Oktoberfest Texas Beer Area Results

I am not permitted to divulge exactly how many kegs we sold at this year's Oktoberfest. But, I can tell you that I was pleased to see how well the Austin and Blanco craft brewers did.

Independence Brewing Company brought their Austin Amber and their Inpendence Pale Ale. Real Ale Brewing Company brought Fireman's #4, and their new Oktoberfest.

To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. It had been ten years since we'd had Real Ale on tap at Okotberfest, and they did okay: I think about five kegs. This time, thanks to rain, things started off a bit slow. Early Saturday afternoon, Real Ale replaced their first two kegs. Later that night, I assumed sales would be slow, and when those replacement kegs ran out a little before 10 pm, we didn't tap new ones, so they left for the night. Shortly after they left, our distributors ran out of all the domestic Oktoberfest they had. On Sunday, we put fresh kegs up, and Real Ale had the only Domestic Oktoberfest beer on the grounds. Eventually, they sold eight kegs. And if I had been on top of my game, we might have had ten!

Independence had a slower weekend. They put a second keg of Amber on the line at 9 pm on Saturday night. We blew both the Pale Ale and the Amber Sunday afternoon--too late to tap another keg--but still selling completely out. They sold three kegs, in total. Though I have to say, the Pale Ale was, for my money, the best beer on the grounds. Amy Cartwright confided that they had only kegged it the week before, and I could tell. It had a nice citrus and pine hop nose, with a strong hoppy finish that I never experienced in the bottled product.

Once the Pale Ale ran out, I switched over to the Oktoberfest. That was my second favorite beer.

We're bringing the Texas beer area back next year, and we hope to entice some more Texas microbrewers to join the party. We are considering a "Meet the Brewers" session on Friday night. We haven't figured out how it would work, but I have a few ideas to present to the committee.

And if you didn't make it this year, pencil Oktoberfest in for 10/1-2/2010. I will make sure to have more Texas craft beer on hand.