oktoberfest

Let me be frank. I don't like Oktoberfests. Something about them has always just rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I'm a closed-minded chump – after all, I had to make an effort of teaching myself to appreciate pale ales and IPAs as much as I do now. But Oktoberfests? No, no thank you. Maybe it's the spices in the ones I've tried, maybe it's a personal problem with the overall style – some people don't like IPAs, some people don't like stouts. And up until this year, I plain didn't like Oktoberfests.

It's finally starting to feel like Fall here on the West Coast. We've had our first rain, the air is cooling, the days are getting shorter and the wheat, hef, blonde and golden summer beers in our fridge aren't satisfying our needs anymore. It's time to pull out those long underwear to warm our bodies and make the switch to seasonal Fall beers to warm our souls.

Ah, October. Pumpkin stouts, uber-hoppy seasonals, and Germany’s month to rack up some beer-goggled sexy points for gifting us Oktoberfest. While cities around the US tap into their most highly reputed beer buffs to say Guten Tag to beer fests, Pat Sargent, a recent Bryant College grad, brewed up a different plan, making him our first official Friend With Beer.

One of the best parts about Oktoberfest is that, in many places, it starts in September. A festival of this magnitude refuses to abide by some silly Pope's calendar. Gregory XIII...more of a "Zima" kind of pope.