Ahh Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest was quite a smash this year! We had some of the best weather, and the one of the best turnouts that we have ever had! The thirsty masses drank plenty of beer, devoured lots of brats, and danced to polka all saturday long.
Infact, it was soo good, that we are now out of oktoberfest! That right, we are completely sold out.. so if you see any in the stores.. snatch it up. Next year we will have to try to make more. Its always hard to judge how many people we will have and how good the weather will be… If we still have Oktoberfest on the shelves in November it just doesn’t sell, so we don’t want to over do it.
We also put the last kegs of 20th Anniversary Dopplebock on tap.. all of those kegs are now empty. We still have some cases of bottles though, so come don’t forget about those. The last one we tried was starting to develop some sherry notes.. this is a beer that will age very well!
Thanks a million to Russ Dietz and the Stray Cats from Minnesota for coming down like they do every year and putting on such a good show for everyone on saturday. They really know how to keep a crowd entertained!
The Homebrewers competition went very well. We had just shy of twenty entries.. all of them very good beers. The winners were:
Ales
1st Belgian Trippel by Mark Rippe of Cedar Rapids (declared “pure heaven” by the judges!)
2nd Jack’s “9″ by R.J. Taylor of Walford (an aged bourbon barley wine)
3rd Pale Ale by David Waite of Lisbon ( an excellent british style pale ale)
Lagers
1st Tazmanian Light Lager by PJ Laschansky of Cedar Rapids (very crisp and light)
2nd Amber Lager by Wayne Behne of Louden (a nice caramel flavor)
Teresa standing with Mark Rippe as he shows his 1st place and “Best of show” awards at the Festhalle on Saturday afternoon:
Well the beer cellar is looking pretty dry.. we are going to have to get brewing again and try to fill it back up!
Update: We won a Bronze Medal at the GABF for our Schild Brau Amber! Seems like we are on a roll, since this beer won a bronze in 2003, and a silver in 2004. We were sort of hoping for a gold this year, but third place out of 27 very good beers is nothing to complain about!