Oktoberfest: A Canadian living in Munich's perspective

No surprises! Showing up on the first day we knew there was no way we'd get in a tent and had to limit ourselves to strolling around. It's basically like walking through a mosh pit, but sober.

Beer Prices

If you go to Oktoberfest and you don't drink... "you're gonna have a bad time" but the beer prices keep increasing, now at 9,80€ for a maß (liter) of Augustiner. In some tents you'll pay up to 10,15€ which basically means you're paying 11,00€ if you're generous with your waiter. Just to give you an idea, I can buy 20 bottles (10 liters) of Spaten, Löwenbräu or Augustiner for 13,00€ at the store.

A half chicken will soak up some of that alcohol but will also set you back another 10,95€. You should probably skip that looping roller coaster ride if you want to keep the rest in you and 8,50€ in your wallet.

There's also this app you can buy for 99¢ call Bier Inspektor, in which you insert the price of a liter and then measure how much beer is in your maß by taking a picture of it. The app tells you how much you're getting robbed if your beer head is taking over on the golden stuff.

Beer facts

Apparently Augustiner is the only brewery who will still serve their Oktoberfest beer from wooden barrels.

More facts: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e42da600-44cc-11e4-9a5a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Eu6nRtS5

I was watching the extensive coverage of Oktoberfest and an interview with the organizers of HB (Hofbräu) revealed that HB is the most popular of the Munich Breweries around the world. The HB tent is also known to the locals as the "Tourist Tent" filled with Aussies, Brits and Americans. The organizer denied that this is true and insisted on the authenticity of the brand and the strong presence of the local crowd. He seemed to be the only one with that opinion.

The Parade

There's a parade on the opening Sunday consisting of different marching bands and the breweries' carriages. Fun for the whole family, there was only one drunk holding a huge flag pole but his buddy helped him out.

Quick tips

To fully enjoy this still very traditional event be respectful of others at all times, we're all there for the same reason celebrate and enjoy some tasty beers. 

Don't bring anything you wouldn't want to lose or get stolen.

Don't go on drinking on an empty stomach, there's a lot of tasty treats and those big pretzels are life savers!

Remember dilution, is the solution!

Prost!

There's more to it than Molson Canadian and Moosehead

I just set foot in my Munich apartment and I'm ready to sober up. After a week and a half in eastern Ontario, my hangover is reminding me of the 37 plus new beers I have tried. Two weddings, two dirty 30s, a retirement party and a bachelor party will do that to ya'.



Upon my first trip to the LCBO just outside Ottawa, I filled my cart with nothing but local stuff, a Mill Street mixer pack, an 8$ Beau's Patio Season, a couple of Amsterdam (ON) tall boys, a Cassel (finally bottled) Golden Rail and a pair of Great Lakes Brews from Toronto.


I'm surprised that Mill Street still doesn't offer a "discovery pack" type sixer with only seasonal or new brews, I'm not complaining about the tankhouse, stock, wit or organic included in the current 6 pack but I bet a lot of people would pay a little more for 6 brews they've never tasted. Just like the BC craft beer sampler pack I found containing one beer from six different craft breweries out west, that's variety!



I was stoked to try anything new by Beau's they are my favorite people/brewers right now and even though their seasonal beers are normally priced around 8$ they are usually worth it. The Patio Season confirmed my previous statement but I went nuts over the nicely wrapped Ashnan Wheat Wine Aged in chardonnay barrels (9.8%). For wine and beer lovers this is the one, if a tasty smooth white wine had a baby with a full bodied german style wheat beer the Ashnan would be the result. I had to try the Gilgamesh Old Ale aged in rum barrels even though rum barrel aged beer is not really my type and Beau's came through with a well balanced strong dark yet sweet almost dessert type beer. At 8.9% it's definitely a knockout.




Another local was Cassel Brewery's Golden Rail, growing up 20 minutes away from the town of Casselman, Ontario we were all stoked to hear about a brewery opening in this mostly french community, our language, our region, our beer. The first few versions I tried were in growlers or from the tap at beer festivals over the past two years and the consistency just wasn't there. The Caboose IPA was the one that stood out for me and in my opinion should've been the flagship beer for Cassel Brewery. The current flagship beer is the Golden Rail Honey Brown and the crowd seems to be happy when they managed to find it in store. It's a great start and I wish them all the best in the future.

Köln, Kölsch City!

A few years ago I came to Köln, everybody told me yeah go see that big ass church it's worth it. At the time I was aware of Kölsch but this time around, with the church out of the way, I really got to dig in to the beer.

I had heard of this little brewery/restaurant called Braustelle, it's off the beaten path but a great find. Their flagship Helios is obviously a kölsch but they also have a variable the Helios Weizen (at first I thought it would be served in a 0.2L glass like the other beers but I didn't complain about the full sized weiss glass they brought me that beer was good! From the tap I also tried the Simsons (no P) Weizen which was also very tasty and a little stronger.

The ladies ordered the Pink Panther which I got to sample, a pink juicy fruity concoction which reminded me of a mix of gueuze and kriek but I didn't like it so much I turned my attention to other bottled beers they had and tried their Phoebe Caulfield a beer made with rye (Roggen Bier) thick as molasses and dark as the night almost stout like very good but it could have a longer sustained taste in my opinion. I also had the ribs, first time I saw ribs on a menu and to my knowledge pork is really inexpensive compared to beef, yet ribs don't seem to be as popular in Germany.

Tap vs Bottle

Clearly if I have the choice between tap or bottle I will not think twice but I read that for kölsch the moment when it comes out of the tap you should hurry up and drink it because the longer it's out the worst it gets and I'm guessing this is why they serve it in 0.2L glasses. Although it is better enjoyed fresh out of the tap I tried Peters, Reissdorf, Gilden and Mühlen in bottle and out of all of them Mühlen was the closest to it's tap version. I felt like the other ones sort of tasted like generic eurobeers and were lacking that fresh crisp taste of kölsch.

Shop

It's always nice to know a place where you'll find most beers and in Köln the Biermuseum is the place to go shop.

Books

I also looked at some books on the subject and found these two by Frank Mathar, if anyone read these I would appreciate any feedback. 

The German Beer Consumer

I always get that look when I show up at the counter of a new Getränke Shop with 12 different individual beers. Like I'm some sort of weirdo who can't make up his mind about what he likes to drink. Maybe it's because they have to scan 12 bottles instead of 1. Some specialized beer shops are more than happy to see customers leave with a variety of beers and I think these will be more and more popular as the craft beer scene expands.

That's the way I do it, not how our local Bavarian friends do it.

From what I gather they find a favorite and stick to it. After speaking with family and friends who are German natives it seems there's a two step process to finding "your" favorite beer.

Step one: find the type of beer you like, most choice will be covered by Hell, Weiss or Pils. If you're from Köln you'll swear by Kölsch and I've heard that Düsseldorf's choice would be their homebrew "Altbier". Dopplebocks are rarely the "go to" beer and mostly viewed as seasonal.

Step two: find the brand you like the most and the next two alternate brands you will opt for if the first one is not offered.

Tasting anything other than their type of beer will make them cringe, I've seen it. A different brand will be "not as good as the one brand I like". The brand they choose will greatly depend on the availability in the specific region and the price.

There's "construction worker's beer" which is very cheap and also very horse piss-like. You have the beers which are exported all over the world such as Löwenbräu, Becks, Warsteiner, etc. which you'll get for a very decent price and they have a steady quality but are all very generic. Then you get into the interesting beers which are mostly local, here in Munich you have Augustiner, Hofbräu, Andechs, Chiemseer and Tegernsee.

The younger generations seem very open to try other beers but I still hear some individuals who will refuse to drink Weissbier even if I give them 10 different brands to try. I hear things like "I know this one is good, why would I try anything else." No one here is ready for a double IPA, especially if it comes in a 0,5L bottle!

Read Part 1: A first glance at the Munich craft beer scene

Gluten Frei Bier bitte!

A friend of mine loves beer, unfortunately he's no longer able to tolerate gluten so I did my best, with the help of other redditors, to assemble a variety of gluten free beers available in Germany. Prost!

Neumarkter Lammsbräu Glutenfrei 0,33L 4.7%

Where to find it

RESIDENZ Bio Reisbier glutenfrei

RESIDENZ Bio-Reis-Gold glutenfrei

Gluten free beer made of rice in 0,5L at 4,3%

RESIDENZ Bio-Reisbier dunkel glutenfrei

RESIDENZ Bio-Reis-Gold Dunkel glutenfrei

Gluten Free dark beer made of rice (Landbier) in 0,5L at 4,3%

Where to find it

Lebensfreude - das glutenfreie Bier in 0,5L at 5,0%

Where to find it

Riedenburger glutenfreies Hirsebier in 0,33L at 4,7%

Exclusively brewed from millet malt!

Where to find it

Schnitzerbräu Hirse (Gluten free) in 0,33L at 5,0%

Schnitzer Bräu Hirse Lemon (Gluten Free Radler) in 0,33L at 2,6%

Where to find it

Spalter Buchweizen in 0,33L at 2,5%

Brewed with buckwheat (100% Gluten free)

Where to find it

A first glance at the craft beer scene... in Munich

This is likely going to be the first part of a few articles as I venture into the endless beer culture of Bavaria. I have been a fortunate Canadian living in Ottawa for the most part of my legal drinking days and a part of me was reluctant to leave the expanding craft beer scene behind and move to Munich. What we have in Canada is nowhere near the boom that is happening in the United States but it is much closer than the baby steps taken by a handful of Germans who want to stay in the beer game. After all, if they want to keep their title they must find a way to merge culture and craft in order to compete with the new wave of expanding micro breweries worldwide.

This is an interesting point in time where the German brewers want to have the Reinheitsgebot inscribed in of the UNESCO's World Heritage list and also where other brewers are trying to get away from the traditional brewing methods and break through the conservative German palate with new flavors and ingredients that are being shamed by the purists.

Why would one dare brew some American Pale Ale when we have perfectly good Helles? Who needs a Belgian Wit when we have our Weissbier? Porters and stouts are nothing compared to our Dopplebock. The simple answer is variety.

That simple answer leads to the first problem craft brewers will encounter, the customer.

A good read:

Germany Wants World Heritage Status for Its Beer

Part 2: The German Beer Consumer

Pub Review: Tap-House (Munich)

I've been eyeing this place for a couple of months now and finally got the chance to head out on Saturday to the Tap-House in Munich. I had already lined-up a few beers I wanted to try from a large selection of beers. I was a bit worried that showing up on a Saturday evening around 9 pm, the place would be packed and we'd have to squeeze in at the bar and wait for a table but to my surprise the place was almost empty.

Right on the corner of Rosenheimstr. and Orleansstr. and walking distance from Ostbahnof is nowhere near the "hip" and current local hangouts but still very accessible.

The Menu

You can see for yourself there's a lot of beer both on tap (vom Fass) and bottles, you can spot the fridge when you walk in. You get a variety of German local craft beers and a few from bigger breweries. It's peppered with Belgian, Italian but most interestingly American beers. Among them were Allagash, Sly Fox, Firestone and Sierra Nevada.

The Service

I thought I'd go for the beer of the week, in a very bad Deutsch I requested the Kürzer Alt and asked if it was good. To this question the waiter replied that it was an alt beer. Ok... thanks for the elaborate response. In general I don't expect much from the wait staff in Germany, they don't get much tips and are usually not so enthusiastic about "tourists" and/or speaking English. In this case, I'm going off the beaten path and paying top dollars for craft beers which are trying to pierce the very stable and present beer market of Bavaria, I'm expecting a bit of shared knowledge.

I was recommended an Austrian beer from Freistädter which was apparently better, also pricier than the beer of the week. I was  then offered a Camba Amber Ale, which was delicious. I'm not fully aware of the affiliation that Camba has with the Tap-House but Camba seems to be their "house brew" so I'm gonna go with Camba owns Tap-House.

The Vibe

Very new, clean, pub atmosphere featuring huge barrels stacked up in the middle of the bar. As I said to my surprise the bar was almost empty but still had a steady flow of walk-ins throughout the evening. This place would definitely be a go to bar in North-America simply for their menu. But the layout is very open, there's a lot of sitting and standing room and could also host bands. I will definitely go back and attempt to get a little more out of the staff because I'm certain they enjoy talking about their product as much as I enjoyed tasting them.