With sunbeams sparkling through the golden lager in my stein, the aroma of spit-roasted chicken perfuming the air, and traditional German music parsing through the breaks in table conversation, I found the Oktoberfest that I had been searching for in the Augustiner tent.
Having been brewed in Munich since at least 1328 (yes, that’s nearly 700 years of brewing), Augustiner’s helles beer is a favorite among the people of Bavaria. One taste and it became clear why: it’s all about the malt, which lends the beer a bouquet of fresh baked bread that’s gently punctuated by noble hops. Of course, since it’s the locals’ preferred beer, it also has the festival’s preferred tent. When I got there early in the afternoon, I had planned on simply having a beer and grabbing some quick lunch. Instead, after being coerced by some friendly locals—the incredible beer and chicken helped, too—I stuck around spent a rowdy night drinking, eating, singing, and dancing until they closed the tent at 11.
Of course, a night of revelry like that generally results in a morning of misery, and it goes without saying that I was in pretty bad shape when I woke up today. The beer and the jet lag both caught up to me, so I opted to avoid the festival grounds for a while. Instead, I headed into the heart of Munich and was happy to find a large open market in the city’s old town, full of butchers, charcutiers, cheesemongers and fresh produce. I made my way over to a stand serving wurstsalat, a traditional “salad” of cured pork sausage slices, pickles, onions, and radishes.
The sausage salad did the trick, and pretty soon I was making my way over to the Franziskaner beer hall. On offer was a roast suckling pig that had been basted with the brewery’s classic dark wheat beer, but I had to (reluctantly) turn it down in favor of several specials making use of plump, seasonal chanterelle mushrooms. It was definitely the right choice; my order of a giant bread dumpling surrounded by creamed chanterelles was the perfect complement for Franziskaner’s signature weisse
Tomorrow it’s off to Prague for a quick sampling of Bohemian brews, before returning to Munich and, hopefully, that beer-basted pig.
Pinterest
