Oktoberfest 2016 - Craft Beer Recommendations

If you truly want an IPA in Germany (so be it), I have no problem recommending beers from these guys:
http://www.newbeergeneration.de/
They're American ex-pats who have come up via the German brewing world.

 

Most german "Craft " Lagers are inferior to their traditional counterparts
Tilmans (out of Munich) and Camba Bavaria make some good ones.

In terms of IPAs i used to have Braukunstkeller as my #1, but they went bankrupt and fucked with their Recipe.
Hans Müller's Backbonesplitter is currently my #1 german IPA.
Schönramer and Camba Bavaria also make good ones.
Fyi, most german craft Beer tends to be unfiltered.

Porters & Stouts is kind of a wasteland in Germany.
I can only recommend Schönramer here and Riegele (a traditional Brewery also putting out "craft" styles)

 

Tony (@boddhitree) discussed this topic recently;

“Yes... lots of them. There's even a German IPA, which I define as an IPA/Pale Ale with lots of German malts, i.e. Münchner, Pils, Cara-whatever malts from Weyermann, maybe Rauchmalz (á la Pax Bräu) and then a decent hopping from American hops (á la Hanscraft, Brau Kunst Keller, Crew Replulic, et al.) I prefer it to American IPAs, which while being hop bombs, seem to forget that malts are there to give a beer balanced flavor, heft, decent mouthfeel and counterweight to powerful hops.”

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...a-good-german-beer.414082/page-6#post-4903999

Cheers!

 

Munich - tourist and overcrowded.

Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Regensburg are good time.

 

Bah -- it's worth it for anyone who hasn't been. Hit it on the off-peak hours and all is good (and stay the heck out of the HB tent!).

But I agree on the other recommendations too.

 

I honestly love the city of Munich, but I have no real desire to go there for Oktoberfest beyond the spectacle of it. I'm not that big of a Maerzen fan, either...at least not the typical Munich variety.
If anyone where choosing a time to visit Munich, I'd tell them May/June. The weather is warm (but not hot), maibocks are probably still around, biergartens are open, but tourist season hasn't kicked in.

 

I've always wanted to visit around the holidays -- maybe some day.

 

My very first trip there was a week before Christmas. The Christmas Market in Marienplatz is in full-swing and you can smell mulled wine in the air for blocks.
It's also a beautiful town when snow covered. Andechs was especially breathtaking. The knock on it is that it has that midwestern bone chilling cold because of the humidity. Well, that and the biergartens aren't open.

 

Just means that I'll fit right in.

But yeah, that snow-covered postcard image is what I had in my mind's eye.

Oh, and I've been in Denver in December -- cold is cold.

 

As a life-long southerner, I can handle cold with minimal wind and no humidity a lot better than that the windy 100% humidity variety. Munich definitely feels closer to Chicago than Denver.
We went to Neuschwanstein castle and the additional altitude (and wind) might have combined to be the coldest I've ever been. I'll take a -20 day in CO over that any day.

 

Been to Munich in Spring and Autumn and only felt uncomfortable in the rain, but there was always "shelter" around the next corner. Not sure how it is in Summer, but if it's not the hot and humid that Chicago into I'd be happy as a clam!

 

I can't speak for it all the time, but it's pretty close to Chicago year-round the times I've been. One year (2013) we encountered a heat wave and it felt like the deep south, which is even worse. The virtual lack of AC was pretty evident, too.

 

Actually Domingo , the Chinese Tower has beer at their
Christmas market

 

I'll add a comment here. As Domingo said, Munich is indeed beautiful at Christmas. It looks & smells just like you may have thought Christmas should when you were a kid. Very enchanting.

But for me Munich is at its best at other times of year when its not cold. Not just because the biergartens are open, but also for being outside in general, whether sitting out at a bar or gasthaus, riding bikes along the Isar or through the Englischer Garten, etc.

 

I never trekked into the Englischer Garten at Christmas. I assume it's fully turned into its own Christmas Market?

 

Unfortunately the Tower is the only market at the Garden .It's not that large, but gives one another market to check out.
Luckily it accessible by bus .

 

I have been at Oktoberfest the last two years and going again this year. One year is enough for me, but keep having friends who want to go, so I take them. Overall, it's a lot of fun, you just have to know what to do. Meaning, go at 10am or at latest 11am and DON'T go on the weekends and then it's fun. HB tent is the most fun as in the most tourists from all over, the other tents are great but it's lots of large families and you don't interact a lot with other people when it's mostly large family groups.

 

You take them? What a friend!

But I agree, go at the off-times and visit quiet Biergarten (or Hall) when everyone else is crowding the tents.

I will disagree with interaction with larger families and groups, I made a lot of fast friends at tents by striking up conversations with families -- one big group even invited us to sit at their table in order for us to order beer (you have to be seated in order to get a beer -- for initiates).

Many Müncheners speak English, but also appreciate a good attempt at stammering through their language.

 

We're going back for the second time this year - I would have been fine with going just once after two of us getting stitches and one concussion on the first night last time. But despite the political climate we're looking forward to it. Our favorite tents were Pauliner, Augustiner, and Hacker Pschorr (if I remember correctly), and we would get there before lunchtime and camp out at a non-reserve table so we could stay there for the ramped up parties in the evening. We made quick friends with families from Bavaria, some other tourists, and even some German military guys on leave - even people that didn't speak English would become part of the the table and have a great time. Actually, just recapping it is making me look forward to going back in two months.