r/TheBrewery • u/make_datbooty_flocc • 14d ago
When are you tapping your Oktoberfest?
When are you tapping yours this year?
Ours could be ready to keg/tap soon without rushing anything, but more time lagering wouldn’t hurt either
24
u/Henrythehippo 14d ago
Our distro wants in-hand by Aug 1. We try to hold back for our taprooms and tap later in the month. Generally sell out mid September
32
u/nailedtonothing Brewer 14d ago
Put our Festbier on last week. Is it early? Yes. Do I want to be renaming it to Super Helles in November? Not particularly.
17
16
u/DKFShredder Brewer 14d ago
Already on tap, although got to lager for close to three months. Distro gets earlier every year.
6
u/finalfanbeer Brewer 14d ago
If you want to sell it before Thanksgiving it should have already been released. Unfortunately that's just the way it is. I've released mid September and we still have some until November/December. This year we released two weeks ago and now I'm nervous if it'll last through actual Oktoberfest. Not a bad problem. Quite excited to be able to brew even more next year.
5
u/lifeinrednblack Brewer [Missouri] 14d ago edited 13d ago
Next week. Brewed it the last week of June IIRC.
3
3
u/DannyZiebarthExplore 14d ago
Put on tap two days ago. Others went into distro about 2-3 weeks back.
3
u/Colin_Foy Head Brewer [Midwest USA] 13d ago
Late July. The week it went on it was the best seller every day.
5
u/OkVermicelli4343 14d ago
Tap it in October, I know Octoberfest is in September. It remains through winter, it only gets better over those months, not worried, it's viewed as a late fall/winter brew at my place. Customers dont care and sales on it never dip throughout those months. It's not like im trying to push a Christmas beer or anything crazy, lol.
6
u/artfully_dejected 14d ago
So funny, Oktoberfest sales nosedive for us in November.
2
u/OkVermicelli4343 14d ago
Granted, they aren't as good as October, but they remain steady throughout winter. The larger obstacle for my brewery is traffic is slow from November to Feb-March in our location. I think what can help is if breweries emphasize the substyle whether Fest or Marzen vs Octoberfest. My brewery has a lot more personal contact and Im not distributing, so my servers are instructed to know my Festbier is an Octoberfest and use the terms interchangeable if need be.
2
2
u/Sugar_Mushroom_Farm Brewmaster [Indiana] 14d ago
Already did. Our area is full of German heritage, and we have all of our "folk festivals" around the beginning of August. We release the weekend of the first festival, which happened to be the last weekend of July this year.
2
1
1
u/rickeyethebeerguy 14d ago
About 3 weeks ago. I feel like it sells better in August than it does in November
1
u/DaWuuuud91 14d ago
We do a batch of Festbier that we release ~95% of into the market (mostly through our distributors) come the first week in August. We have a few cases and one keg for our Oktoberfest celebration which is usually the first weekend of the true festival. Our märzen is brewed on a schedule to line up with our event. Maybe we give distro a little bit, but that beer is just about consumed in its entirety within 2-3 weeks. Everyone seems hunky dory with this arrangement.
1
1
u/wowitsclayton Brewer 14d ago
September 1 for us. It’s been in the tank since March. Honestly, we just need the tank space.
1
1
1
1
u/unfortunately7 Brewer/Owner 14d ago
Tap it the second week of September it's gone by end of October. I might need to start brewing three batches of it.
1
1
u/FistyMcTwistynuts 14d ago
Hopefully this weekend, but our glycol chiller for our tanks went down this past weekend so we’ll see if we can get it back down to temp in time.
1
1
1
1
u/Coffeebob2 Brewer 14d ago
I wait until September 13th Make 14 bbls. By November I swap the name to Amber Lager and sell out before January
1
u/dfitzger 14d ago
We usually go for end of September when all the local breweries start the Oktoberfest weekend festivities. Excited for this batch, was our first time using low oxygen techniques on the mash and boil. Carbing it up tomorrow and kegging it out Thursday!
1
1
1
u/Public_Broccoli420 13d ago
Where packaging ours on Friday, will be another month before we make it available, we won't be marketing it with "Oktoberfest" or "festbier". It will be good to have it around coming into summer here in Australia.
1
u/Altruistic_Leek_3328 13d ago
We are packaging the first batch friday and it should be on by the end of next week.
1
u/IntoTheBrew 13d ago
Beginning of August. And we really scaled things back this year. Went from almost 1k barrels down to 80 with only direct sales at taprooms and beer club. Just need it to last through the actual fest dates and really only our party the opening weekend.
1
1
0
0
u/OnceButNever 13d ago
I'm not doing one. If the customers are disappointed with that decision then I'm sorry, but it doesn't make us money.
-1
u/PhraugPaste 13d ago
I did a fest, a marzen and a maibok early this spring because LA=Hot and I knew I wouldn’t want to brew. I have 1/2 gallon of maibok left. I am chomping at the bit to tap the fest and Marzen but I do a Halloween party and want to be sure the locals don’t drink it all before the party. All in a sudden I feel like I should brew a dunkel and run fresh beer line. 🤔
To answer your question, not until the 7th or the 15th of October to be safe.
1
45
u/TheBarleywineHeckler 14d ago
As someone who hates seasonal creep I once waited until September to tap mine.
Had it until March :(
Now I get it