hofbrÄu mÜnchen oktoberfest

Anybody wanna take a crack at why HB’s mini 5L kegs of Oktoberfestbier are labeled ALE?

It is a legislation thing in certain states (TX I believe)… anything above a certain abv has to be labelled Ale.
For the same reason you will also from time to time see craft beer labelled Malt Liquor.

IIRC, at one point (depending on the state), ABV couldn’t be listed unless it was labeled as ale.

I don’t know but I drank a lot of liters of this last weekend at Hofbrau in Miami Beach. Good malty beer. Really a malty helles but very balanced and at about 6.3% had some humppff. Gut bier.