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For
twenty one the Penn Brewery has brought
Munich to Pittsburgh with our annual
Oktoberfest celebration and this year
will be no exception. Held the same
weekends as its German counterpart,
the Penn Brewery offers the most authentic
Oktoberfest celebration in Pittsburgh.
Friday
and Saturday nights the party starts
at 5pm with live German entertainment,
a delicious variety of German foods
and our craft made, award winning
beer highlighted by our annual Oktoberfest
Bier.
The
Fest Tent offers several casual foods
such as Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Grilled
Wurst Sandwiches, Hot Potato Salad,
and Apple Strudel. You can also choose
to dine in our legendary Bier Hall
and enjoy classic German favorites
like Sauerbraten, Schweinebraten,
Potato Pancakes and other delicacies
made by our excellent staff.
Two
German bands, Heimet Klang and Alpen
Glow will perform Friday and Saturday
night in the fest tents. Accordion
players Steve Grkman and Frank Pusateri
play nightly in the restaurant.
The
Brewery will open Sundays during Oktoberfest
from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. for the
perfect Family Fest Experience. Alpen
Glow will provide live music from
5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Only the Restaurant
and Biergarten will be open on Sundays,
the Fest Tent will be closed. For
more information on this event check
our website at www.pennbrew.com
OKTOBERFEST
HOURS Fridays & Saturdays
5:00 p.m. to midnight. Sundays 4:00
p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Note:
Penn Brewery is open Mondays and closed
Sundays all year except during Oktoberfest.
Our Oktoberfest celebration continues
in the restaurant through the month
of October.
FEST
PARKING Please do NOT park
on Troy Hill Road above the brewery
or in the Vinial Street neighborhood
behind the brewery. See our website
www.pennbrew.com for Oktoberfest
parking
OKTOBERFEST
IS AN OVER-21 EVENT Children
and underage guests welcome from 5:00
p.m. to 8:00 p.m. only and must be
accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.
After 8:00 p.m. Oktoberfest is strictly
an adult over-21 event.
Get
out the lederhosen and steins
-- the season for Oktoberfest is coming
this fall! Here's a bit of history
about the event and the beer style
both named Oktoberfest.
The
first "Oktoberfest" was
the Royal Wedding on October 12th,
1810 of Crown Prince Ludwig, later
to become King Ludwig I, and Princess
Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen.
The citizens of Munich were invited
to attend the festivities held on
the fields in front of the city gates
to celebrate the happy royal event.
The fields have been named Theresienwiese
("Theresa's fields") in honor of the
Crown Princess ever since, although
the locals have since abbreviated
the name simply to the "Wies'n". Horse
races in the presence of the Royal
Family marked the close of the event
that was celebrated as a festival
for the whole of Bavaria. The decision
to repeat the horse races in the subsequent
year gave rise to the tradition of
the Oktoberfest.
Anniversary
celebrations continued each year,
usually starting in late September
and ending in the first week of October.
Oktoberfests have been held in Munich
for almost 200 years (with the exception
of wartime). As immigrants from Germany
came to North America, smaller Oktoberfests
sprouted up in their communities.
In
Munich, close to a million people
show up to consume 10 million pints
of beer, some 750,000 spit-roasted
chickens, and more than 800,000 wursts
and sausages.
Oktoberfest is not only an event,
it is also a style of beer. The traditional
style guidelines describe an amber-gold
lager, robust at 5.2 to 6 percent
alcohol by volume (ABV), bottom-fermented
and lagered for at least a month,
with pronounced malt flavors from
Vienna malts, usually accented by
the German noble hops such as Hallertau
and Tettnang. An Oktoberfest is brewed
very much like the reddish-amber Marzen
beer that was served at the Crown
Prince's wedding in 1810. Before the
revolution in brewing caused by refrigeration,
Marzen beers were brewed in March,
lagered or cold-stored in caves for
10-12 weeks, and ready to drink by
the late summer or early fall.
Oktoberfest
bier was introduced in 1872, through
a collaboration with Spaten brewery's
Gabriel Sedlmayr, and Anton Dreher
of Vienna, Austria. Nowadays, imported
Oktoberfest biers tend to be lighter
in color and body than the traditional
Marzen style. Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr,
Hofbrau, Lowenbrau, Paulaner and Spaten
are the traditional German brewers
of Oktoberfest beer, since all brew
or bottle beer within the city limits
of Munich. Other German brewers of
similar festbiers include Ayinger
and Beck's of Bremen. American craft
brewers, such as Penn Brewery, are
creating festbiers that are often
slightly higher in alcohol, richer
in hops aroma and flavor, and redder
in hue than the European festbiers.
What
goes best with an Oktoberfest? If
a stein is in one hand, the other
usually holds a wurst or sausage.
At the Munich Oktoberfest, the food
is served in gargantuan portions:
haunches of oxen and whole chickens
are spit-roasted, and myriad sausages
are steamed and served with sauerkraut
and onions. American sausage-makers,
such as Usingers of Milwaukee, make
flavorful sausages -- beef, chicken,
pork or veal - often flavored with
fresh herbs and seasonings -- that
complement the bready, malty notes
of an Oktoberfest beer.
Bring
your family and friends to Penn Oktoberfest!
It
may not be München, but it's
as close as you can get in Pittsburgh!
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