This Weekend: Fremont Oktoberfest

From 5:00pm today to 6:00pm Sunday, you can visit Fremont's Oktoberfest!



Fremont Oktoberfest, a community celebration that turns the traditional Oktoberfest into a community celebration reflective of Fremont’s funky flair.

In old Germany, the brewing season began with the fall harvest of barley and hops and any beer left at harvest time had to be consumed before the new beer arrived. September was designated as the time to drink-up all of last season’s beer. It officially became Oktoberfest in 1810, when Ludwig I, the Crown Prince of Bavaria declared a 16-day celebration in commemoration of his wedding.

The highlight of the Fremont Oktoberfest may be the Stranger Microbrew Garden with over 70 beers, but over the past 11 years the celebration has grown to have something for everyone.

Join us for…

• The Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving Contest
• A kids' area featuring the favorite Zucchini 500 track and Root Beer Garden
• The 6th Annual Brew HA-HA 5K Run/Walk with the one of a kind Beer Belly Division and Team Division.
• Think you know Fremont? Try the ultimate scavenger hunt in the Center of the Universe, with the Brew HA-HA Street Scramble.
• A variety of festival food vendors
• The Carter Volkswagen festival entertainment stage packed with family-friendly fun
• Beck's By-The-Glass beer garden featuring Beck’s as the Official German Beer of Oktoberfest
• Even dogs have a day! Sunday has been coined Dog Day Afternoon!
• Bring your pooch with you to Run in the Brew HA-HA 5K or Street Scramble
• Enter in the Citydog Cover Dog Contest
• Accompany you in the Stranger Microbrew Garden (on Sunday only).

Like the Oktoberfest in Munich, the Fremont Oktoberfest would not be true to its name if it were not complete with a constant flow of great beer. Enter the Stranger Microbrew Garden and you will experience something like never before. With over 35 breweries pouring over 70 beers, for those 21 and over this is an experience you cannot miss. Returning this year with high demand is the Buxom Beer Garden within the Microbrew Garden featuring full glasses of beer. Complete with a rockin’ music line-up on the Adobe Main stage the Oktoberfest in Fremont packs all the fun of the 16-day celebration into one happening and unbelievable weekend.

Admission to the Stranger Microbrew Garden is $20, which includes a souvenir mug and 4 beer tasting tokens. The souvenir mug is only available while supplies last. Access to the Microbrew Garden is restricted to people 21+ with valid ID. Save $5 with advance tickets

And all this fun happens as a benefit for the Fremont Chamber of Commerce!
The mission of the Chamber is to promote the Fremont neighborhood, area merchants, and to provide funding for local art groups, schools, community events and overall promotion of Fremont for what it is today “The Center of the Universe”.

Beer?

For all you hopheads....

We tried the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA last night and WHOA! I don't know that it should still be considered beer. More like beer flavored liquor. With its 40 proof and all... I didn't make it through my glass, but it still makes for a good story.

From the Dogfish Head Website:

120 Minute IPA

Availability: limited - 3 releases scheduled for 2007

Release Date: Jan, May, Sept. 2007

Too extreme to be called beer? Brewed to a colossal 45-degree plato, boiled for a full 2 hours while being continuously hopped with high-alpha American hops, then dry-hopped daily in the fermenter for a month & aged for nother month on whole-leaf hops!!! Our 120 Minute I.P.A. is by far the biggest I.P.A. ever brewed! At 20% abv and 120 ibus you can see why we call this beer THE HOLY GRAIL for hopheads!

20% abv

120 ibu

In case you care... the average 12 oz. serving has 450 calories.



A more refreshing brew:

Pliny The Elder - AMAZING!! We tried this one after the Dogfish and were more than pleasantly surprised. It is my new favorite beer. Here's a great review:

A - Hazy pale golden amber body with two fingers of milky white head that receded into a quarter inch of retention and left some exquisite lacing around the glass. Modest amount of carbonation present.

S - This is about as West Coast as it gets! Pliny's aroma is to oranges as Dorado's is to grapefruit. This is basically like fresh squeezed orange juice in the form of a beer. However, there are some piney and perfumy notes to spice things up a bit, but overall this sucker's brimming with oranges. There's also plenty of balancing malts, with apparent sweet caramel and breadiness present, as well as a slight tinge of alcohol.

T - Juicy citrus fruit abounds in this exceptionally balanced DIPA. The pine, floral and perfume characteristics are also there, but more so just to spruce up the flavor a bit. Such a simple yet effective flavor. Bold citrus hops paired with sweet caramel and bready malt.

M - Smooth, creamy texture with a bit of oily hop residue on the palate. Softly carbonated and surprisingly only moderately bitter on the tastebuds with a fairly short duration. This has a wonderful balance of sweet and bitter characteristics. Overall, this is pretty light bodied, at least for a DIPA.

D - Superior drinkability for a DIPA for sure. I can't believe this is 8%! Pliny certainly drinks like a champ and is definitely worthy of all of the praise and hype.

Serving type: growler