Oktoberfest Beer Champ: Ayinger

Corona and Guinness are almost parodies of themselves at this point. They're brands and beacons for bastardized beer-swilling holidays, which makes sense if you're trying to impress investors. Come springtime, every collar-popped frat boy will be helpless to resist those snazzy beer displays depicting bikini-clad leprechauns and sombrero chicks con cerveza, brah.

Oktoberfest is another foreign holiday ripe for co-opting. But since Munich breweries roll out the good stuff in the Fall, there's obviously more to this than getting product placement in bars. There's a a bunch of recognizable, smaller breweries doing what the mecha-breweries can't imitate (well). Sam Adams has been pushing theirs pretty hard, but lederhosen and lager in a British colony still doesn't compute. I decided to conduct my own 'scientific' study, with four beers chosen by myself and a couple of beer stewards: two from Germany (Ayinger and Paulaner) and two domestics (Heater Allen and Bayern). Sorry moneybags, due to budgetary constraints, the sample size isn't larger. But the result?

First Place: Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen (Aying, Germany) 8.5/10

This was the last beer tasted, but immediately I knew this is what the others were striving for. Though imported, it didn't taste like it had been sitting on a shelf for months. The malty notes had a complexity and freshness that you get only when you have a beer in Bavaria. And a perfect example of how to hop a German beer.

Second Place: Heater Allen Bob-toberfest (McMinnville, Oregon) 8/10

I've been impressed by every beer from Rick Allen's one-man, lager-only operation. This one was exceptional, and surprising in how dead-on it was to the German style. I was convinced this was the winner of my brief experiment until I tried Ayinger. Very similar, but it was lacking some its dimension. Still...

Third Place: Paulaner Oktoberfest Ur-Marzen (Munich, Germany) 7/10

Slightly less malty and complex than the previous two. It had that green-glass whiff of Becks, which is selling it short. It's still a good example of the style, and the closest thing to the holiday's patron saint.

Fourth Place: Bayern Oktoberfest (Missoula, Montana) 5/10

Loved for being one of the few domestic breweries to focus on German Lagers, Bayern came highly recommended. But the moment I poured it into a glass, I couldn't understand what the hell they were thinking. It was almost as dark as a Black Butte, which is at least 3 times darker than Oktoberfest should be. After tasting it, you're not sure what style it's more suited to be. A weak dunkel? Or a wasted opportunity?

I realize there are other great examples out there. Suggestions?

German Food for the Hinterland Soul

Those who have driven past the St. Johns Bridge and Forrest Park on Hwy 30 in Portland may be familiar with the well marked Germantown Road "exit". Maybe you've even taken it, twisting and turning through the forrested West Hills. It leads to the fertile farmland settled by my father's family and many others from central Europe, who came here after the turn of the century.

They got the hell out of Germany just before Hitler hopped aboard the crazy-train and made it a war zone. Officially, this Lutheran clan just wanted to flee the growing tension and give the American dream a shot. But a few of us have reason to think we're more Luther-Jew, and maybe their flight was really out of necessity and foresight.

The area was settled by some remarkably adaptable people who learned quickly to become jack-of-all-trades. All hardy, sturdy, independent and resourceful people. A fair share of really good and rough characters alike. Portland is, after all, a port town... if you lived in those times you probably logged, cut lumber, loaded ships with logs and lumber, or helped build those ships. I think many in my family did all of the above at some point, but they were more entrepreneurial and stubborn to do just one thing. They farmed, built barns and mended fences, sold produce to downtown hotels and sailors of outgoing ships , became neighborhood experts in animal husbandry and veterinary medicine. Bargained, bartered and haggled every step of the way, from what I'm told.

But quietly, and without fanfare, they knew their food and how to cook it. Because they were resourceful living off the land, they were naturally deft at creating hearty and healthy comfort food from what they had living just above the poverty line... not unique in any culture. There's a lineage here, however diluted at this point, to all the great peasant foods that inspired recognized cuisine. These days you have to be a "foodie" to see it, but back then they were just called people. They had fresh goat milk and cheese, farm eggs, wild game, hooch, sauerkraut, pork belly, homemade bread and fruit preserves, etc etc. They probably didn't realize how rich they really were. I do, and these days I'm trying to glean what I can from my aunt.

At family picnics and holiday gatherings, we always joke depreciatively about the Germany-size spread of foods (At least five protein options and a dozen starches, dontcha know), but I've learned this is actually a serious point of pride. If you're in charge of potato salad, pray you don't find a way to fuck it up. If you're bringing the customary Christmas Eve crabs (Oregon Dungeness, natch), you'd better not buy less than six. And make sure that fondue is made from scratch, or else. Thankfully, no one brings peppermint schnapps anymore. Hello, Canadian Club whiskey!

As the world shrinks in the internet and immigration age, it's easier to recognize what binds and separates our food traditions. We may not know it, but we're taking something old and something new, foreign and familar, and making something wholely our own. We're doing what every immigrant has been forced to do when living in a strange land. I don't see the point decrying the extremes, or trying to stop the inevitable in vain. Do what you can to preserve tried and true traditions, but understand much of what we're nostalgic for (or not) is a product of its time and place.

Who am i kidding? I'm drinking pilsner and making sauerbraten this week...