Are You Ready for Oktoberfest 2022?
by David Klemt
Oktoberfest, one of the single best beer events and promotions operators can program for, kicks off on September 17 and goes through October 3.
Impressively, this year represents the 187th Oktoberfest. Of course, this would be the 189th Oktoberfest if Covid-19 hadn’t forced Munich to hit pause on the celebration.
At noon Central European Summer Time, Orktoberfest will tap the first keg. Then, Munich’s Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter will declare, “O’Zapft is!” The Bavarian phrase translates to, “It is tapped!” (For you linguistics nerds out there, the phrase is, “Es ist angezapft!” in German.)
In America, that means Oktoberfest will kick off at 1 AM HAST, 2 AM AKDT, 3 AM PT, 4 AM MT, 5 AM CT, 6 AM ET or 7 AM AST.
For Canada, those times are 3 AM PT, 4 AM MT, 5 AM CT, 6 AM ET, 7:30 AM NT.
Clearly, that’s pretty early for most people to start drinking beer. But hey, if you’re in a market like Las Vegas there may be people who want to kick off Oktoberfest at your bar at 3:00 in the morning.
The Official Oktoberfest Breweries
You may have heard that there are rules about which breweries can actually be at Oktoberfest. Well, that’s not a rumor.
To clarify, just six breweries in Munich can serve beer at this world-famous event. Those six breweries are:
- Augustiner
- Hacker-Pschorr
- Hofbräu
- Löwenbräu
- Paulaner
- Spaten
So, why does Oktoberfest limit the event to just these breweries? Essentially, this move is to ensure that this Munich-based event remains a Munich-based event.
Luckily, it’s not too difficult for operators to get their hands on Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Löwenbräu, and Spaten. Really, it just depends on the relationship an operator has with distributors the region in which they operate.
Oktoberfest Outside of Munich
Of course, an operator need not serve only the official Munich beers to celebrate Oktoberfest wherever they’re located.
Plenty of brewers outside of Munich brew seasonal Oktoberfest (or Octoberfest, as it were) beers. For example:
- Bell’s
- Brooklyn Brewery
- Founders
- Great Lakes
- Jack’s Abby
- Sam Adams
- Sierra Nevada
- Summit Brewing
- Warsteiner
And when it comes to food programming, the Munich event serves some delicious bites. It should go without saying that yes, the following pair well with beer:
- Roast chicken
- Roast pork
- Pounded, breaded thin cuts of meat (schnitzel)
- Sausages
- Brats
- Pretzels
- Tarte flambée (flammkuchen)
- Potato pancakes (kartoffelpuffer)
- German potato salad
- German “cottage fries” or fried potatoes (bratkartoffeln)
- Sauerkraut
- German beer cheese spread (obatzda)
- German red cabbage (rotkohl/blaukraut)
Truly, this is an amazing time of year. Just over two weeks of great beer and delicious comfort food.
To learn more about this annual celebration of beer, visit the official Oktoberfest website.
Image: Kurt Liebhaeuser on Unsplash