Beer Styles

Straubing's signature beer is the Festbier. Brauerei Röhrl's Gäuboden Festbier is a bottom-fermented specialty positioned somewhere between a Festbier and a Märzen. Festbier is golden, more full-bodied than Helles, and comes in at around 6 percent alcohol. It's drunk above all in August, at the Gäubodenvolksfest.

What's the difference between Festbier and Märzen? Märzen is traditionally darker, amber-colored, and somewhat maltier, as the style guidelines show with a color range of 16 to 33 EBC. Festbier is paler and smoother. The name Märzen comes from the old brewing rule under which Bavarian brewers were only permitted to brew between Michaelmas and St. George's Day. Beer brewed in March kept through the summer because it was brewed stronger and stored cool.

Helles is leaner. It has less original gravity — that is, less dissolved malt sugar in the wort before fermentation — and therefore less alcohol. Anyone wanting a lighter glass before the Festbier reaches for a Helles. At 4.7 to 5.4 percent alcohol, it sits clearly below the Festbier, which comes in at 5.8 to 6.3 percent. Both are bottom-fermented, both are golden, yet the Festbier tastes richer and sweeter, the Helles drier and more refined.

Weißbier stands apart from all this. It's top-fermented, contains wheat malt, and tastes of banana and clove. According to Brauerei Röhrl, the Straubinger Weisse comes in both pale and dark versions. Dark here means more roasted and a touch sweeter, but not heavier. There's no ranking between Weißbier and lager beer: Weißbier is simply a different kind of beer, neither better nor worse. At the regulars' table, people have been arguing about it for generations anyway, and both sides have their reasons.