What to drink at Oktoberfest 2026

Every beer you will drink at Oktoberfest 2026 comes from one of six Munich breweries, in one format — the litre Maß — and in one style: festbier, deep gold and around six percent. That sounds like no choice at all. It is actually six distinct answers to the same question, plus a handful of smart alternatives, and knowing the differences is the difference between drinking at the Wiesn and drinking it well. The festival runs 19 September to 4 October; here is what should be in your glass.

Festbier, not märzen: know what's in the Maß

The amber, toasty 'Oktoberfest beer' sold in much of the world is märzen — the strong March-brewed lager that ruled the Theresienwiese for a century. But Munich itself moved on: starting in the 1970s, led by Paulaner, the six Wiesn breweries shifted to a paler, lighter-bodied festbier that drinks more easily across a five-hour tent session. Today every Maß on the festival grounds is golden, softly malty, and stronger than it tastes — roughly 5.9 to 6.3 percent, a full step above the Helles these breweries pour the rest of the year. If you want the old amber taste, you'll find it in bottles labelled märzen from Bavarian brewers like Ayinger — or in the export 'Oktoberfest' beers the Munich houses still brew for America.

The march of the styles tells the festival's history in miniature. Märzen itself was a workaround: a 1553 Bavarian rule banned brewing through the warm months, so March beer was brewed strong to survive the summer in cold cellars and drunk down in autumn. When Spaten unveiled its amber lager in 1841 — it reached the Wiesn itself in 1872, via the Sedlmayrs' Franziskaner — it defined festival beer for four generations — and when drinkers' tastes lightened in the late twentieth century, the same pragmatism that invented märzen retired it. The Wiesn has never been sentimental about its beer; it simply brews what a very long afternoon requires.

The six festbiers, tasted honestly

Augustiner is the connoisseur's Maß: the softest and roundest of the six, and at the Augustiner-Festhalle it is still drawn from 200-litre wooden barrels — the Hirschen — which knocks the carbonation back and makes it dangerously smooth. Hacker-Pschorr runs a close second for malt depth, a shade fuller and sweeter. Paulaner is the modern classic: clean, balanced, the beer that defined the festbier style. Spaten leans crisper and drier, a brewer's beer with the festival's oldest märzen pedigree. Löwenbräu is the lightest-tasting and least demanding — no insult on hour four. Hofbräu is the joint-strongest at about 6.3 percent — only Augustiner matches it — and the driest, with a sharper hop edge; combined with the standing crowd in its tent, it explains more Wiesn casualties than any other single factor.

Taste them properly and the differences are real but modest — these are six variations on one idea, brewed by houses that have watched each other for centuries. The honest comparison method is one brewery per visit, food alongside, and notes taken before the third litre rather than after. If you have only one day, the classic connoisseur's line is Augustiner from wood at lunchtime, Hacker-Pschorr mid-afternoon, and a final hour wherever the band is best; nobody's palate survives more than three festbiers with its judgment intact.

Pick your tent by your beer

Beer and tent are one decision — each brewery rules its own halls. Want the wooden-barrel Augustiner? That's the Augustiner-Festhalle, the most local and family-friendly of the big tents, or Fischer-Vroni, where the same beer meets Steckerlfisch grilled on sticks. Hacker-Pschorr's home is the Hacker-Festzelt, 'the heaven of the Bavarians', with its painted sky and evening rock bands. Paulaner anchors the Winzerer Fähndl under its giant rotating Maß tower; Spaten pairs with roast ox at the Ochsenbraterei and hosts the opening tapping at Schottenhamel; Löwenbräu's lion roars above its own tent; and Hofbräu's Festzelt is the big, loud, international one — the only tent with a standing area in front of the band. Choose the beer first; the party comes with it.

Beyond the Maß

There is life outside the litre. A Radler — festbier cut half-and-half with lemonade — is the honest pacing tool locals actually use, ordered without embarrassment at any table. Every brewery now pours a serious alkoholfrei: alcohol-free Weißbier has become the default driver's drink in the tents, and alcohol-free festbier and Helles have grown from novelty to fixture in recent years. Wheat-beer loyalists get proper Weißbier in several tents; wine drinkers have an entire tent, the Weinzelt, with Nymphenburg Sekt and, upstairs, Paulaner Weißbier for the mixed table. And in the Oide Wiesn, the festival's nostalgic corner, the beer comes in heavy stoneware steins that keep it colder than glass ever will.

Drink like you've been before

The band will play 'Ein Prosit' roughly every twenty minutes, and yes, you drink when it ends — which is exactly why you should set your own pace, not the band's. Festbier at six percent drinks like Helles at five; the Maß hides two extra measures of alcohol per round, and the classic first-timer error is matching a Bavarian table Maß for Maß before sunset. Order water without shame, eat early and properly — the half roast chicken, the Hendl, exists because it is the perfect festbier food — and hold the Krug by the handle, clinking at the thick base. You will only be served seated: in a Bavarian tent, no seat means no beer, so claim a bench before you're thirsty. And tip: round the fifteen-something-euro Maß to seventeen and your waitress will find your table again all afternoon.

Build the food around the beer, not after it. Obatzda — the paprika-whipped camembert spread — with a fresh Brezn is the opening move; the Hendl is the main event; and the Ochsenbraterei's ox with a crisper, drier Spaten is the best food-and-beer match on the meadow. Sweet closes sweet: Kaiserschmarrn, the shredded pancake, wants the day's one Weißbier rather than another festbier. None of this is gastronomy for its own sake — salt, fat, and bread are what keep a six percent litre honest.

The 2026 cheat sheet

Dates: Saturday 19 September to Sunday 4 October 2026. Entry: free, tents included. Beer: 14.80 to 15.90 euros a Maß this year; water and lemonade are not much cheaper, order them anyway. Reservations: free but scarce — book through the tents' own websites months out, or walk in on weekday mornings and early afternoons, when every big tent keeps unreserved sections open; weekends are lost by 11am. Getting there: U4/U5 to Theresienwiese, never a car. And if you miss the festival, you haven't quite missed the beer: the six breweries pour festbier in their own Munich halls and beer gardens through late September, and the bottled versions reach the shops weeks before the first keg is tapped — same beer, one-fifth the price, none of the singing.