Krautfest 2009

In Deutschland, Oktoberfest starts off with a bang: At noon on the festival’s opening day, the reigning mayor of Munich taps the first keg and officially proclaims ‘It is tapped,” over a 12-gun salute and the “beer corpses” start piling up. That is partying.
In their spirit, Hot Knives and friends are throwing what we call ‘Over the Top Oktoberfest’ this coming Sunday, Oct. 4 at Verdugo bar. There will be an arm wrestling tournament on the back patio tables with both men’s and women’s heats. There will be an onslaught of Black Forest boogie and autobahn disco from an amazing line-up of vinyl wizards. And yes, there will be vegan German food.

In a land famous for its pork knuckle what could possibly be vegan, right? Well, we’ve been home-fermenting gallons of different flavors of sauerkraut, for starters. We’re whipping up an infamous kartoffelsalat. We are calling our veggie beer brats Rauchwursts (you’ll need some German to figure out why) and of course we’ll also be serving… Hefeweizen popsicles. Recipes forthcoming too.
The bar happens to have Craftsman Oktoberfest on tap right now, as well as a rare selection of Berliner weisse fixings, including genuine Woodruff and raspberry syrups (if you’re like that.)
The shindig’s free, just like in Munich. But bring cash for the food and do some push-ups in the morning if you plan on competing in the day’s arm sport contest.

If for whatever shitty reason, you can’t or don’t want to come, you have another option!
In celebration of L.A. Beer Week (which runs Oct. 15-24) the Bavarian princes behind Verduo bar are throwing an honest-to-god Oktoberfest garden throw-down at the Descanso Gardens on the last day, Oct. 24. Think of it as the opposite of Munich’s elected officials screaming “It’s tapped.” Except instead of all the pomp, you’ll have 70 American and Belgian brewers who could prolly kick Deutschland’s ass in a hop war. And it’s set in the gorgeous 5-acre Rosarium. You need to buy ticket’s ASAP we’re told. We’ve seen the list of brewers who will be pouring at this thing, talk about beer corpses by the end of it. See you there!