The Foragers are becoming famous for their Oktoberfest celebrations. Whether it’s George dressing up as a swan in lederhosen, or Richard assuming the stage name “DJ Dunkelweiss” to perform a set of old school hip hop mashups of oompah favourites, we can never not be not accused of not not not loving Oktoberfest. Observe:

(That was from a previous year so ignore the date. This year’s fest is 1st October)

Another passion of ours is brewing. Currently, all 3 of our real ales at our brewpub, The Verulam Arms, are brewed on site. We have Saint Cloak – our oatmeal stout, Mediocria Firma – our oh so sweet and toasty best bitter, and Slingshot – our zesty pine fresh IPA with real Douglas fir needles. But Oktoberfest demands its own special beer. There’s no point in us trying to brew a perfect knock off of the authentic Munich festbiers, since we’re serving those beers at our Oktoberfest too, imported fresh from Bavaria. Our aim with our own Oktoberfest beer is always to create an interesting fusion of German festbier with a more traditional English real ale. Last year, we took a grain recipe heavy on crystal malt – a distinctively British caramel-toasty malt – but gave it a German twist by slowly lagering it with authentic yeast from the Franziskaner brewery in Munich. Plus we threw in some homegrown hops for fresh green herbal aroma.

This year, we’re flip-reversing it. Instead of a British grain bill with German fermentation, we’ve brewed an authentic festbier with imported German malt and Tettnang & Hallertauer Mittelfruh hops, just like they use in Munich, but fermented it with a classic English ale yeast. So it has all the sweet & full bodied crispness of flavour and aroma that makes festbiers so great, but with an added fruity & unplaceable twang from the British ale yeast.

It’s come out beautiful – but dangerously drinkable. Dead on 5% abv, but doesn’t taste a drop over 4. It’s available on 1st Oktober for one night only. Drinking it by the stein is not compulsory, but heavily encouraged. Join us, and wash it down with sauerkraut and smoked Bavarian sausages…