Bayern Brewing - Merchandise

Issue Six

Bayern Amber: A Very Special Märzenbier
Over the years, Bayern Amber has become Montana's favorite American Amber Lager and our favorite all-around beer as well. Lately, people are asking us about our best-known beer, Bayern Amber. They want to know where it came from and the story behind this very special Märzenbier. As we talked about in our Maibock issue earlier this year, large-scale brewing was first conducted by the Benedictine monks in the 8th century and their beer was simply called Braunbier (brown beer) or just "strong beer". This original braunbier remained the standard beer in Bavaria until the 1750s. There were other beers derived from it; "bockbeer" in the 13th century and dark doppelbock in 1565. People wanted a lighter lager beer. This new lighter beer was called "Märzenbier" (the beer of March). Märzenbier was brewed every year until the end of March or early April, depending on wether or not there was enough ice left in the lager cellars from winter.

Artificial cooling wasn't invented until the late 19th century when Gabriel Sedlmayer, the owner of Spatenbräu in Munich, used Karl Lindes' principle of artificial cooling for the first time commercially. Before that, the last lager beer was usually consumed by mid-June and wheat beer took its place until the lakes had ice again for cooling.

In the 1750s, Märzenbier became the new mainstream Bavarian beer and the Austrians called it Vienna bier. They also called the Munich-style malt, which plays a significant role in this type of beer, Vienna malt. However, both beers and malts are essentially the same.

The invention of Pilsener in 1842 and also the light-colored Dortmunder-style beer shortly after did not affect the popularity of Märzenbier in Bavaria and Austria at all. The hard water in Bavaria and Austria didn't allow light-colored beer to be brewed yet.

During WWI & WWII, there was a shortage of brewing barley and hops and the Bavarian brewers were forced to come up with a lighter beer which was then called "Helles" (light). This beer was still a lot darker than Pilsener or Dortmunder but not as dark and strong as the old Märzenbier. People were poor during and after the war and Helles was cheaper than Märzen so Helles became the new standard and Märzenbier became now the "Festbier" in general and eventually even replaced the originally dark Oktoberfestbier. The strength of the "new" Oktoberfestbier remained unchanged (13.5 - 14.0 Plato o.g. = 5.3 - 6.0% Alc.vol.) just like the old Oktoberfestbier from 1815, only the color changed to the same as Märzenbier.

In 1987, Jürgen Knöller became master brewer of the newly founded Bayern Brewing Company in Missoula when micro-brewed beers were barely known in Montana. In his initial job interview, while still in Munich, Jürgen wanted to know what type of beer people would expect from a German-run micro brewery in Montana. The answer was vague. His former boss, Reinhard Schulte, who had lived in Montana for a number of years, put it in the following words "Montanans want a beer to be darker than domestic beers but not too dark and hoppier than domestic beers but not too much." The only beer that somewhat resembled those specifications in 1987 was Anchor Steam out of San Francisco and Samuel Adams from Boston. Another beer like that was not available and Jürgen had to make up his mind about what to brew. He did not want to brew a beer similar to Anchor because it was not brewed like a German lager. He wanted his beer to be darker than Anchor with less of an ale taste and less of the fruity fermentation by products, due to an ale's higher fermentation temperatures and shorter maturation time. Sam Adams had a more pronounced lager character and he liked the color of it. But for his taste, this beer was still too rough and not as refined as a German Märzen. Jürgen finally decided to brew a German Märzen in Pilsener manner and Bayern Amber was born, or as Jürgen called it secretively, "Märzen Pilsener".

He used the same types and quantities of malted barley that are used in a German Märzenbier, which was a 2-row pale, Munich & Carmel malt. This gave Bayern Amber a starting gravity of 13.3% Plato and an alcohol content of 5.3% vol. Jürgen was fortunate to have soft water available for brewing and this allowed him to apply the same temperatures in the mashing process as used for a Pilsener beer. In combination with Hallertauer Perle hops from Germany and Saaz hops from the Czech Republic. Bayern Amber received a final bitterness of 28 EBUs (European Bitter Units), which is at the lower end of Pilsener hopping scale in Germany (28-34 EBU). And voila, here it was: an American amber lager made according to German standards, born out of being a hybrid between the classic Bavarian Märzen and a Czech-style Pilsener!

Bayern Amber is available throughout the year and we are proud to announce that it will be in bottles as of spring 1997. Of course, like all Bayern products, everything is produced here in Missoula and is sold in Montana only.

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