Your Guide to Oktoberfest in NYC
Where to don a dirndl and sip a stein in the city
Imagine attending a beer festival where you don’t feel rushed… where there’s no pressure to “get your money’s worth” or stand in long lines out of fear you might miss out or rush from booth to booth to because you might run out of drinking time. It seems almost like a foreign concept to American beer drinkers, mainly because it is quite literally foreign.
Yes, beer festivals exist outside of the US where you pay one price to drink all you want, but it’s not necessarily the prevailing model that it is here. BXL Beer Fest in Brussels is the perfect encapsulation of what happens when you develop a welcoming, relaxing atmosphere to sip beer at your own pace. You pay a modest entry fee that entitles you to admission and a glass, and then you simply pay for the beers you want to drink with tokens that you can purchase separately — in pours of either 8 or 15 centiliters (2.5 or 5 ounces), depending on the beer.
With sixteen hours of drinking time across two days, you’re encouraged to sip slowly, enjoy the beer, chat with the brewery staff, and stick around for a while. No one seemed particularly inebriated, and the beer nerds spent their time fussing over sips while taking copious notes. You could even step away for a seminar or separate tasting and not feel like you were missing out on what was pouring on the festival floor.
I get that the appeal of a festival model like this might be lost on some American beer drinkers, and there’s still the potential for over-imbibing by a culture that has a penchant for binge drinking. But I’d really like to see more beer festivals Stateside that give this model a try.
Now, on a completely opposite note, let’s talk about drinking copious amounts of beer from one-liter steins!
Your Annual NYC Guide to Celebrating Oktoberfest
It’s that time of the year again — time to celebrate the seasonal tradition of drinking copious amounts of German-style beer to coincide with next week’s 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 17th to October 3rd in Munich, millions of gallons of beer will be consumed in seventeen huge tents dedicated to the mainstays of German brewing: Spaten, Löwenbräu, Paulaner, and Hacker-Pschorr each have several tents, where they serve up a Maß, a one-liter glass of their beer, for around $14 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.
This time of year, I inevitably get this question from someone who clearly doesn’t know me well: have I been to Oktoberfest? Of course I haven’t. Oktoberfest isn’t about beer. It’s about drinking. I have no interest in getting rowdy in lederhosen. If you want to drink Märzen and Festbier without wading through a bunch of drunks, I’d recommend booking a trip to Munich in mid-October. I did this a few years ago and got to reap all the benefits of these traditional beers without all the crowds.
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 is first out of the gate, with their Strongtoberfest happening next Friday, September 16th. Starting at 2pm and lasting well into the evening, their Red Hook location will celebrate the arrival of fall with Polka music, sausages, a stein hoisting contest, and Oktoberfest beers from Strong Rope and a dozen local breweries. Tickets are available in advance, and including an admission ticket with limited edition stein and your first beer inside it.
Radegast Hall & Biergarten hosts three consecutive Saturday celebrations on September 17th and 24th and October 1st, offering loads of beer, a live brass band from 3-6pm, mug holding competitions, and a ceremonial keg tapping each Saturday at 6pm.
Saturday the 17th is a big day for breweries in the city hosting their Oktoberfest celebrations. The Bronx Brewery hosts Oktoberfest in der Bronx, a day long ticketed event with music and food and pitcher specials in their backyard — each ticket includes a pour of their Das Bronx. Singlecut Queens has a pay-as-you-go party from 1-7pm, with food, local vendors, a stein hoisting competition, and a costume contest. KCBC is hosting their Zoktoberfest in their taproom all day Saturday and Sunday with limited edition steins and lots of Märzen. And Big aLICe’s LIC and Industry City taprooms both host a party with the release of their Oktoberfest beer, selling dimpled mugs, and hosting their own stein holding competition.
Torch & Crown Brewing hosts their Oktoberfest celebration on Saturday, September 24th, all day at their taproom in Manhattan. $75 tickets include three hours of all-you-care-to-drink beer under their tent, featuring their High Brau and Low Brau brews. Expect steins, music, drinking games, and some big ol’ pretzels.
Longtime East Village German spot Zum Schneider may be long closed, but their Oktoberfest celebration lives on with this year’s Munich in Brooklyn at a new venue in East Williamsburg. They’ll still put on a show under the tent, with tickets available from September 30th through October 9th. 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.
The Grand Delancey will be hosting their Oktoberfest celebration with a wide array of both American and German-brewed German-style beers from the likes of Suarez Family, Schilling, Schlenkerla, and Ritterguts. All German-style drafts will be available in half-liter and full liter mugs along with two-liter boots. They’ll have live Oompah music, food specials, and more excitement from noon to close.
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 October 1st from noon to 4:30pm. The fall celebration of New York City beer (and fundraiser for the guild) returns to the Brooklyn Navy Yard this year on October 1st, featuring pours from many of the city’s best brewers. Tickets are on sale now.
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 2,798
Total breweries visited in 2022: 269
Total breweries visited in Belgium: 12
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #2796, Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen, Lot, Beersel, Belgium (Visited 4-Sep-2022)
Back in March, I was heartbroken reading the news of the passing of Armand Debelder, the legendary Belgian beer blender who helped keep the tradition alive through some of the darkest times for Belgian beer traditions in the late 20th century. The outpouring from people who knew him both here in the US and abroad made me wish I had the chance to cross paths with him, as I idolized his beers as my interest in Geuze and Kriek grew.
While I regret not visiting 3 Fonteinen for the first time until after Armand’s passing, it felt appropriate to visit during their annual Open Beer Days, a special event in which they pull out all the stops with beer releases, music, outdoor seating, and even a bouncy house for the kids. Sitting outside on a picture perfect day drinking some incredible blends at the source couldn’t have been better. Roaming the property to see where he worked his magic for decades was particularly emotional, and the staff was incredibly welcoming and helpful to guide us through their dizzying menu of beers. One we settled on was a 12-year old bottle of Armand’4 Lente, named for the legend himself, and a beer made specifically to raise money for the new location on which we sat. It was really special to be here, spending time with old friends and making new ones. This is one of the visits I’ll never forget, and I hope to be back again some day.
Social Post of the Week
Long Read of the Week
I’ve been meaning to share this piece on Vinepair from Josh Bernstein about the trend of breweries opening in food halls for a few weeks, but I was reminded of it on Tuesday night when I wandered into a food hall in the center of Brussels, Belgium and accidentally came across a brewery that was making beers in a corner of a huge room that served everything from Syrian food to steaks. The beers were poured from serving tanks hanging above the bar at the center of the food hall. Guess this trend is really real.
One Last Thing
A reminder that this weekend marks six year anniversaries for two breweries just blocks apart in Brooklyn: KCBC and Interboro… and next weekend, it’s Daleview Biscuits and Beer’s fourth anniversary. I always make it a point to stay home for most of September for events like these, so if you happen to be celebrating, please say hello! See you all around.
Cheers,
Chris