Bruxellensis 2008 Photos

Hello.
Photos from last wekends's Bruxellensis beer festival are now online.
See Photos.

Servus!
Andy

Bruxellensis 2008

For those of you who missed this year's Bruxellensis beer festival in rue Glacier then here is a video.

Oktoberfest 2009 Dates

We now have tour dates for our Bier-Mania! Oktoberfest 2009 tours. We have a total of 5 tours and all tours from next year will be using *** star centrally located hotels in Munich.
Please note that we have Option A and Option B.
So why do a Bier-Mania! Oktoberfest Tour?

• All the planning and bookings have already been made for you.
• You get to join other people, after all it is a sociable event!
• You get to see Munich and not just the Oktoberfest.
• We get reserved places at the Fest!
• When you book a tour you know it will be Andy driving, leading and guiding as well (!).
• We not only visit the Alps (option A), we also stay the night there!
• They're good fun!!
• We run responsible tours, we are there for a Cultural Tour!
  

Option A
This is a fully supported 4-day tour with a maximum of 8 people and includes a scenic drive to Neuschwanstein and across the Austrian Alps. We stay the first night in the Bavarian Alps in the gorgeous village of Oberammergau, which incidentally also has an excellent brew-pub! We stay in Gasthaus Zum Stern. Great place! The 2nd night we are in Munich and a chance to look around and have some lunch in Hofbräuhaus. Day 3 is Oktoberfest Day when we have (TBC) our reserved seats at te Hacker Festzelt.
Tours start and end at Hotel Concorde just 400 metres from the Hofbräuhaus!
Option B
This is basically the same as the above however on day 1 you stay in Munich. Day 2 you join us in the Hofbräuhaus and day 3 in the Oktoberfest. Bier-Mania! will also have an extra guide on day 2 and 3 to show you around Munich.

Dates

• Tour 1 MB-090918 (18-21 September)
  
• Tour 2 MB-090922 (22-25 September)
  
• Tour 3 MB-080926 (25-28 September)
  
• Tour 4 MB-090929 (29-02 October)
  
• Tour 5 MB-091002 (02-05 October)

Price
We have increased the price of tours to €795.00 as we now use *** star hotels.
Tour Itinerary
the itinerary can be downloaded. Oktoberfest 2009 Itinerary.

Cheers,
Andy

The 175th Oktoberfest

Just 3 more sleeps till this year's Oktoberfest kicks off on Saturday 20 September.
It is the 175th Oktoberfest and will be going on until Sunday 05 October.
We go down south tomorrow!

And This Is How It All Started...
The notion of a beer fest in October probably started out decidedly informal, sometime in the late Middle Ages. In those days, Bavarian brewers did not brew during the hot days of summer. They made the summer beers in late March and finished brewing on 23 April (St Georges Day) and started brewing again on 29 September (St Michaels Day) when the cool days of winter returned, at which point they had to consume any left-over summer beer quickly to empty the valuable cooperage for the new season’s fresh beers. So the original Oktoberfest was probably a casual activity for the purpose of disposing of any left-over beer that had made it through the summer.
They called the beer Märzen (March) beer which is also now known as Oktoberfestbier!

The Oktoberfest as a formal, organized affair took place for the first time on October 12, 1810. On that day the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig (who later became King Ludwig I) married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. To allow the commoners to partake in the ceremonies, the noble couple decided to organize a wedding party for its subjects on some grazing land outside the Munich city gates—and some 40,000 happy Bavarians showed up for the fun. That meadow, incidentally, was then given its current name of Theresienwiese (Theresa's meadow), in honour of the Crown Princess—and to this day this meadow is still the site of the annual extravaganza. Strangely, the most popular attraction at the first Munich Oktoberfest in 1810 was horse racing and not beer because there wasn't any! Even though there was a lack of beer the fest was such a success that Ludwig decided to repeat the whole show on the anniversary of his wedding and in subsequent years with beer of course.
Already in 1814, the German poet Achim von Arnim reported that the festivities featured an ample array of beer shacks where the people could get their brew in half-litre, tin-lidded steins. Eventually, horse racing was dropped from the program, but—foreshadowing a trend—more and more beer stands were added to keep the crowds in high spirits, and the festivities were extended to several days.
In 1896, the first beer tents appeared. So forward wind to 2008 and it has become probably the become the biggest party in the world.

Cheers!
Bier-Mania! Cultural Beer Tours

Zeitgeist-Bier-Mania! Oktober Bier Fest 2008

Our 2nd London Bier Fest this year, the 'Oktober Bier Fest 2008' brings you not only the usual diverse selection of Germany's 'real' beer, but also Augustiner Oktoberfestbier, straight from Munich after our Oktoberfest Tours!
This prestigious event has been organised again by Bier-Mania! Cultural Beer Tours and Zeitgeist (@ Jolly Gardeners) German gastro-pub in Lambeth in association with Stonch from Stonch's Beer Blog.
The Beers
We will have around 1000 litres of mainly draught beer from around 15 different breweries and 20 different beers. Most beers have never visited the UK so they will be a bit shy and will need lots of help!

Most beer will be served from gravity barrels (Stichfass), and we will also have 2 taps serving Augustiner throughout the Fest by Zapfanlage (CO2).
All beers will be served in its correct glass/stoneware!

The beers represent nearly every style of beer that Germany has, the only thing we have missed (we think!) is Berliner Weisse, Gose (Leipzig), Steinbier, Kirschbier (cherry beer from Neuzelle monastery) and Roggenbier (rye beer) .
When

• Thursday 09 October 1800-0100/closing time (6pm-1.00am)
• Friday 10 October 1600-0100/closing time (4pm-01.00am)
• Saturday 11 October 1200-0100/closing time (midday-01.00am)
• Sunday 12 October 1200-2300/closing time (midday-11.00pm)

Where
The Jolly Gardeners, 49-51 Black Prince Road, Lambeth, SE11 6AB
See map.
Cost

• £3.70 per 0.5 litre beer.

• Tokens to be purchased at the main bar.

Food
There will be the standard Zeitgeist food as well as Weisswurst (veal sausage from Bayern) to give the Fest that Bavarian feel!

Beer List (as pdf)

This beer list is provisional as we will be adding more beer to this list!

See you all there!
Prost!
Bier-Mania! & Zeitgeist

NEW Go East German Beer Tour

This brand new 10-day epic Go East German Beer Tour starts and ends in one of the most spirited cities in the world, Berlin!

We have got together with Ute Boese from The German American Connection to bring you this awesome tour of the former DDR-East Germany as well as Berlin!
The tour shows you the whole of East Germany, all the way from the Bavarian border to the Baltic Sea, an amazingly array of contrasts from historic microbreweries to some of the most modern German breweries.

Brewing beer has a long history in the Eastern part of Germany: Weissbier and Schwarzbier originated in Thuringia (17th century), the German brewery boom originally started in the 13th century in Northern Germany for export to Scandinavia…

Located in the middle of the former DDR, Berlin is the perfect central point to explore traditional and modern German breweries and brewpubs in East Germany.

The variety of local beer specialities is as diversified as the landscapes, cities, town and villages you will cross.

Have a look at the itinerary, again, if you like it drop us a line and get yourself a reserved place – Go East.
Dates will out soon.
Cheers,
Andy (Bier-Mania!)
Ute (The German American Connection)

Bruxellensis 2008 Bier-Mania! Beer List

Hello,
We have now finalised the beers we are taking to Bruxelles next week and think we have a pretty good selection for you to try with 15 different beers, some of which have have never been to Bruxelles before, so it is a bit like a holiday for them!
Please note that not all beers will be available all the time apart from the Zwiesel Dampfbier (1), Schneider Märzen (10) and the Huppendorfer Zwickel (7) all of which we have in bottles.
Beer List as pdf
Cheers! See you there or in London next month!

Oktoberfest Beer Tent Wies'n Plan

This year Bier-Mania! will be at Hacker Festzelt.
The main Oktoberfest entrance is the North side, that is the right hand side of the map above. Walk along and go in the main entrance, breath is the atmosphere of 9500 people and a band!
Cheers!

Oktoberfest Update

Just returned from Munich and can report that the beer tents (Festzelt) are nearly completed ready for the start of the Oktoberfest in only 17 days time!

We currently have 8 places available at our beer tent on Sunday 28 September. There is one thing that potential candidates must know though-the words to a certain song!
Please email andy@bier-mania.com for more details of how to be at the largest Volksfest in the world!

The scene of the left is the main throughfare looking north, the scene will be rather different in 17 days time!

For more information see www.oktoberfest.de


Cheers,
Bier-Mania!