Changes

The ownership of the brewery changed hands many times until 1807 when the royal Hofbräu brewmaster, Gabriel Sedlmayr, took over the brewery which had by then changed name to Spatenbräu. At the this time it was Munich's smallest brewery. The still today used logo with a spade symbolising a malt shovel bears Gabriel Sedlmayr's initials. Sedlmayr's sons continued to run the business and in 1867 Spaten became the largest brewery in Munich, as then measured by malt use.

In 1872, Spaten made history by introducing an amber coloured Vienna style beer at Munich's Oktoberfest, named Märzenbier. The [[Märzenbier]] was first sold in the Schottenhamel Festzelt when the normal beer had ran out of supply and so it became an instant success. The popular Märzenbier, became known as [[Oktoberfestbier]] and eventually changed to the pale golden and slightly stronger Helles (lager) which is still today sold during the Oktoberfest. The Märzenbier was originally permitted to be brewed only between St. Michael's Day (29th September) and St. Georg's Day (23rd April) and had to be stored in ice cellars until the Oktoberfest.