Sue Moen
New Glarus Oktoberfest.
Over this last weekend, I stepped on some acorns on a walk with my wife and our dogs. We discussed taking a trip to Door County in a couple months. The words “Halloween party” were uttered. We are now past Labor Day, and I am become that most perfectly true of Onion cultural constructs, Mr. Autumn Man.
The summer calendar is chock full of festivals that embrace lush green parks, breezy lakesides, and the blazing sun overhead. Sure, that’s fine, but I run hot. When the last pour of beer at Great Taste of the Midwest is finished and gone, I am fully ready for fall. And would you look at that, the autumn calendar is just as full of deliciously beery cool-weather events as those sweaty months of July and August.
Of course, you talk about autumn beer events, and Oktoberfest better be the first word on your lips. There’s a big one in New Glarus that runs Sept. 21-24. (Nobody does Oktoberfests in October anymore.) I was always a fan of the Appleton Octoberfest in my younger days; some tasty bear claws to be had there. (That one happens on Sept. 29-30.) Both of these are free, but you pay for the beer, of course.
Closer to home, Stalzy’s on Atwood Avenue is also throwing an Oktoberfest on Oct. 7, with imported German and local beers, and showcasing Stalzy’s housemade kraut and other German fare (read: sausages). This is the rare Oktoberfest that’s actually in October.
Thirsty Troll Beer Fest.
Other area festivals sell tickets but then feature unlimited sampling. These include Thirsty Troll Beer Fest in Mount Horeb's Grundahl Park on Sept. 9 and Quivey’s Grove Beer Fest on Oct. 7.
There’s apparently no Oktoberfest event on the docket at Madison’s new biergarten in Olbrich Park, but for eager Madisonians, Isthmus is hosting one Sept. 16 at Breese Stevens Field. Tickets for Isthmus Oktobeerfest are still available.
Ale Asylum’s Ferment Dissent on Sept. 23 focuses on the brewery’s imperial stouts, but there’s also sampling of the rest of AA’s lineup and rarities.
Though beer is not of primary importance, Crackle Fire and Froth at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens is always a great party and includes Wisconsin craft brews. Tickets are on sale as of today (Sept. 5) for the Sept. 29 bonfire event.
If you're all about taking your beer to-go, you're in luck. Major bottle releases dot the autumn landscape. Though bottles already sold out online, Funk Factory will host two separate bottle releases this month, one for Blackberry Meerts and Frampaars (Sept. 22-23), and the other (Sept. 8-9) for Cherry Meerts and Framzwartje, Funk Factory’s smallest batch and priciest bottle to date.
Ale Asylum’s Ferment Dissent.
Similarly sold out are the admission and allocation tickets for Central Waters’ Black Gold imperial stout, which will be released during the Great Amherst Beer Festival on Oct. 14. If you feel like paying a little more (and going for a 2- or 5-mile walk/run), that day’s pre-registered River Run participants have the opportunity to purchase one Black Gold bottle.
New Glarus Brewing will host its third and last R&D release on Sept. 22-23. The beer itself has yet to be announced (stay tuned to the brewery’s Facebook page), but regular R&D attendees should note that bottle sharing is now limited to the line in the parking lot. After some recent bad behavior, it is no longer allowed in New Glarus’ biergarten.
Let’s not forget Black Friday, neither the day nor the beer. Lakefront in Milwaukee will release its Black Friday imperial stout on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and that day is noteworthy as well for Goose Island’s Bourbon County nationwide release. There will be seven separate Bourbon County beers this year, more than any single year to date.
Goose Island not a big enough deal for you? Didn’t get a ticket to the sold-out Great American Beer Festival in Denver on Oct. 5-7? You could try to attend a Zwanze Day party somewhere in America. Midwest locations include Maplewood, Missouri; Chicago; Dexter, Michigan; and Elkader, Iowa. This event, which celebrates a limited annual release by Belgian brewer Cantillon, sells out fairly quickly in its host cities, but tickets to the Iowa party are still available, at least.
Chicago’s Festival of Barrel-Aged Beers is on the schedule for Nov. 10-11, with tickets going on sale on Sept. 14. Fans and brewers alike are a little grumpy about cost increases this year, but you still aren’t likely to find as many rare and high ABV beers in one location anywhere but FOBAB.
For those who prefer their releases unticketed and want to camp out instead, Surly’s Darkness Day release will happen on Oct. 21 in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. That means you’ll want to get there on Oct. 20 for the best possible shot at your share of the imperial stout goodness. But if you’ve read this column to this point, that’s probably no problem. You’re most likely planning your weekends well into fall already. Just like me, Mr. Autumn Man.
