Bellfield Oktoberfest Blog
We’ve got a mini celebration planned from Thursday 23rd September through to Sunday 3rd October celebrating Oktoberfest at the Bellfield Brewery Taproom & Beer Garden.
The blue and white bunting is up, the team are looking out their lederhosen, so hurry and book a table inside or out and come with friends, family, children (until 9pm) and dogs! All welcome.
We’ve got authentic German beers on tap and in the fridge (see list below) Bellfield beers on tap and some wonderful traditional Oktoberfest fare, from the popular Edinburgh pop-up, On The Roll.
There’s even something for four legged friends: Dogtoberfest will take place on the last weekend.
So what will be pouring?
Marzen
Bellfield Märzen Festival Lager (5.7% ABV) is our first, darker coloured lager. It's a classic Märzen, brewed with all German hops, combining classic and modern. Traditionally this style of beer would have been brewed in March (hence the name), at the end of the brewing season, then conditioned and served at the start of the new brewing season, celebrated at Oktoberfest. We think it's a highly drinkable style that’s well worth celebrating. Our version is deep amber in colour and filled with bready/brioche and toasted malt character from the Vienna and Munich malts, with a balanced hop bitterness. We’ve also used a small amount of buckwheat to aid head retention and to contribute a subtle spice and nuttiness to the flavour profile.
Old Town Altbier
Old Town Altbier (5.3% ABV) is our latest release and a take on the traditional hybrid beer style from Düsseldorf. It’s included in a new Bellfield Oktoberfest Beer Box, available for a limited time only. This dark copper beer is made by combining ale and lager brewing techniques. Malt led (subtle chocolate, coffee, flavours from German malts), with a great balance coming from the tangerine, spicy and floral flavours of two American hops.
Craft Lager
One of our award-winning, core beers, Craft Lager (5.2% ABV) is a firm favourite with taproom customers. Old and New World hops - Ekuanot and Mandarina Bavaria - combine to produce a light fruit and floral character. This modern interpretation of a classic lager is biscuity and quaffable.
Guest beers
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Keg |
Bittburger Pils (4.8%) |
Tradition and perfection are the rules that make Bitburger Pils so special – the German brewery where it is exclusively brewed has followed them since 1817. This combination of traditional brewer’s craft and state-of-the-art technology has created one of the world’s leading breweries and Germany’s No. 1 draft beer. This straw-coloured pilsner is crystal clear, and perfectly hopped, boasting a light taste and a lasting foam head with extra-fine bubbles. For two centuries it has been brewed using only the best ingredients, following the renowned German Beer Purity laws. It has a delicate effervescence and touch of malty sweetness, rounded off with a distinctive hoppiness that lingers on the palate. You will find notes of honey, ripe cereal grains, white bread and aromatic mountain herbs in its crisp and fruity taste. |
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Keg |
Erdinger Oktoberfest (5.7%) |
Limited Edition! As hearty as a Bavarian beer festival: Erdinger Oktoberfest, which expertly combines smooth malt aromas with a pronounced hop bitterness. This well-balanced flavor is complemented by gentle carbonation to give it the typical liveliness of a genuine wheat beer. |
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Keg |
Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest Marzen (6.1%) |
Limited Edition! Forbidden as it was to brew in summer, a stronger beer – the Märzen – was brewed earlier in March. This beer returns to an age-old recipe, brewed with due reverence to the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516. Pouring a pale amber colour, Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest Marzen offers up a rich bouquet of malt aromas. The first sip reveals caramel sweetness, balanced by a slight bitterness from the fresh, grassy hops. |
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Keg |
Lost & Grounded Running with Sceptres IPL * (5.2%) *IPL- Indian Pale Lager |
This India Pale Lager combines Pilsner, Vienna and Caramalts with a huge whack of hops to make a Special Lager Beer. Brewed with craft and care, it has a soft fruity nose and a light biscuit body that’s cut with dry hops, leaving a refreshing, dry finish. |
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Keg |
Flensburger Pilsner (4.8%) |
Flensburger Pilsner is a full bodied pilsner, brilliant yellow in colour with a white head. The brewery uses its own water well, with the water coming from a glacier spring. The pleasing aroma of this lager is that of grain and malts. The flavour is mildly bitter with a crisp, hoppy taste on the palate. This easy drinking beer also has caramel notes with hints of lemongrass. Light citrus is apparent, with a long dry finish. |
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Keg |
Flensburger Lager (4.0%) |
Unmistakable, tangy and full of flavour. Masterfully brewed according to the German Rhenish Law by this independent family brewery since 1888. |
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Keg |
Basqueland Free Bird (6.0%) |
A medium bodied west-coast beer with a subtle fruitiness complemented by a pronounced pine resin flavour and a bitter finish. Hopped with Simcoe, Ekuanot, Mosaic. Gluten Free. |
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Keg |
Zatec Dry-Hopped Czech Pilsner (4.8) |
Rich biscuit and caramel flavours of floor-malted barley give way to the freshness of the hops, delicate and floral, yet spicy with hints of tropical lemongrass and fruit. Hopped with Admiral, Premiant, Zatec Vegan, Gluten Free Process (uncertified) |
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Keg |
Kerlsch Lager (4.9%) |
The original ale-lager hybrid. Clean, crisp, yet rounded. Gently fruity and aromatic. Hopped with Cryo Amarillo, East Kent Goldings, Strisselspalt. Vegan. Gluten Free |
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Bottle 500ml |
Schneider Original Tap 7 (5.4%) |
A traditional wheat beer brewed that’s been brewed according to the original recipe of Georg I. Schneider since 1872. A deep amber colour, harmonically balanced and strong. Hopped with Hallertauer Tradition, Hallertauer Herkules non-filtrated, non-pasteurised |
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Bottle 500ml |
Schneider Hopfenweisse Tap 5 (8.2%) |
Hoppy, but flowery, bitter and full-bodied, and still with a sweet malty aroma - this is how multifaceted wheat beer can actually be. Hopped with Hallertauer Tradition, Hallertauer Saphir (traditionally hopped and chill hopped) Non-filtrated, non-pasteurised |
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Bottle 500ml |
Schneider Helle Weiss Tap 1 (5.2%) |
A bright wheat beer that’s full-bodied and intense, this beer is a sparkling treat for those who love blonde wheat beers: the aroma has all the power of sunripened wheat. Refreshing citrus and hoppy notes. |
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Bottle 500ml |
Schneider Aventinus Tap 6 (8.2%) |
The world's oldest wheat-doppelbock (brewed since 1907) this beer has a fruity spiciness - banana, clove and vanilla. Dark ruby red in colour, it is warming and well-balanced. Its sturdy body combines with its sweet malty aroma. |
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Bottle 330ml |
Ayinger Celebrator (6.7%) |
Aged for half a year to produce a full-bodied and velvety doppelbock lager. Fruity and strong, yet not overpowering. Almost black in colour, this beer features cascading layers of malt complexity balanced by elegant hops. Notes of toffee, caramel, graceful dark-malt roastiness, and the essence of barley. Lager fermentation leads to clean flavors and pinpoint conditioning. Semi-dry finish. Very little of the sweetness that is frequently to be tasted with doppelbock beer. Vegan |
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Can 500ml |
Schofferhofer Grapefruit (2.5%) |
Radler. 50% Hefeweizen 50% Grapefruit juice A wonderfully bright and refreshing beer. It’s a 50/50 blend of Hefeweizen Beer and Grapefruit Juice. For those of you caught out by it, the “proper” pronunciation of their unusual and challenging name: Chauffeur + ah + (The) Hoff + ah! A refreshing well-rounded taste with tangy character and hints of sweetness. Tastes best ice cold and straight from the can. |
Pop up food
We’ll be serving typical Oktoberfest food. On The Roll will be rolling in their Sausage truck to our beer garden and delivering tasty German treats – including currywurst of course - with GF options available.
Dogtoberfest
Join us in person - or virtually. We’ll be reprising our most popular ever social media competition - ‘Rate My Dog’ - and the highest-rated dog picture (with us tagged in it) will win an Oktoberfest beer box complete with Bellfield T-shirt, pint glass, pretzels handmade dog biscuits (baked from spent grain after our brewing).
A little bit of history: about Oktoberfest
The festival has a long and illustrious history going back to 1810 and a royal wedding in Munich. The citizens of the city were invited to attend the festivities – including horse races - on the fields in front of the city gates. The decision the following year, to repeat the horse races gave rise to the tradition of the Oktoberfest which eventually grew into a huge event, complete with fairgrounds and beer stands, where visitors could quench their thirst. At the end of the 19th century, the beer stalls were replaced by the beer tents and halls, which landlords set up with the backing of breweries and the event has continued to grow into the festival we’re all now familiar with.
Oktoberfest beers
Traditionally Oktoberfest beers would have all been varying shades of dark with smoky notes. This is due to the variable nature of malting techniques. Often malt was toasted over a direct fire which led to some of it burning and toasting. Nowadays we have much more sophisticated machinery that allows us to kiln malt without altering the colour or burning it, which lead to the invention of lighter beers the world over.
On the Roll is serving at Bellfield Taproom and Beer Garden Thursday 23rd Sept - 3rd of October with gluten free and vegan option available.
Table booking is advised. Table service - just order food with your drinks! You can find the On The Roll menu here.
Our Taproom is in Abbeyhill, Edinburgh – just off London Road. It's easy to reach on the bus, or by bike and it's a short (6 minute) walk from the Scottish Parliament and (12 minute) walk from Edinburgh Waverley Station. You can also reach us from Holyrood Park by walking along Ann Terrace off Spring Gardens, under the railway.
Opening times:
Mon-Tue (closed)
Wed-Thu (2:30pm-10pm)
Fri-Sat (12pm-12am)
Sun (12pm-10pm)
Table booking
Table bookings are for 2 hour slots via the table booking section of our website. We allow 30 minutes between bookings for cleaning. If you'd like to stay a little longer (outdoors only), you can book two, back to back time slots, giving you 4.5 hours. Please book the same table type for a time slot 2.5 hours after your first one and send us an email at taproom@bellfieldbrewery.com to let us know, so we can make sure you stay in the same place. NB: double bookings cannot be made for indoors.
Also in Lastest News from Bellfield
Tap Takeover: International Women's Day at The Bow Bar
Always strong supporters of International Women's Day, this year Edinburgh’s renowned Bow Bar has gone the extra mile!
Clara and Lili, two of the female members of the Bow Bar’s team, have brewed their very own bespoke beer in celebration of IWD 2024. They visited Bellfield Brewery on a cold weekend in February, to brew a Belgian Pale Ale that they’ve named “Sweet Dreams Are Made of Yeast”. This 6% ABV pale ale is hoppy and malty in equal measure.
International Women's Day - Rational Creatures IPA 2024
For International Women's Day on the 8th March we'll be releasing our 2024 version of Rational Creatures IPA (4.3%)
Recently brewed by the women of Bellfield, expect a fresh, flavourful pale ale with a honeyed, creamy, malty core and a pronounced stone fruit and citrus kick.
This year is the fifth time that the women of Bellfield have got together to brew a special beer to mark International Women's Day (IWD) on 8th March.
