I love Sam Adams. It's now the largest American-owned brewery, and though they don't get a lot of love from beer snobs, they make some fantastic brews that are available everywhere. Their current seasonal offering (Noble Pils) is one of my favorite Spring seasonals of all time. Other than the ghastly Cherry Wheat, I can't think of a bad Sam Adams beer.

Octoberfest is another word for Märzen, a special style of lager. Other good and widely-available Märzens include Ayinger, Hacker-Pschorr, and Spaten. It's hard to know what you'll be able to find locally, but anything in the top ranks of the Bock/Dunkel/Helles Lager styles here would be a good place to start. If you can get it down there, Penn Dark is a Dunkel lager made right here in Pittsburgh, and it's fantastic.