Big Beer Weekend

Truly, the fall beer season is upon us. Lots of stuff to do this weekend in Austin. Everything listed is Saturday, except the NXNW event, which is Saturday and Sunday.

• Oktoberfest at North by Northwest: My ideal event. Bouncy houses and stuff for the kids, awesome beer, oom-pah music, and German food for me.
• The Second Annual Beer Festival at the Flying Saucer: Not so kid-friendly, but maybe the place to go if you don't want kids underfoot? Fantastic beer selection this year.
• Independence Brewing's Fifth Anniversary Party: Drink local! They'll be unveiling some new beers, including Convict Hill Oatmeal Stout and a Fifth Anniversary Beer. And bands in the evening.
• Oktoberfest at Ginger Man Pub: The first time they've done this. Featuring eight Oktoberfest beers, games, live music and authentic German food.
• Oktoberfest in Waterloo Park: Don't know much about this, but thanks to Craft Austin for tipping me off.
  

And that's all just a warm-up for Wurstfest in New Braunfels, beginning next weekend!

Oktoberfest/fall seasonals I've tried so far:

• Live Oak Oaktoberfest: Delicious. Had it at Hyde Park Bar & Grill.
  
• North by Northwest Oktoberfest: Delicious.
• Boulevard's Bob's 47 Oktoberfest: Delicious, and seems to get better every year.
  
• Real Ale Oktoberfest: Shockingly disappointing. Very mediocre, a rare let-down from one of my favorite breweries. Had it at Draught House. [UPDATE, October 2010: I'm not sure what was wrong with this beer last year, but my opinion is 180 degrees different this year. One of my favorites now.]
  
• Spaten Oktoberfest: Awful. What was I thinking? As soon as I saw it was in green bottles I should have walked away. Probably good on draft, but don't buy it in the store.
• Saint Arnold Oktoberfest: Best of the bunch. Oh damn, I love this stuff. As good as those others are, this has a richness that puts them a bit above the rest. Unsurprisingly, they were out last night at Draught House.
• New Belgium Hoptober: A really hoppy golden ale, but still has that same kind of richness as the Oktoberfest stuff. Imagine a fall IPA, if you will. This is the best of the fall seasonals in my opinion and really raises the bar for a brewery that already was a standard-setter.
• Abita Satsuma Harvest Wit: I never thought of wit as a fall beer, but this is harvest time for Louisiana satsuma oranges, so I guess "harvest" depends on what your local crop is. This very citrusy wit has been a wonderful find for me this year, as I've finally started developing a taste for wits. This is part of Abita's Harvest trio, the others being a Pecan Harvest and Strawberry Harvest. That Pecan Harvest intrigues me; I'll have to go grab some.
• Real Ale Coffee Porter: I've been drinking gallons of this lately, as this previously draft-only seasonal is now available in bottles. And a scoop I just got last night: This will be the cask offering at today's Firkin Friday at the Draught House (begins 3pm). Oh man, as much as I love this out of the bottle, I suspect the cask will blow my mind. I'm there.
  

Wurstfest Chicken Dance

Following up on my mini-review of this year's Wurstfest, I just had to post this:

No Wurstfest is complete without doing the Chicken Dance. From left, that's Ms. Noxious, my older daughter, Noxious Jr., my younger daughter (partially obscured), Bob Noxious (in beer hat, natch), little girl Nosregref, and M'Lady. Photography by Nosregref.

I'm not in the photo because I was off doing a poorly-timed phone interview for a political show on KOOP radio. (For future reference, if a radio station wants to interview you, I don't recommend doing it in a place where loud polka music is coming from one direction and a very active set of railroad tracks is off the other way.)

Damn, I hate missing the Chicken Dance.

Wurstfest Was Awesome

Sorry, no time for a lengthy post, but Wurstfest was awesome as always. If you like beer, polka, sausage, kraut, people in funny looking German outfits, potato pancakes with applesauce, and pretty much anything you can imagine dipped in batter and deep-fried, then you need to get to New Braunfels. It continues through Nov. 9.

Best beers down there: Paulaner Oktoberfest and Warsteiner Dunkelweizen. And I highly recommend the deep-fried Oreos, which are both delicious and nauseating at the same time.

Oh yeah, fantastic suggestion from Julie that turned out great: Instead of going there on our usual Saturday, we went down on the first Sunday. All the fun, but about 1/10 of the crowd and no hassles. Waiting in lines was minimal, and often, there were no lines at all. It's awesome to just drive right in to a parking place, and then walk up and get a beer, food, or onto a carnival ride instead of waiting an eternity. If you can get there on a non-Saturday, it's worth it. (Although I hear the second Sunday, the last day of the fest, can be about as bad as a Saturday.)

Big Festival Weekend

No, not ACL Fest, that's already gone by. Now it's time for the fall beer festivals, what with Oktoberfest time upon us.

North by Northwest's Oktoberfest has always been a favorite of mine, because, much like a scaled-down version of Wurstfest in New Braunfels, it has beer, sausages, and oompah music for me (not to mention cute waitresses in dirndls – that's them in the picture, plus "Pinty the Bear") and activities for my kids (bouncy houses, face painting, etc.). Anything that allows me to drink beer and not have to hire a babysitter is a good thing. That will be Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 4-5).

I'll have to go on Sunday, because Saturday I'll be at the new kid on the block, the Flying Saucer Fall Beer Festival. I don't see anything on their site about kid-friendly stuff, but it will be outside, so I assume the kiddos will have room to run around. (If not, then the Flying Saucer better do some tinkering before next year.)

[UPDATE: Oh, forgot: Today is also the 4th Anniversary Party of Independence Brewing! Happy Fourth, guys!]

Damn, this is really going to get me fired up for Wurstfest. And you know, sooner or later I'm going to have to check out Oktoberfest in Fredericksburg, but unfortunately, it's this weekend and I've already made my plans to be here in town. Maybe next year. Those Hill Country towns know how to do their German up right.

(Oh, and speaking of cute women in dirndls, I would be remiss if I did remind you to check out the best blog ever, Oktoberfest Girls, which has been having near-daily updates this month.)

Damn I Love Wurstfest

Sadly, this year's Wurstfest wasn't all it should have been – the older daughter got quite sick, with a nasty rash and 103-degree fever, so she wasn't leaving the house. However, my wonderful wife decreed that I should go with the younger daughter, which turned out to be a great move for both of us — apparently, those two had a great bonding experience with each other at home, and me and the YG did at Wurstfest. Sometimes it's good for kids to get some one-on-one time with one of the parents, without that annoying other sibling getting in the way.

So YG and I went with the Noxious family, Nosregref family, and Up From Sloth family and had a great time. In fact, I see that Bookhart has already beaten me in posting a recount of the evening. God, what a great idea Wurstfest is. I get a continual flow of Paulaner Oktoberfest beer in my cup. My kids (in this year's case, just one kid) get continual carnival rides, and all of us get yummy food – corndogs for the girl, sausage and kraut for me, and we crowned the evening with fried Oreos, which as disgusting as they might sound, are incredible (see picture).

Damn you should have seen the Noxious daughter in her lederhosen. It doesn't get much cuter than that. Everyone in the crowd was enraptured by watching her, the Nosregref daughter, and YG dancing on a table together to the polka band.

Hey NB Pete: Sorry we didn't hook up. Unfortunately, you New Braunfels residents can show up at Wurstfest at 10pm, whereas we out-of-towners have to make it more of a daytime thing. Since it doesn't end until next weekend, we might go back so that the OG doesn't feel cheated. If we do, I'll give you a call.

Wurstfest Is Almost Here!

My favorite little Texas/German beer-n-sausage celebration, Wurstfest, is right around the corner, and you're darn tootin' I'll be there. Since I doubt much about it has changed since last year, I'll just save myself some typing and refer you to what I wrote last year. Well okay, one thing has changed, the dates: Nov. 2-11.

Wurstfest!

We're going to Wurstfest tomorrow! Yea! It's drunken fun for the whole family. This awesome little Oktoberfest party down in New Braunfels, Texas, is billed as a "10-Day Salute to Sausage," but let's be honest: It's a 10-day salute to beer. And despite that, it's still a great family event. There's plenty of good food, ranging from brats and kraut to traditional carnival food for the kids, and even stuff like you'd expect at the state fair in Dallas, like fried Oreos.

Although most of those attending stick to their light beer, the organizers do have the good sense to make plenty of real German beer available, so I get to swill (if memory serves) lots of Paulaner and Spaten and maybe even Hacker-Pschorr. Mmmm. (I don't really comprehend drinking bland, watery American beer at a German festival, but to each his own.)

Plus, a continual parade of oompah music (which I love) in this really huge dancehall, and for the kids there are lots of carnival rides operated by stoned carneys (okay, that's a satirical comment, I have no actual proof, so don't anybody sue me, although I did have an almost deadly direct experience with less-than-sober carney in my youth. The guy was almost lynched right there on the spot by my father and my friend's father). God bless my wonderful wife, who promised to be our designated driver home, not a pleasant chore going up I-35 toward Austin on a Saturday night with likely drunken Oktoberfesters all around. Please folks, don't get behind the wheel until you're ready.

And despite this dispensation from M'Lady, I'll try to pace myself and not be too big of an ass. She said if I start vomiting she'll leave my ass there. Which is pretty good incentive. I don't particularly want to end up in the Comal County jail, as the whole county is run by Republicans.

And despite the way it sounds, no, I'm not going down there with the intention of getting blitzed (oops, poor choice of words for a German festival), but as we've learned, when you give me an endless supply of really yummy beer, I occasionally lose count of how many I've had. In fact, sometimes I completely lose my ability to count at all. But I'll try to be good.

EDIT: Heh-heh. So it ended up being the wife that puked, not me. Except she didn't puke until we got home. And it was pretty obviously some bad food, not alcohol, that caused it. But I'll still consider it a minor moral victory for me. (Kidding, honey!) Actually, I almost puked while listening to the Texas/Kansas State game on the way home.