| Location: | European |
|---|---|
| Category: | Lager |
| BJCP Comparable Category: | 6A - Märzen |
Beer Style Description
This is the description of how the German-Style Maerzen style of beer should taste, feel and look. However, there may be perfectly fine beers in this style that fall outside of these ranges and descriptions. This information is just to show the most commonly accepted ranges for the German-Style Maerzen beer style.
- Color: Pale to reddish-brown
- Body: Medium
- Malt Flavors & Aromas: Bready or biscuity malt aroma and flavor should be present. Sweet maltiness is medium-low to medium and leads to a muted clean hop bitterness. Malt flavors should be of light toast rather than strong caramel. Low level caramel character is acceptable.
- Hop Flavors & Aromas: Low with attributes typical of noble hop varieties
- IBUs/Bitterness: Medium-low to medium
- Fermentation Characteristics: Fruity esters and diacetyl should not be present
- Common Ingredients: Grist varies, although traditional German versions emphasized Munich malt. The notion of elegance is derived from the finest quality ingredients, particularly the base malts. A decoction mash was traditionally used to develop the rich malt profile.
- Commercial Examples: Buergerliches Ur-Saalfelder, Hacker-Pschorr Original Oktoberfest, Paulaner Oktoberfest, Weltenburg Kloster Anno 1050
Brewing Properties of German-Style Maerzen
These are the functional brewing properties of German-Style Maerzen beers, as descided by the Brewers Association. These guidelines reflect, as accurately as possible, the historical significance, authenticity or a common profile in the current commercial beer market.
| ABV The alcohol by volume is shows the amount of alcohol this style of beer should have. | 5.1 - 6.0% |
|---|---|
| Bitterness The International Bittering Units (IBU) scale is used to approximately quantify the actual (not perceived) bitterness of beer. | 18 - 25 IBUs | SRM SRM is a scale for measuring the color intensity of a beer. Low SRM grains impart a pale straw color while higher values mean it will add a darker color to the wort. Learn more » | – 4 - 15 SRM(8 - 30 EBC) |
| Original Gravity Original Gravity (OG) is a measure of the sugar content in the wort before alcoholic fermentation has started to produce the beer. | 1.050 - 1.060 |
| Final Gravity The Final Gravity (FG) is how much sugar is left over in the beer when fermentation is complete. | 1.012 - 1.020 |
If you see an error in our data, please let us know!
Based on Brewers Association 2020 Beer Style Guidelines with changes. Used with permission of Brewer's Association.
