[82 Card]

Some of the beer made for Oktoberfest needs to be made right now. Cancelling later would result in of immense proportions quantities of beer going to waste.

Do they really need to lager Marzen for that long? Or is it more "we need so much of it and only have so many tanks"?

Having far more expertise in drinking than brewing, I only know what I can find in a quick Google search. This site claims that: "The Germans make this beer in March, and usually serve the beer in September." Not sure if that's absolutely necessary or just custom. Not sure whether production was interrupted by the shutdown mid-March. Note that, in spite of the name, Oktoberfest actually starts in September.

Farm93 is right that there's a whole lot more to Oktoberfest than beer. Festival beer consumption is massive but amounts to less than .1% of annual beer consumption in Germany. Not sure how interchangeable the festival beer delivery system is with other distribution systems. It could be like toilet paper in this country where there's a glut of commercial toilet paper that for some reason doesn't cross over into the domestic tp distribution channels.

[82 Card]

Some of the beer made for Oktoberfest needs to be made right now. Cancelling later would result in of immense proportions quantities of beer going to waste.

Do they really need to lager Marzen for that long? Or is it more "we need so much of it and only have so many tanks"?

Having far more expertise in drinking than brewing, I only know what I can find in a quick Google search. This site claims that: "The Germans make this beer in March, and usually serve the beer in September." Not sure if that's absolutely necessary or just custom. Not sure whether production was interrupted by the shutdown mid-March. Note that, in spite of the name, Oktoberfest actually starts in September.

Farm93 is right that there's a whole lot more to Oktoberfest than beer. Festival beer consumption is massive but amounts to less than .1% of annual beer consumption in Germany. Not sure how interchangeable the festival beer delivery system is with other distribution systems. It could be like toilet paper in this country where there's a glut of commercial toilet paper that for some reason doesn't cross over into the domestic tp distribution channels.