“O’zapft is!” For the uninitiated, that means “the Oktoberfest has started!”, continuing the annual festival tradition that owes its beginnings to the Royal Wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese in 1810.
Were the Royal couple still alive today, they’d no doubt be in awe of the proliferation of their shindig. Today, Oktoberfest is the largest festival in the world, with some six million visitors, including many Australians, converging on Munich each year.
Of course, that won’t be happening in 2021. In May, the festival organisers announced the extension of the Oktoberfest hiatus until 2022, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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If you still want your Oktoberfest fix, grab a Prost Pack from Stomping Ground Beer and listen to our interview with Hannu Salonen – director of Netflix series Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood – on the Drinks Adventures podcast.
The Prost Pack includes:
- Festbier (5.8% ABV) The original style enjoyed at Munich’s Oktoberfest, with toasty malt characters and light biscuit notes, it’s clean, easy-going, and best drunk by the stein!
- Dunkelweissen (5.0% ABV) This dark Hefeweizen boasts a sweet maltiness and toasted biscuit-like characters, with notes of banana and clove resting in a lightly clouded body.
- Doppelbock (7.8% ABV) The strongest of our German styles, this bold brew gives off hints of dried fruit, rye bread and toffee. Enjoy with a burly bratwurst or Bavarian pretzel!
- Schwarzbier (5.2% ABV) With ‘schwarz’ translating to ‘black’, this roasty dark lager is rich with espresso and notes of dark rye bread that shine through the crisp, clean lager profile
- Kellerbier (5.4% ABV) A style that dates back to the beginnings of lagering in the Middle Ages, this ‘cellar beer’ is bready and biscuity, with a slightly hazy, amber-hued body.
- German Pils (5.2% ABV) Crisp and dry with moderate bitterness, this traditional German-Style Pilsner has sweet bready malt characters, with light floral and earthy spice hop aromas.
You can find it at selected independent bottleshops or purchase direct from Stomping Ground online.
More:
Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood director Hannu Salonen: S7E1
Lauren Sheppard of craft beer trailblazer, Moo Brew: S10E5
Brewmanity Beer Co opening South Melbourne brewery