Beer and Brewer Magazine

Say what you will about the Germans but they like to do things properly. From cars and autobahns, to beer and strange sausages, Dan Holland finds the same rules apply.

OKTOBERFEST is the most famous German party of all time (except perhaps that political outfit we won't mention). It attracts between six and seven million people every year to Munich, state capital of Bavaria (Bayern), and remains its official City Festival, usurping the local's unhealthy love of BMW and Bayern Munich Football Club as the pride of the nation.

The first Oktoberfest was held in 1810 to celebrate the wedding of Princess Therese Saxe-Hildburghausen to Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig, later crowned King Ludwig I. The groom must've been rapt with his bride because he invited all his subjects along to the reception and tapped a shed-load of kegs for them.

The locals loved this post-nuptial revelry with its oceans of beer and lederhosen-clad thigh-slapping so much they made it a permanent fixture on the calendar.

Ah, the calendar. So why ‘Oktoberfest' if it's in September? Well, while the 1810 wedding and the original fest did take place in October, the locals soon brought it forward to soak up more of the famous Bavarian summer, thus allowing visitors to enjoy the gardens outside the tents and the stroll over die wiesen or the fields much longer without feeling chilly. And anyway, almost two centuries down the track, they'll be buggered if they're going to re-knit all the banners to appease common logic.

And it's no wonder Bavarians love Oktoberfest - the 2005 event delivered 900 million euros into the economy (300 million on tourist accommodation alone) so, fair to say, it's a win-win to which any bean-counter would toast his stein. That said, surveys from the 2000 festival had about 70 per cent of all guests from Bavaria. That's just less than half of all Munich! In fact, the myth that Oktoberfest is a tourist trap, full of rowdy backpackers, is as wrong as the feeling in your stomach the morning after eating a kilo of pork knuckle.

Yes, the pissy tourists are there, but they're swaying arm in arm with Siemens technicians Franz and Heinrich and all their buddies. And for those wanting to assimilate quickly in Germany, it's worth noting most locals get a little feisty when friendly foreigners bring up the fortnight festival as if Germany's one gift to the world - it's like how we Aussies are with: ‘Do you ride kangaroos to work?'

Rest assured, you're definitely up for an authentic experience at Therese Meadow (the Oktoberfest festival site in downtown Munich named after Ludwig's good lady wife).

History, culture, beer - how could anyone be disappointed? Particularly when the beer is in such vast supply (albeit pricey, at between 6.65-7.10 euros a litre).

Oktoberfest consumption levels are measured not in litres but hectolitres and the stats make an outback B&S Ball look like a tea party. Last year they got through 60,000 hectolitres - six million litres! Food too is plentiful and the menus smack of German precision; organisers estimate the annual gut-luggage at almost a million over-sized salty pretzels, 480,000 roast chickens, some 350,000 pork bratwursts, 500,000 pork knuckles and 50 tonnes of fish!

But back to the beer. The iconic Bavarians breweries wait until Oktoberfest to turn out their finest weizen (wheat beers) and pilsener, as well as a range of special festival beers called Märzenbier or Oktoberfestbier: darker, maltier lagers named after the month they're brewed (März means March) before being laid down for the summer. These brews are similar in style to Vienna red lagers, of which we've now got some great examples in Australia, including Matilda Bay's Rooftop Red Lager and Hahn Vienna Red.

I mention this in case you're not banking on return tickets to Frankfurt this September.

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