GUD FEATURE ARTICLE

Celebrate the Season

We don’t need a reason to drink beer. But every year around this time, while thousands of people in Munich, Germany are raising liter mugs filled with tasty lager, we get a little restless. It’s as though a metaphysical force reaches over continents and across the Atlantic Ocean imploring us to party. So it only made sense to gather a few people and attempt to make a batch of big-ass pretzels while drinking as much Oktoberfest beer as we could.

Despite its name, the Munich Oktoberfest is actually celebrated through the last couple weeks of September and ends on the first weekend in October. The festival originated in 1810 to observe the marriage of the Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Today, it is the world’s largest fair and an important part of Bavarian culture. With massive drinking tents, carnival rides, traditional German fare, and an outrageous amount of beer, the festival is known throughout the world.

I was lucky enough to be in Munich during Oktoberfest some years ago. Pictures cannot do justice to the atmosphere in the Hofbräu-Festzelt, the largest of all the beer tents. This tent alone sells around half a million liters of beer and 70,000 roast chickens every year through the 16 day event. Imagine yourself drinking beer all day and singing along with a few thousand new friends while an Oom-pah band plays traditional drinking songs like Ein Prosit and, oddly enough, John Denver’s Country Roads. Apparently, beer drinkers like John Denver.

Naturally, it’s easy to overindulge at Munich’s Oktoberfest. Though I consumed multiple liters and even attempted to pick a fight with an English rugby team on one occasion, I was able to narrowly avoid becoming one of the “Bierleichen” (beer corpses). I did see a couple of people puking into garbage cans but that aspect wasn’t much different than Michigan State’s campus before an afternoon football game.

It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be sure and perhaps one of my fondest memories was eating soft pretzels the size of a small Rottweiler.

There is no big secret to making a decent soft pretzel. It’s just bread that gets a quick bath in boiling water before baking to create a deep-brown outer crust. Making those authentic, big-ass Oktoberfest pretzels is a different story, and our experiment didn’t quite turn out as anticipated. Handling the large twists of delicate dough after the water bath requires some specialized equipment. We were able to accomplish the water bath using a shallow, extra large stainless pot with a deep-frying basket. Though big-ass pretzels are quite impressive, we suggest going a less demanding route and making them small enough to handle with a slotted spoon.

Recipe for 1 dozen 6-inch Pretzels

Ingredients:

2-3/4 cups flour
1 tbsp Yeast
1 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 tbsp softened butter
1 cup warm water (~115 deg F)
Coarse salt (we like thin, flaked salt. Try Davids Kosher)

Steps:

Combine the water and yeast in a mixing bowl. When dissolved and beginning to froth, add 1-1/2 cup flour and remaining ingredients. Stir until thoroughly mixed.
Stir in the remaining 1-1/4 cup flour and knead until the dough loses its stickiness. Let the dough rise in a covered, greased bowl until it doubles in bulk.
Punch down the dough and divide into 12 pieces for traditional pretzels or two pieces for big-ass pretzels.
With your palms, roll the 12 pretzel pieces into 18-inch lengths about the thickness of a pencil, tapering the ends slightly. Loop the 18-inch length into the traditional pretzel shape, and place on a greased baking sheet.
Cover pretzels and allow the dough to rise until approximately doubled in bulk.
Preheat oven to 475. In a non-aluminum saucepan, prepare a boiling solution of:
- 4 cups water
- 5 tablespoons baking soda
With a slotted spoon, carefully lower the pretzels into the water for about one minute.
Return the pretzels to the greased baking sheet (or alternately, a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mat) and sprinkle with coarse salt.
Bake the pretzels until they are browned, about 12-15 minutes.

Serve with mustard and beer. Which beer? We’re glad you asked.

Oktoberfest beer, or Märzen, is a style that was traditionally brewed in spring to be cellared over the summer months. The alcohol content was slightly higher to prevent spoilage. It should be malty, clean, and deep golden to amber in color with no little to no hop flavor or aroma.

Because of the many American craft breweries that make a seasonal ale and call it an Oktoberfest, there is a common misconception that these beers should be deep amber to brown in color, fruity, and sometimes even hoppy. While we’re certainly not beer style fascists and like to take a beer on its own merit as well as compare it to a style, it does get annoying when some beer geeks disparage the lighter German Oktoberfest beers for not being made “to style”. It helps to remember that the Germans invented the damn style and imported German Oktoberfest beer is always a lager and will generally be lighter and cleaner than their American counterparts.

The official Oktoberfest may be over in Munich but many of the beers will remain on store shelves well into November. Drink up.

The Beers

Short’s Noble Chaos: Musty, grainy, and chocolate-y, this lager shows why most American breweries don’t even attempt true Oktoberfest lagers, opting for malty ales instead.

Spaten: Nicely balanced and light bodied, this finishes with a moderate bitterness. Not a remarkable beer but it’s a drinkable brew in a style that can sometimes be a bit too sweet. It’s possible our sample bottle had a bit of skunk. I’m not paranoid of beer in green bottles — but if they are sitting on a warm shelf under lights, buyer beware.

Harpoon: One of the better American Oktoberfests we sampled, this was more “on style” (in the German sense) than most of the other new world selections. Lighter than most, it was nevertheless malty, a tad fruity, and on the sweet side. Quaffable.

Ayinger: Sweeter and fuller bodied than most of the Germans, this would be hard to drink en masse, but it has its own merits: There’s a lot of depth to the malt characteristics, and for all the sweetness, it finishes fairly dry.

Bell’s: Smells and tastes a bit soapy with a grainy and bready texture. This one had a somewhat unfinished quality to it.

Hofbrau: Arguably the lightest beer in terms of body, it’s still quite malty. While it’s not as sweet overall as some others, it has no bitterness on the finish to clean it up so it comes off as awkward.

Sam Adams: We were pleasantly surprised by this beer, which has historically come off to us as a lower tier effort in the style. Compared to the Hofbrau, which preceded it, the Sam was notably weightier in body but less sweet overall. We went back to this later, and while coming after the Hofbrau was a favorable spot in the line-up, it still tasted surprisingly good later. Slightly more hop presence than the Germans, however.

Frankenmuth: Though drinkable outside the context of a tasting, this local version has an off flavor that makes it mediocre at best.

Schmohz: If the Short’s was a bit off style, the Schmohz shows a blatant disregard for what can reasonably be called Oktoberfest. A dark wheat beer, it was laudably dry, but it tasted like an amateur homebrew.

Paulaner: Almost unanimously the best of the Oktoberfest beers, this had the best balance of malt sweetness up front and a dry, lingering finish. As with most lagers and despite the intentional sweetness, drinkability is paramount with Oktoberfest, and Paulaner hits the sweet spot. Even after going back to the other German beers, this stands out in a casual re-tasting.

Weihenstephaner: Though not a part of our tasting I felt it important to mention this beer as I’ve consumed nearly two cases since the season began. With a malty, full body and just enough hop bitterness for balance, this is one of the more drinkable offerings out there.