Original festival beer for Oktoberfest found only in USA even as Munich taps first keg of 2024

Oktoberfest begins with the mayor of Munich, Germany, tapping the ceremonial first barrel of golden fest beer. The world's most famous fall beer bash starts Sept. 21 and ends Oct. 6.

Yet the best place to taste Munich's original, strong, amber-colored beer is not in Bavaria in autumn.

It's here in the United States 12 months a year.

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"There are a lot of traditional beer styles that are more popular in the United States than they are in their original sources in Germany or elsewhere in Europe," Brett Peruzzi of Massachusetts, beer columnist for Yankee Brew News, told Fox News Digital.

Oktoberfest beer is perhaps the most notable among them.

The beer may be flowing at Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, but the best place to taste Munich's original amber-colored beer is in the United States. (Christof Stache/AFP via Getty Images; Lewis Geyer/Digital First Media/Boulder Daily Camera via Getty Images; Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

The traditional beer style served at Oktoberfest in Munich was called Marzenbier, or "March beer."

It was brewed in March, aged or "lagered" in cool underground caverns through the summer, and tapped in the autumn.

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Marzen beer rolled out of the caves ready to tap just around the time barley and hops for beer — and other summer crops — were ready for harvest. 

It was a celebratory time, as harvest season is in cultures around the world. 

Marzenbier became a sensation in 1810, when it was hoisted to celebrate the autumn marriage of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese in Munich. 

It's the festival now known as Oktoberfest.

Joe O'Grady of Paulaner USA hoists the golden-colored Oktoberfest beer, left, served at the Munich fall festival and seasonally in the United States and, right, the traditional dark amber Marzen (March) Oktoberfest beer available 12 months a year, almost exclusively in the United States. (Patrick Whittemore/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)

The original Marzen beer served at Oktoberfest was strong and full-flavored with a distinctive, rich, amber color. 

But anyone who's stood on a table in one of the raucous beer tents at Oktoberfest in recent decades, and sang "Country Roads" at full throat, did so swaying with an easy-drinking, golden-colored lager.

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"Marzen was the original beer brewed at Oktoberfest and served at the wedding," Steve Hauser, CEO of Paulaner USA, based in White Plains, New York, told Fox News Digital. 

Paulaner is one of the six Munich breweries that host Oktoberfest.

The original dark amber beer was served at Oktoberfest at least until the 1970s, he said.

Glasses of Marzen ("March") beer from Duck Rabbit Craft Brewery of North Carolina are shown. The dark style of beer was traditional in Germany but is now found mostly in the United States. (Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)

"The whole world was going to lighter lagers," Hauser said. "The German brewers did not want to be left behind, so they switched to lighter lagers, too."

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Paulaner sells both styles of beer, as do many other brewers. 

Paulaner Oktoberfestbier is a light-colored, easy-drinking lager released as a seasonal beer each autumn in the United States. 

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"It's identical to the beer served today at Oktoberfest in Munich," Hauser said.

Paulaner Marzenbier is the traditional full-flavored amber lager originally served at Oktoberfest. 

Oktoberfest attendees in Munich drink golden beer. Traditional Oktoberfest beer was full-flavored with a dark amber color. Munich breweries began switching to a lighter-colored, easy-drinking beer in the 1970s.  (Courtesy Paulaner USA)

It's available 12 months a year and sold almost exclusively in the United States. 

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American beer consumers, the beer executive said, want to consume the traditional Bavarian beer year-round – even as Bavarian consumers have shed their own world-famous beer-making legacy.