First brewed at the Spaten brewery in Munich in 1841, Märzen (“March beer”) follows a long tradition of beers brewed to reflect or follow the changing seasons. On English country estates, for example, stronger ales called “March” and “October” beer were named after the months in which they were brewed. In Wallonia (a region situated in modern-day northern France and Belgium), Biere de Mars was brewed with the finest ingredients from the year’s harvest before brewing ceased for the winter and drank the following March. Märzen was created in exactly the opposite way: brewed in March to be lagered over the summer and drank in the cool fall.

Before commercial refrigeration was implemented in brewing (Spaten was the first in 1873), brewers had various ingenious ways of keeping beer cold for lagering, just one of which was a structure built to hold a block of ice one floor above barrelled beer which was kept at the desired temperature by surrounding ductwork that the brewers could manipulate with gates. While the brewers at Spaten likely had similar methods to artificially cool lagering beer, one of the earliest (and easiest) ways to accomplish this was to make stronger beer–which needs to lager longer–in March that would lager in cool cellars over the summer so that it was ready in the cooler fall months. Tradition may also have played a role in this style’s creation. Of the many laws and taxes that shaped brewing practices, an edict from 1553 prohibited brewing between April 24 and September 28. If brewers wanted a stronger beer to be ready for the fall, but also wanted it to lager for a lengthy period, they needed to brew it before the ban kicked in.

Märzen is probably best known to Americans as the beer often labeled “Oktoberfest.” While that was true for over a century–it was first served at the fairgrounds in Munich in 1873–the official beer at Oktoberfest now is Festbier, a lighter-colored cousin of Märzen. Here in the states, craft brewers often still have an “Oktoberfest” offering in the fall months that usually fits in the Märzen style range (but we like to think of it as a year-round brew).