Food

Get your beers – and shoes – sorted for Oktoberfest

Can’t make it to the Munich festival? Then grab yourself some German beers or head to an Irish Oktoberfest

Only beers brewed within the city limits of Munich are served at the festival, and all beers must be made in keeping with Germany’s strict reinheitsgebot or purity brewing law

Sorcha Hamilton's face
Sorcha Hamilton
Sat Sep 23 2017 - 06:00

A new vomit- and beer-proof sneaker is hitting the shops just in time for this year’s Oktoberfest in Munich. Made by Adidas, the special edition shoe has “prost” – which translates as cheers – written on the side and represents “the true spirit of Oktoberfest”.

Dating back to 1810, the festival has come a long way since its wholesome beginnings as a small marriage celebration for a Bavarian royal couple. Now, it attracts an average of six million visitors each year. It’s truly massive in scale, with some of the larger beer tents holding up to 7,000 while there is seating for some 100,000 people at the festival. A reported 75,465 pork shanks, 140,000 sausage links and more than seven million litres of beer was consumed there in 2016.

Over the years, however, the Oktoberfest has struggled with complaints about drunkenness and recently, some have threatened to boycott the event because of the rising price of Maß – 1 litre measure – which is about €10.

Only beers brewed within the city limits of Munich are served at the festival, and all beers must be made in keeping with Germany’s strict reinheitsgebot or purity brewing law.

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Spaten is one of Munich’s big six breweries and its tasty Oktoberfestbier lager is available here – if you can’t make it to the real thing. It’s also part of Aldi’s special Oktoberfest offer with beers for €2.49 from Maisel’s Weisse, Bitburger and Benediktiner.

Dublin

For a smaller, Irish take on the German festival head to George’s Dock for Oktoberfest Dublin this weekend, which runs until October 1st, for bratwurst, pretzels, Erdinger beers and more.

Or head to Co Mayo for Oktoberfest West which takes place on the grounds of Westport House on Saturday, October 7th. There’ll be Irish trad music, German sauerkraut and sausages from local Jack & Eddie’s and plenty of very fine beer from Mayo’s Mescan brewery.

@ITbeerista beerista@irishtimes.com

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