Thinking of making that long promised trip to the Oktoberfest? Well consider this. Visitors to Munich’s world-famous Oktoberfest will have to dig even deeper in their pockets this year, with prices set to climb up to €8.60 (£7.36) for a one-litre Maß. That's a hefty £4.80 a pint. If you fancy some water that'll sting you too, at €6.63 per litre. Don't even think of having a wheat beer unless your wallet is particularly stretchy. A litre of wheat beer will cost up to €13.60 this year.
That's not the worst of it. Oktoberfest is notorious for its short measure and the head of a group against stingy beer portions at Oktoberfest, Jan-Ulrich Bittlinger, said the rising cost of was an outrage. “It's pure greed and it damages the character of Oktoberfest as being for everybody,” he said. “The festival hosts are the robber barons of the modern age.”
Oktoberfest starts September 19 and runs until October 4.
I am grateful to The Local for the story and the photo.
Am going to Munich in August, so not for Oktoberfest. Have checked out the prices of a number of well-known beer gardens, and armed with a copy of Larry Hawthorne's Beer Drinker's Guide to Munich, hope to find decent beer at much more reasonable prices!
ReplyDeleteHave heard that Oktoberfest is full of drunken Aussies anyway, so am glad to be giving it a miss!
Oktoberfest sounds less and less appealling the more I hear about it. I gather the point is that it's bloody horrible, though, so I guess this will add to the experience.
ReplyDeletePaul
ReplyDeleteYou can still drink sort of reasonably in Munich even with the bad exchange rate. You'll do fine.
Bailey - Exactly on all counts.
The only beer festival that I have ever seen real fighting and real drunks - more than once. Worth going once to see what the fuss is about but not a favourite. Steve
ReplyDelete"The contents of this blog.... do not represent CAMRA policy in any way whatsoever."
ReplyDeleteHmm, overpriced lager and short measures? Are you sure???
Oktoberfest isn't about cheap beer and serving size. It's about having a good time and zeitgeist. I think you are missing the essence of what the whole affair is about....
It doesn't sound over appealing, but I kind of think that I'd like to go once just for the experience.
ReplyDeleteWell Timbo, I am reporting here and quoting actual Germans, not commenting.Anyway, I doubt if CAMRA has a policy on the O'Fest.
ReplyDeleteAs for zeitgeist, I have been to Munich and Germany many times, so I don't think I'll be taking lessons on that from you or the huge amount of antipodeans "having a good time" at the Weis'n.
I used to live in Munich, so I've been to the Wies'n a few times. Each visit was worse than the previous one, so I haven't been for a few years. Personally I found it a drag waiting half an hour for my beer to turn up and being forced to share tables with paralytically drunk members of tour parties who are sometimes on the wrong side of rowdy. There are a thousand good ways to enjoy beer in what is one of the world's loveliest cities - and Oktoberfest definitely isn't one of them. Having said that, it's worth a visit -especially if you're under 25. And the fairground's ace.
ReplyDelete(I'm sure in at least a couple of the tents at Okt there are little taps to top your beer up . Maybe I imagined that.)
TIW - Seems er.... improbable?
ReplyDeleteBeen once to the Oktoberfest and once was enough!
ReplyDeleteAs if one needed another reason not to go! A short pour there is actually a blessing; the beers are so miserably devoid of character, flavour, malt, hop, or anything other than alcohol. I can't manage a half pint, let alone a whole Maß, or Maß after Maß after Maß...
ReplyDeleteMunich's beers in general are over-rated, and the Ofest beers especially so. I suspect they've dumbed the beers down over the decades to accommodate the tourists. Even the vaunted Augustiner Urstoff--I couldn't drink more than half of my litre during our last visit a year ago. 6+€ it cost me, too.
Mind you, I'd try that Forschungsbrauerei again if I were in town.
Paul. If you're after good beer, lovely beer gardens, and good prices, your best bet is to change plans and head to the country around Bamberg. The beer's vastly more interesting than in Munich, and the countryside Bierkeller experience can't be beat. 3,20 - 3,90 € per litre, too, or a bit more than half of Munich's prices.
"That's a hefty £4.80 a pint."
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that "that's not so bad" when I realized you were talking pounds, not US dollars. I don't mind paying $4.80 for a real (Imperial) pint of good beer, but GBP? No way.
And the price on wheat beer is insane.
I don't understand the wheat beer price at all. To give a comparison, you'll pay €6.90 a litre for pale or dark and €7.30 for weisse in the Hofbrauhaus, but as Nick says,in Franken under half that.
ReplyDeleteWe're off to Franken in Aug/Sept we've decided.
Thanks for the tip Erlangernick, am planning to visit Bamberg next year. Spent some time in Regensberg last year, where enjoyed the three local brews as well as a visit to Kloster Weltenberg. My son and I do like Munich though, and will be visiting Kloster Andechs, Tegernsee and Forschungsbrauerei, amongst others, so I'm sure we will get some good beer!
ReplyDeleteI actually love Munich--just not the beer! But I'm spoiled for lager, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteFor great, huge, well-run city Biergarten(s) though, you can't beat Munich. Viktualienmarkt, Englischer Garten, Augustinerkeller...
It's a sting, I grant you. But name a tourist trap that isn't a sting?
ReplyDeletemy lord! I have had this on the old 'things to do list' for a long time but it seems that with each year that goes by, it just gets worse...Im seriously wondering if its worth it.
ReplyDeleteIf you're after the Oktoberfest experience without the Crowds, try Munich's Fruhlingsfest (usually around the last two weeks of April).
ReplyDeleteSame venue, but only one or two tents(Augustiner is always there).
Price of a Liter was 7.80 euros this year. Especially painful with the £ weak against the euro. Favourite beer garden in Munich is the one in the park at Fasanerie.