Prost! 🍻🥨

Our annual Oktoberfest party tradition continued this year!

Every year, we try to step up our game but the clear winner this year was the homemade pretzels made by our friend, Luke. They were as good as the ones you will find at the local German bakery…and it is my kryptonite

Germany was finally able to host their annual 2 week Oktoberfest celebration this year after a 2 year hiatus. I can guarantee you the celebration was bigger and better than ever before!

Add it to my very long Bucket List of places I want to get back to visit ✅

THE REAL DEAL: OKTOBERFEST – MUNICH, GERMANY

The Annual Fall Festival of Oktoberfest started in 1810 as the celebration of marriage of the crown prince of Bavaria (King Louis I) to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen…aka the most German name we have ever heard!

As most things German do, it gradually evolved into a festival centered around food & beer and brings in over 6 million attendees.

It is steeped in tradition with parades featuring beer wagons & floats, folk costumes, beer halls galore, music, rides and lots of jovial singing and dancing.

Every year, the German breweries create a temporary ‘tent’ for the festivities. Now ‘tent’ does not even begin to do these justice as they are meticulously decorated, each with a theme congruent with their brand and they are huge…most holding over 5,000 people!

The setup typically starts three months in advance of the festivities and there were 17 of the large beer tents at the last Oktoberfest…this is serious business folks!

Now, we couldn’t talk about Oktoberfest without talking about the beer! Germany has only 2 rules when it comes to the beer served at Oktoberfest:

1) Each beer served must follow the Reinheitsgebot, a minimum of 6% alcohol and must be brewed with only pure ingredients

2) All Oktoberfest beer must be brewed within the Munich city limits and brewed by one of the Big Six breweries:
Augustiner
Hacker-Pschor
Lowenbrau
Paulaner
Spaten
Hofbrauhaus

And no, there is no US beer equivalent…you must head to Munich for the real deal!

Prost!!!