Prost of the Town
Your NYC Oktoberfest guide and two brewery anniversaries
Are you ready for some football? The NFL season starts tonight, and it inevitably results in me spending excessive amounts of time at a sports bar on a Sunday afternoon. There are a few New York City sports bars, thankfully, that offer good beer along with a good football viewing experience on Sundays, so I’ll often try to get to them at least once a season.
My personal favorite is Standings in the East Village, a bar so beloved by its fans that they often try to avoid mentioning it by name because of its postal stamp-like size. A certain national sports podcast last year chose to bleep out its name when discussing how great it is, fearful that it would bring crowds to it. The beer selection there is always rotating, and kegs regularly kick on big game days, opening up more options for those who celebrate variety. My backup is usually Keg & Lantern’s original location in Greenpoint, though both their other locations, in Williamsburg and Red Hook, are reliable for sports viewing, too. Another go-to for me has been Mudville 9, which is conveniently walking-distance from my day job for those Thursday and Monday night games. And one of the few reasons I go to Midtown these days is to cheer on a certain Boston-area team (sorry, not sorry) at The Three Monkeys, which is a solid spot for football watching if you don’t mind being surrounded by a bunch of fans who definitely all have a friend or family member with the nickname Sully.
What are your favorite football-and-beer spots in New York City (if you don’t mind blowing up your spot)? Leave them in the comments.
Your Annual NYC Guide to Celebrating Oktoberfest
The days are getting shorter and after sunset, it’s hoodie weather, which can only mean one thing: it’s time to celebrate the seasonal tradition of drinking copious amounts of German-style beer to coincide with the start of Oktoberfest in Munich.
For a little history: Oktoberfest began in 1810 as a celebration of the wedding of King Ludwig I to his bride Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The celebration grew as time went on, and has been held 187 times, with occasional cancellations due to war and disease — in fact, this is the first edition since 2019 due to Covid-19. It has grown into a two and a half week party that brings over six million people to Munich each year.
But wait, it’s September. Why do they call it Oktoberfest? Well, it was originally celebrated in October, but the Germans were practical about things: the weather in better in September, and their beer — usually brewed in July and August — is fresher, too.
So, from September 21st to October 6th in Munich, millions of gallons of beer will be consumed in seventeen huge tents dedicated to the mainstays of German brewing: Spaten, Hofbräu, Augustiner, Löwenbräu, Paulaner, and Hacker-Pschorr each have several tents, where they serve up a Maß, a one-liter glass of their beer, for around $16 US. Only beer brewed in Munich can be served at the event, and it’s mostly Märzen and its paler cousin Festbier that you’d be drinking there.
Anyway, if you can’t make it to Munich this year, there are plenty of opportunities to celebrate Oktoberfest here at home in New York. So, here’s a rundown of some of the ways our local bars and breweries are observing the event:
Strong Rope Brewery’s Strongtoberfest returns next Friday, September 13th. Starting at 2pm and lasting well into the evening, their Red Hook location will celebrate the arrival of fall with live music, pretzels and sausages, a stein hoisting contest, a stein sale, and Oktoberfest beers from Strong Rope and twelve more local breweries. It’s a free, pay-as-you-go event.
Saturday the 14th is the return of Wild East Brewing Oktoberfest at their taproom in Gowanus. Starting at 2pm, they’ll throw a party with wood-fired traditional German food, special beer releases, guest taps, a stein hoisting contest, and live German music.
Greenpoint Beer and Ale Co. also hosts their Oktoberfest party on Saturday, September 14th. Hope for good weather for a celebration on their rooftop, featuring their annual Marzen release and a stein-holding competition.
Save the date of Saturday, September 21st for Grimm Artisanal Ales’ Oktoberfest shindig at their brewery in Williamsburg. Details are still forthcoming, but last year’s celebration had lovely steins, special food, and a lineup of several house-made German-style beers.
If you prefer to celebrate in Queens on September 21st, Singlecut Beersmiths will host their Oktoberfest party at their three locations across the state, including their taproom in Astoria, featuring the release of Inexplicable Use of Umlaut, their annual Marzen that’s best suited for drinking out of a stein.
Loreley, a longtime German beer stalwart on the Lower East Side, will host their Oktoberfest celebration every day from September 12th through October 31st. Food and drink specials, steins of beer, Saturday keg tappings at 1pm, and Sunday pig roasts at 3pm are all part of the lineup, and there’s no cover to get into the fun.
Radegast Hall & Biergarten in Williamsburg hosts three consecutive day-long Saturday celebrations on September 21st, 28th and October 5th, offering loads of German beer, a live brass band, mug holding competitions, and a ceremonial keg tapping at 6pm each Saturday.
Both locations of Black Forest Brooklyn will celebrate Oktoberfest starting September 21st and running every weekend through October 26th. It’s the eleventh year of their party, which includes proper German decor, an oompah band, food and drink specials, a mug-holding competition, and a costume contest (don your best lederhosen). Tickets for both their Cobble Hill and Fort Greene locations are $15, and there’s an add-on package for three hours of unlimited beer.
Brooklyn Brewery hosts its Oktoberfest party on Wednesday, September 25th in their tasting room at 7pm. They’ll be serving up beers over live music, a stein holding contest, and an Oktoberfest food menu provided by their neighbors at Mables BBQ. Admission is free, the stein holding contest is $15.
Longtime East Village German spot Zum Schneider still lives on in spirit each year with their Oktoberfest celebration, Munich in Brooklyn in East Williamsburg, which is back at 3 Dollar Bill for a third year. Drink beer under the tent, with tickets available from September 26th through October 6th. It’s arguably one of the most traditional celebrations in the city, with traditional music, beer in liter steins, German food, and a boisterous atmosphere under the tent. Tickets are required and can be purchased in advance.
And while there probably won’t be as much lederhosen being donned at the NYC Brewers Guild’s Blocktoberfest, it’s worth mentioning it’s happening on September 29th from 1-5:30pm. The fall celebration of New York City beer (and fundraiser for the guild) happens indoors at Brooklyn Brewery’s taproom this year, featuring pours from many of the city’s best brewers. Tickets are on sale now.
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 3,530
Total breweries visited in 2024: 246
Total breweries visited in Victoria, Australia: 22
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #3313, Gales Brewery, Brunswick East, Victoria, Australia (Visited 18-Jan-2024)
Australia is having a rough go of things lately, brewery-wise. A significant number of breweries are closing across the nation, many attributing it to payback of government-backed loans from their Covid shutdown, as well as corporate consolidation of larger breweries resulting in more power for big brands at retail. And it seems to be happening at a swift pace — of the five breweries I visited on January 18th of this year, three have closed in the eight months since. Three of those breweries, in the Brunswick East suburb of Melbourne, were within walking distance of each other, and two of those have closed. Thankfully, my favorite of those three remains: Gales Brewery.
I love a good neighborhood brewery. Before I had even taken a sip of beer at Gales, my initial impression was that this was a place I’d like to spend more time. In fact, I ended up sticking around for more beer because I was enjoying the warmth of the space so much. For a brewery in a warehouse, the design made the taproom feel so welcoming (the friendly service helped, too). It was leafy, had a large outdoor space, modern without being overdesigned, spacious without feeling cold, yet still a place that, with a brewhouse in the room, reminded me that I was at a brewery. And the beer was indeed well-worth sticking around for. I enjoyed the Gale Street Lager (named for the street where the brewery is), the 3057 Pale Ale (named for the postal code where the brewery is), and East Side Dunk Dunkelweizen (named for the side of town where the brewery is).
I’m rooting for Gales to succeed in a very challenging environment. They’ve created a truly special space and two years into their run, I hope they can stand the test of time.
The Doom and Gloom Tracker
At least 4 breweries I’ve visited closed or announced their closure this week:
Brewery #796, Great Flats Brewery, Schenectady, New York (Visited 26-Mar-2017)
Brewery #1218, Fatty’s Beer Works, Charleston, South Carolina (Visited 11-Aug-2018)
Brewery #1814, Crucible Brewing, Everett, Washington (Visited 30-Dec-2019)
Brewery #2532, Long Beach Brewing Company, Oceanside, New York (Visited 14-Jan-2022)
The Weekly Reader
One of New York’s first-wave breweries expands [Gillian Burdett, Lake George Examiner]
For the love of God, please stop calling hazy IPAs “American IPAs” [Doug Veliky, Beer Crunchers]
The regional niches of American craft beer [Evan Rail, VinePair]
The Brewery Rent is Too Damn High [John Holl, Wine Enthusiast]
One Last Thing
It’s a big weekend for brewery anniversaries in New York City. Kings County Brewers Collective kicks off their weekend-long 8th Anniversary celebration tonight with free Treberwürst at 5pm and a live recording of the Do You Even Drink Beer podcast at 7:30pm. The party continues with events and releases on Friday and Saturday.
Meanwhile, it’s a big outdoor bash for Sixpoint Brewery… they’re celebrating their 20th anniversary this weekend in Red Hook with a party on Saturday afternoon from 2-7pm at Erie Basin Park, next to IKEA. They’ll be slinging $5 beers, local eats, live DJs, and plenty of giveaways (including free anniversary t-shirts for the first 100 people through the door).
Congrats to both breweries on hitting these milestones!
Cheers,
Chris