Oktoberfest brings in the season

Admit it: You hear the word Oktoberfest and what comes to mind are images of blond Frauleins wearing dirndls, hair done up in Princess Leia rolls, dancing through tents of revelers with steins of foaming beer in hand to the beat of an oompah band. Well, OK, there is all of that at the yearly celebration in Munich, but let's focus on the really important part of the picture -- the beer.

Oktoberfest isn't just a wild Bavarian beerfest, it's also a style of drink, both in Germany and wherever beer lovers gather.

The beer that takes its name from Munich's festival is a lager that was traditionally brewed at the end of March (which is why the style is also sometimes called Märzen ). Before refrigeration revolutionized the brewing process, the beer was stored, or lagered, in caves to be drunk in late summer and the beginning of fall. Oktoberfest/Märzen is maltier, higher in alcohol content (around 6 percent alcohol by volume), and deeper in color than summer lagers.

``Summer's over, and people want to drink a beer that's a little heavier," says Chip DeForest, production manager and brewer at Berkshire Brewing Company in South Deerfield. ``Oktoberfest is by far our most popular seasonal beer."

Big, smooth, malty, and crisp, BBC's Oktoberfest ``looks like the leaves," DeForest says. ``It looks like fall is coming."

Though anyone can make a Märzen/Oktoberfest, and many breweries do, the only beer that is allowed to be sold at Munich's festival is made by the six breweries inside the city limits -- Spaten, Paulaner, Lowenbräu, Hacker-Pschorr, Augustiner, and Hofbräu. Over the years, those breweries have begun making a lighter, less malty style of beer for the festival. But many American brewers have embraced the old-school style as a brew to celebrate the season.

At Paper City Brewing in Holyoke, head brewer Ben Anhalt says, ``I've taken everything that makes an Oktoberfest an Oktoberfest and intensified it. We make an uber-Oktoberfest."

The festival is still wildly popular in Germany almost 200 years after it was established. Munich's Oktoberfest began in a field on the outskirts of the city in 1810 as a celebration of the marriage of Prince Ludwig of Bavaria. It was horse races, not beer, that were the main event. The next year, the races were held again, and the tradition was born. As the festival grew, local brewers began to set up at little stands. In 1896, the first beer tents were erected (what took them so long?). Today, there are 14, from which 6.1 million visitors were served last year, according to the Munich tourism office website.

Over the years, cities in this country have jumped on the beer wagon and started their own Oktoberfests. One of the biggest is held in Cincinnati, but there are festivals from Charlotte, N.C., to Napa, Calif.

Munich's Oktoberfest ended yesterday, but you can still tap into the celebration's spirit by serving Oktoberfest beers. Try having an all-American Oktoberfest, or even an all-New England one.

Dirndls and hair rolls are optional.