OctoberBEST

            It seems only fitting that the first blog dedicated to the Icicle Brewing Company should come on the first day of Oktoberfest. I thought I’d take a look at the history of Oktoberfest and realized it seemed a bit contrived, so I answered some of my own questions and came up with what I believe to be a more realistic chain of events that make up today’s modern Oktoberfest.

The history of Oktoberfest is well documented and regurgitated on countless websites dedicated to the 200 year old festival yet it seems to be missing several key components, which I believe to have uncovered, based on pure imagination. It starts like so many other fairy tales with Prince Ludwig marrying Princess Therese. However unbeknownst to him, she is Germany’s first “bridezilla” and demands there be a festival held in their honor for all of Bavaria to attend.

 It’s obvious she registered with the local blacksmith, potter, farmer, builder, butcher, seamstress, mason and monks, and had a wish list of gifts only obtainable if everyone in the city came (hence their invitation).

 Amongst the loaded gift table of swords and gourds, mutton and mittens was the gift of the monks. While the prince and princess waded through their bounty with murmurs of ‘you shouldn’t haves’ and ‘we really needed one of these’, the beer waited. The barrel stood cloaked in oak and iron, its contents sacred, pure and without fault like a wooden version a monk. When the couple finally tasted the sweet nectar upon their lips… that’s when Oktoberfest was born.

The Princess quickly began planning their anniversary which would mirror their wedding and include a local agricultural show a.k.a. more beer. In the two hundred years since, only Cholera and War have kept the people of Munich from celebrating this glorious event. Now the 5 million or so attendants drink the 7 million or so liters of beer, and consume countless kilos of kielbasa.

It’s only fitting that other places around the world have adopted the Oktoberfest tradition and no other place in the world has done it better than here in Leavenworth, Washington. We have a beautiful town alongside a pristine river tucked into the hips and valleys of a spectacular mountain range, giving us a setting unrivaled. Geography aside, we are a tight-knit community that thrives on sharing what we have grown to love and Oktoberfest is one way of doing that. So please come join us. Come climb our mountains and drink our beer, smile and laugh with us. Let us cheers to a good harvest, good people, and an autumn wedding. Let’s make this OktoberBEST!