The beer festival is a great opportunity for beer gourmets to get together, discuss their favorite beers and try new flavors presented by the best breweries in the world. Dozens of such events take place every year: for example, at least 2016 major beer festivals are planned in 34, and this is only in Europe and the USA, not counting Russia, Australia, Asia and Africa.
Beer festivals in Germany
The descendants of the Landsknechts know a lot about malt alcohol. Wheat beer and fried bacon, one might say, have become a kind of symbol of the nation, along with the standard order, impeccable car industry and blond beauties.
1. Oktoberfest
Location: Germany, Munich, Terezin meadow.
Time: Last Saturday in September – first Sunday in October.
The first Oktoberfest took place in 1810 in honor of the marriage of the future Bavarian king Ludwig I and Teresa of Saxony of Hildburghaus. Everyone liked the holiday so much that it was decided to hold it annually, since then this rule has practically not been violated, except for a few years “fallen out” due to world wars and epidemics.
Today it is the largest and most famous beer festival in the world, which has acquired its own traditions, public and unspoken laws. Every year, the best brewing houses set up tents on Terezin Meadow that can accommodate up to 10 people. At the festival, you can taste any kind of beer, from traditional to craft. The holiday is so popular that even a new profession has appeared – a beer guide: wealthy tourists hire a professional to guide them to the best places and advise them what they should definitely try.
At Oktoberfest, there are rides for children and adults, folklore musical groups perform, strongmen and tricksters compete: this large-scale folk festival has long gone beyond the usual beer festival and has become a separate subculture.
2. Strong Beer Festival (Starkbierzeit)
Location: Germany, Munich.
Time: February.
A kind of spring analogue of Oktoberfest: this festival begins two weeks after the Catholic Shrove Tuesday and lasts 17 days. Special strong beers are presented at the festival, a mandatory condition for participation for the drink is the content of at least 7.5% alcohol. This event is not widely publicized in the world media, and therefore not so popular among tourists, although locals love it no less than the famous October festival.
The date of the holiday is not in vain timed to coincide with the Christian calendar – the fact is that the tradition was started by the monks, who in the XNUMXth century, before Lent, brewed especially strong and dense beer in order to survive on it during the days of forced starvation.
3. Bergkirchweih
Location: Germany, Erlangen.
Time: Last Thursday before Holy Trinity Day.
At the festival, strong seven-degree beer specially brewed for him, plum liqueur, wheat pretzels, and other traditional drinks and snacks are served.
4. Pichelsteinerfest
Location: Germany, Bavarian Forest.
Time: Summer.
Initially, the holiday was conceived as a large-scale motor rally, but over time, the festival gradually turned into a beer festival (it seems that there is something in the atmosphere of Bavaria that makes people drink more beer than in all other German territories combined …). Now in the Bavarian Forest you can not only pay tribute to the art of local brewers, but also admire fountains, ride gondolas, and participate in original competitions.
5. Berlin International Beer Festival “Beer Mile”
Location: Germany, Berlin.
Time: First weekend of August.
The territory of the holiday becomes actually a “state within a state”: it is divided into 21 regions, its own “laws” apply here. Despite the name, the beer tent walkway is over a mile long, averaging 2 km. Every hundred meters there are concert venues where both well-known and less popular local musicians perform. In 2016, the festival will celebrate its twentieth anniversary, so you can expect really large-scale festivities and festivities.
6th Gäuboden folk festival
Location: Germany, rural Bavaria, Straubing.
Time: August.
The second largest Bavarian beer festival began once as an exhibition of the achievements of the national economy and a place for the exchange of farming experience. Now, more than 200 years later, this is another celebration of the foamy drink, which annually gathers more than a million guests from all over the world. However, the most important thing is that this is not a “pop and hyped” festival – it enjoys the respect and love of the Bavarians themselves, and this says a lot.
7. Folk Festival (Cannstatt Volksfest)
Location: Germany, Stuttgart.
Time: End of September – beginning of October.
The festival overlaps with Oktoberfest, but it’s just as fun and exciting, so you’ve got nothing to lose if you choose Stuttgart over Munich. Craft beer, rides, Germans in national costumes, ruddy Fraulein and beer tents, which are already familiar to the regulars of such events. This holiday is considered more domestic and family, although there is no need to talk about intimacy: every year about 4 million guests come to the “folk festival”.
Beer festivals in the Czech Republic
Yaroslav Hasek’s compatriots are also not averse to missing a mug or two of beer. In the art of producing this drink, the Czechs have achieved serious success and regularly pay tribute to their national pride at thematic festivals.
1. Glorious Beer or Golden Beer Seal (Zlatá Pivni Pečet)
Place: Czech Republic, until 2016 the city of Tabor, since 2016 – Ceske Budejovice.
Time: set by the organizers.
A traditional festival where guests can taste rare craft beer, brewed specifically for the holiday and not exported. Also in the entertainment list are planned various competitions, strong alcohol tastings, musical performances, folk dances, tents with Czech snacks.
2. Czech Beer Festival
Location: Czech Republic, Prague.
Time: spring.
At the end of spring, the Czech capital turns into a real beer town: both local brewers and world-famous producers come here. In the tents there are varieties for every taste, from the classic “cold, malt and water” to incredible recipes with the addition of fruit essences and spices. The festival uses its own currency – all payments are made in thalers, the cost of one thaler is 45 CZK.
3. ižестиваль минипивоваров Žižkovské pivobrani
Location: Czech Republic, Prague, Zizkov.
Time: set by the organizers every year.
The peculiarity of this festival is reflected in its name: the owners of mini-breweries gather here, producing beer and ale according to “home” recipes. The indescribable atmosphere of a family holiday “for your own” is preserved even in spite of thousands of guests from all over the world. Here you can taste not only classic varieties, but also fruit or honey beer and even beer ice cream.
This also includes several other craft beer festivals – they are also held in Prague and are almost the same format as Žižkovské pivobrani.
4. Žatecká Dočesná
Location: Czech Republic, Zatec.
Time: first days of autumn.
The holiday is timed to coincide with the harvest of hops, so every year it falls on new dates, but always invariably takes place strictly on the first weekend of autumn. Competitions, performances by beer sommeliers, harvesting speed competitions, selection of the best producer and, of course, tasting of many beers are waiting for guests.
5. “Sun in glass” (Skunce ve skle)
Location: Czech Republic, Pilsen.
Time: set by the organizers.
This is still a very young holiday, it is not even ten years old, but the festival has already become world famous and is loved by malt drink connoisseurs not only from the Czech Republic, but also from other countries. “Sun in Glass” is not an ordinary event, one of a number of its kind, but a real triumph of brewing art.
6. Pilsner Fest
Location: Czech Republic, Pilsen.
Time: October 3rd.
Birthday of one of the most famous Czech beers. In the program: music, dancing, tours of the brewery, competitions in extreme sports, tasting of Pilsner beer. This is the largest beer festival in the Czech Republic, and although it is very far from German analogues in terms of the scale of the action, it still attracts about 60 thousand guests every year.
Beer festivals in Russia
Russia, frankly, has not yet presented the world with exceptional beers that have thundered across all continents. And yet, we also love and know how to drink intoxicating lagers, stouts and ales, and they never mind getting together with a large group of like-minded people and taking a walk at a thematic festival for several days.
1. Big Craft Day
Location: Russia, Moscow.
Time: summer.
The Craft Brewers Festival will be held for only the second time this year, but last year it was an incredible success, and there is no reason to think that this summer there will be fewer people who want to sample the products of small Russian breweries.
2. Moscow Beer Festival
Location: Russia, Moscow.
Time: midsummer.
Brewers come to the festival not only from the regions of Russia, but also from Belarus, Ukraine and other countries. As in European holidays, here guests are also invited to enjoy good music, performances by artists, and competitions.