{"id":600,"date":"2009-09-17T13:30:21","date_gmt":"2009-09-17T11:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=600"},"modified":"2015-04-27T22:05:06","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T20:05:06","slug":"oktoberfest-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/oktoberfest-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Oktoberfest in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask any American to name a cultural event in Germany, and you’ll get a quick answer: Oktoberfest. If five to seven million people are going somewhere to drink beer, word’ll get around<\/span>. But this has, I think, a lot to do with the fact that America itself is a beer-drinking country.<\/p>\n

Sure, fine wines are produced along the West Coast and drunk on the East Coast as well; but everywhere in between, beer is what’s served. It’s something most people will drink, and it’s an equalizer<\/span> among all levels of society \u2014 if you don’t look at the brand labels<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Coors and Miller are marketed to<\/span> working-class people; Budweiser, which used to call itself “the king of beers”, still aims for a more sophisticated<\/span> clientele<\/span>, though Samuel Adams<\/a> has since won over<\/span> that group. The Mexican brand Dos Equis has been a favorite of college students for more than a generation, though those with deeper pockets and refined<\/span> tastes will order a European beer such as Beck’s instead.<\/p>\n

Local brands are hit or miss<\/span>: the Iron City brewed<\/span> in Pittsburgh is drunk not so much for enjoyment, but to show local pride<\/span>. (“You can taste the iron<\/span> in it” is what my dad used to say.) By contrast, anything calling itself a “microbrewery<\/span>” aims to produce something special.<\/p>\n

A common history<\/h2>\n

One can thank the 19th-century German and Dutch immigrants who settled in the grain<\/span>-producing areas of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio, as well as parts of New England. They developed an American style of beer<\/a> that ignores German purity guidelines<\/span>, allowing the addition of things like rice and corn<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Any American will admit that Germany sets the world standard<\/span> for how beer should taste. So it’s no surprise that many people dream of one day going to the Oktoberfest. They dream this dream without any awareness of the usurious<\/span> prices, nor of the utter<\/span> lack of breathing space, unoccupied<\/span> seats, ventilation<\/span>, clean rest rooms<\/span> or, as it would appear, concern for fire codes<\/span>. They also cannot imagine the phenomenal level of drunkenness more than a few of the tourists achieve.<\/p>\n

No, what stops most Americans from going is the relatively high cost of traveling to and within Europe. And this is where US ingenuity<\/span> takes over. They’ve created their own Oktoberfeste<\/a>. By the hundreds<\/span>. Any medium-sized city with even a handful of people who claim German ancestry has at least one such event going on at this time of year.<\/p>\n

Room for local tastes<\/h2>\n

Unlike the original Oktoberfest, which carefully maintains<\/span> a strong and very standardized Bavarian character in its radishes, chicken and Radler<\/i>, the American Oktoberfeste aim to suit<\/span> local tastes. Recipes<\/span> allow plenty of substitutions<\/span> and locally familiar ingredients: hot dogs<\/span> may be passed off as<\/span> Bratw\u00fcrste<\/i>, cole slaw<\/span> often contains carrots and mayonnaise, and dishes from other German-speaking areas, such as potato pancakes, are allowed.<\/p>\n

What make these festivals special is that, whether they’re sponsored by the city or by private groups, they are almost always staffed<\/span> by volunteers who bring their grandmothers’ recipes and share stories of where their families came from.<\/p>\n

These people love to talk about Germany, and they have time to talk to the guests. And that’s why you should go. They would love to meet you. A real German in their midst<\/span> is always given a hero’s welcome \u2014 as are Austrians and Swiss.<\/p>\n

Did I mention that the food is cheap and that you’ll always find a place to sit? You also don’t need to worry about drunks. Nearly everyone is local, comes by car and is careful to drink only in moderation<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Someday, perhaps, the powers that be<\/span> will follow my advice and move the German Oktoberfest to an area outside of town large enough to handle<\/span> the crowds. But until then, I’m going in search of a more dignified<\/span> beer-drinking experience. The leaders of 20 important countries will be following my example when they join me in Pittsburgh next week. Prost!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ask any American to name a cultural event in Germany, and you’ll get a quick answer: Oktoberfest. If five to seven million people are going somewhere to drink beer, word’ll get around. But this has, I think, a lot to do with the fact that America itself is a beer-drinking country. Sure, fine wines are produced along the West Coast … >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[95,63,121],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1709,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions\/1709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}