Vail Colorado Oktoberfest This Weekend

Oh the humanity... you couldn't have it next weekend when I get tired of drinking at the GABF!!!! damn you! damn your eyes!!! :-)

D.

I know what you mean! Vail OF was last weekend too. But it wasn't walk'n around weather there I hear. We never make it to the GABF due to the thousands upon thousands of people there. Vail only has hundreds or so.

It might be nice up there in Moneyland In the Mountains, but I've got a perfectly adequate little Oktobefest this weekend right here in Seattle. There will be a few good beers there, both local and German.

As far as the real thing in Munich goes, it's okay, the beer is fair-to-middlin', and other festivals, like Forchheim's Annafest, kick its ass.

Feh. The real Oktoberfest is less about the beer and more about the experience, which has no rival I can think of. And depending on whose tent you end up in, the beer's quite nice.

Of course, smart people don't spend every night at Oktoberfest. They hang out at Augustiner Gastätte, or wander on behind the Dom to drink Andechs (or hop on the S-Bahn and go to the source) or wander on over to Paulaner's brewpub to drink the sublime Kellerbier or if it's a nice day hang out in the Augustinerkeller Biergarten, or ...

-Steve

Annafest is about *both*. That's why it kciks Otkobefrest's ass ggigy. Oktoberfest ist gutbayrisch. Annafest ist besserfraenkisch.

None of them beat any of Annafest's Festbiere. Muencher Bier ist Einheitsbier. In the case of Spaten and Loewenbraeu, they're now bloody Belgian beers!

... the Weisses Brauhaus im Tal for Schneider Weisse, and perhaps the single least touristy and most worthwhile one of them all: the Forschungsbrauerei's Gaststube in Perlach, where clay liter Masses filled with St-Jakobus Blonder Bock await. That beer alone picks up any of the Festbiers served at the Wies'n, and kicks said Festbier's scrawny ass.

Aber, Franken ist Bayern, nicht?

Ja, das ist Köder.

Keep sighing, seeing as how in about 10 days' time I'll be drinking some of that St Jakobus and Andechs and Scheider and...

-Steve

Agreed. The Munich O'fest is a great experience. Have you been to the Stuttgart fest? Its supposed to be pretty a big festival.

Bruce

The Cannstadter Was'n? Think of it as sort of an "Oktoberfest Lite." Not as ridiculously overcrowded as Munich's little party, but still featuring perfectly drinkable beer - the brands from Stuttgart's two big breweries, plus a couple from Stuttgart's suburban towns. It's okay, but the southwestern Germans don't have big beer traditions of their own to draw from, so they tend to copy the Bavarians a bit when they have big beer fests. Still, you could do a lot worse.