Munich Marks 200th Anniversary of Oktoberfest With Brewer Truce

BERLIN Sept. 16, 2010— -- Munich's six main breweries are usually locked in bitter competition. But this year, they have taken the unprecedented step of joining forces to create a special beer in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Oktoberfest. The move follows a recent drive to strengthen the festival's folk traditions.

The six Munich breweries that supply the Oktoberfest are notoriously fierce rivals. But they have buried the hatchet temporarily this year and collaborated to craft a special historic beer marking the 200th anniversary of the festival, which starts on Sept. 18.

"This kind of cooperation is unprecedented," Stefanie Scharpf, a spokeswoman for Inbev, the Belgian-Brazilian group that owns Löwenbräu beer, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. In an act of homage to Bavarian culture, the city's master brewers concocted a top-secret recipe for a strong brown ale called "Jubiläumswiesnbier," meaning Oktoberfest Jubilee Beer.

It will be served exclusively in a vintage Oktoberfest tent that has been specially erected to evoke the history of the festival that was first held in 1810 to allow the citizens of Munich to celebrate the wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig, the future Bavarian King Ludwig I, to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen.

"The amber-colored special beer is full-bodied in taste with a flowery malt aroma," the brewers said in a joint statement. "The brewing masters have ceremoniously pledged to keep the recipe secret and only to use it this year."

"Our anniversary beer is similar in color and alcohol content to what was drunk 200 years ago. But in terms of taste we have made quite a few improvements," said Jörg Lehmann, the top brewery technician at InBev's Spaten-Löwenbrau subsidiary.

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It will pack a punch, with an alcohol content of around 6 percent, in line with the other beers brewed specially for the Oktoberfest each year by the six breweries Löwenbräu, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Paulaner, Spatenbräu and Augustiner. Each brewery has its own tent at the festival. Standard Bavarian beers tend to have a lower alcohol content of around 5 percent.