Well it just so happens that I was invited to an Oktoberfest party, and today was also a race day, so lots of celebrating was in order!
It was a really great party, I guess several folks got into home brewing and made like a club out of it. Then they started thier own yearly Oktoberfest, and this was the 12th one. Each year it gets a little bigger. About 6 core brewers and a few others. 2 of them are friends from work, and there was actually about a dozen or so people I knew from work there (I was worried I was only going to know 1 or 2). This party was way bigger than I thought for just a backyard get together... they had tents (beer tent, food tent, desert tent, entertainment tent, etc) entertainment including a huge movie screen and projector, german or swiss or whatever dressed folks playing the alphorns and accordions, port-a-jons, and even commemorative large glass beer mugs.
And the best part of course... they had a
tap wall with 41 home brews on tap!
I couldnt ever get the whole thing in a pic, it was way to crowded. That shot there was at like 5pm before most everyone showed up. There were probably 200+ friends and family there by 8pm. There was also a table on each end of the tap wall with some other drinks, some wooden barrels with hard cider, some stronger stuff, home made wine table...
First time I saw alphorns up close!
It was great fun! Just wish a had a DD so I could have sampled some more brews! I was only taking about 2-3oz of each beer just to try it, and I still didnt sample half of them. Some of the brewers even grow their own hops. It was a nice variety from vanilla bean porter to IPAs (regular, double, ryes, and blacks) to christmas ales, oktoberfests, stouts, hard cider, it was all there. A nice way to celebrate a race victory!