstone Beer Co.’s Leafen Peepen Oktoberfest. I didn’t take any deep tasting notes with these. I just enjoyed them, as should you.
As it has done for many years now, Sierra Nevada’s annual entry is a collaboration with a German brewery, this year with Hoppebräu in Waakirchen, about 50 km south of Munich. The collaboration comes complete with a video that sort of documents the endeavor. In lieu of a trip to Bavaria, it will do.
