# Oktoberfest Party Ideas



## Moad (1/9/14)

Im thinking long tables, steins (might have to make them half size) appropriately styled beers (looking for recipes) pork knuckles and sausages, dindles and lederhosen. 

Its my 30th in April so plenty of time to plan a themed party, anyone got some ideas?


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## Mattwa (1/9/14)

You definitely need Pretzels.


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## jimmy86 (1/9/14)

And mustard and sauerkraut


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## mckenry (1/9/14)

Mattwa said:


> You definitely need Pretzels.


And girls with big hooters in said dirndles that have plunging necklines. You also need an irresponsible service of alcohol policy.
Dont forget the mustard.


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## Tahoose (1/9/14)

Going to say Aldi has to be the first stop, good cheese kransky's cheaper than most. 

German mustard (senf) can be found at international deli's or sometimes Aldi sell it also. 

Noticed Aldi have started selling frozen pretzels also but haven't tried them yet. 

A good one for the non beer lovers (heathens) is a radler, which is just the German name for shandy essentially. 50/50 mix of beer and lemonade.

And don't forget schnapps, peach is a friendly (see sneaky) flavour.


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## Bridges (1/9/14)

Sauerkraut, schnitzel, om pah music! I'm not sure where you are but a ahem, research visit, to hofbrauhaus should definitely be on the cards. Awesome place.


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## Tahoose (1/9/14)

Oh schnitzel, how could I miss that...

Traditional schnitzel at Oktoberfest is pork with cranberry sauce and a lemon wedge. Very tasty.. Also half a roast chicken with absolutely nothing else on the plate is normal too.


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## fletcher (1/9/14)

Tahoose said:


> Oh schnitzel, how could I miss that...
> 
> Traditional schnitzel at Oktoberfest is pork with cranberry sauce and a lemon wedge. Very tasty.. Also half a roast chicken with absolutely nothing else on the plate is normal too.


YES!

the whole bbq/roast chicken i had when there with nothing else on the plate, while completely trashed, was the best one i'd ever eaten


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## beercus (1/9/14)

Jagermiester


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## mr_wibble (1/9/14)

We're going to have pork-knuckles, sauerkraut, beer, sweet-mustard, bretzels, strudel. Maybe not in that order.

Planning on cooking the knuckles sous vied in the brewing kettle for ~ 30 hours, then finishing them in a wood fired oven for crackling.

Although we're waiting until October proper, not late-September.


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## earle (1/9/14)

Mr Wibble said:


> We're going to have pork-knuckles, sauerkraut, beer, sweet-mustard, bretzels, strudel. Maybe not in that order.
> 
> Planning on cooking the knuckles sous vied in the brewing kettle for ~ 30 hours, then finishing them in a wood fired oven for crackling.
> 
> Although we're waiting until October proper, not late-September.


Oktoberfest starts in mid/late September and ends in early October so there's no problem having Oktoberfest in September.


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## Moad (1/9/14)

Mr wibble that sounds incredible. I craved pork knuckle for years until I got back over there again.

How could I forget pretzels...

Would be good if anyone doing an Oktoberfest party this year could post some photos up here.

Most importantly, does anyone have a good Oktoberfest recipe? Never lagered before so will be a good chance to try


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## antiphile (1/9/14)

You could try something like this one.

Cheers 

View attachment Oktoberfest.pdf


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## Moad (1/9/14)

Cheers mate, 7 months! Might do a big batch and hope for the best. Will need a big fridge first...


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## antiphile (2/9/14)

Moad said:


> Cheers mate, 7 months! Might do a big batch and hope for the best. Will need a big fridge first...


Hi Moad. I found another recipe (by Jamil) that also looks reasonably straightforward. Cheers 

View attachment OKTOBERFEST-2.pdf


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## motch02 (10/10/14)

Hey does anyone have any games or activities ideas for an Oktoberfest party, trying to think of things other than drinking and eating for 12 hours


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## mje1980 (10/10/14)

After an hour or so you'll dream up some pretty fun games all by yourselves


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## Eagleburger (10/10/14)

I am inviting a group of girls who have a reputation to dirty dance.


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## mje1980 (10/10/14)

You're parties sorted then


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## earle (10/10/14)

Google nagelspielen or the nail game. We had it at our Oktoberfest for two years now. Good for a laugh.

Corn hole toss is also popular at Oktoberfest parties in the usa.


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## Bridges (10/10/14)

I must admit I googled corn hole toss with a large amount of trepidation...


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## mckenry (10/10/14)

Do you have access to an archery set or an air rifle? 'Shoot the water balloon of her head' is always a fun game when everyone is hammered.


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## antiphile (10/10/14)

mckenry said:


> Do you have access to an archery set or an air rifle? 'Shoot the water balloon of her head' is always a fun game when everyone is hammered.


It's really hard to get a realistic William Tell costume these days; they mostly look like Robin Hood clothes.
How about, Sink the Schnitzel? (It sounds like a fun game, though my wife has never let me play it so I'm only guessing)


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## Red Baron (10/10/14)

Another vote for nagelspielen or hammerschlagen (same game, different name). We played it at the Oktoberfest I had and it's a bit more challenging than everyone first thought. I also was going to do sprint relays involving full steins and sculling, but it never progressed to needing that!

Lederhosen and Drindl's, pretzels, sauerkraut, mustard, ompah music and lots of beer is always a great party in my opinion.

Cheers,
RB


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## Tahoose (10/10/14)

When it starts with lederhosen and dirndls, its a going to be a good party.


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## Eagleburger (10/10/14)

Some good ideas here. I thought I was being extravagant with beer sauerkraut and sausages.


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## Moad (11/10/14)

Tahoose said:


> When it starts with dirndls, its a going to be a good party.


Fixed


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## Moad (23/2/15)

It has come around to planning time so thought I'd dig this thread back up.

Pretzels are getting ordered ($3 a pop seems expensive).

Beer... well itll just have to be whatever I have on tap as I have had a few other things come up. 

Lederhosen ordered, Mrs has a Dirndl as do a few others

I need to source some decent german sausages (kranski etc), I'll make some sauerkraut to go with them and of course various mustards

Looking to hire some tables to get one big long table, blue and white checker tablecloths to go over them.

I'd love to get someone serving beers but I think that may be over budget, as is proper steins. So I may have to settle for self serve in plastic cups.

Anyone have a copy of the "ein prosit" song? As well as oompa songs?


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## Tahoose (23/2/15)

Have you already ordered the pretzels? Have found a supplier of traditional german one's in melbourne but the minimum order is 80.. They are snap frozen and only require 2-3 mins in the oven.


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## waggastew (23/2/15)

You can make quite authentic pretzels at home but you need access to lye/sodium hydroxide. Here is a pic of the ones I made last year.







Love the whole Octoberfest thing, nice time of year here in Oz to have people come and drink your beer and food. Pic below of the main offerings. Most popular beer was the Helles


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## Moad (23/2/15)

I haven't ordered but I am in Newcastle...

Pork knuckle = $25... wtf


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## waggastew (23/2/15)

Moad said:


> I haven't ordered but I am in Newcastle...
> 
> Pork knuckle = $25... wtf


Its trendy so its pricey (think what happened to lamb shanks ten years ago). I can get em at a local butcher here on the Mid North Coast for about $8 each but they are fiddly and pricey for a crowd.

I ended up doing a couple of boned shoulder, slow cooked for 8hrs. No wastage, easier to carve etc.


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## Moad (23/2/15)

I think it's too much work hey, might just stick to sausages


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## jimmy86 (24/2/15)

The country brewer in maitland has a bratwurst and kransky premix, both are very nice if you want to make your own at all.


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## stux (25/2/15)

I brewed a Helles and Heffe for ours once. Had them and soda water on tap.

We also ground, stuffed and smoked our own wurst (2 types), made pretzels... (bicarb soda method). One of the sausages was also poached in beer. An sauerkraut....

My wife made dirndls for herself and our daughter...

We set up a long shade pavilion with bench seating. really made a difference to the atmosphere.

You can find lots of steins in thrift stores as people buy them at octoberfest dos, alternatively, ask people to bring their own. At least my friends had a bunch of 1L steins 

And I bought a few octoberfest albums off iTunes (ein prosit!)


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## Tahoose (25/2/15)

Gemute lish kite.


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## Moad (28/2/15)

Just grabbed half a dozen oktoberfest albums and of course ein prosit to be played every 20 minutes.

Heading out to look for decorations now, tables are sorted. Will get some cabanas and drape decorations from the roof etc.

Food is still to be sorted.

Nothing really oktoberfest themed in the way of beers, will do a hefe because I can knock one up in 2 weeks but others will be whatever I have on tap


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## Adr_0 (28/2/15)

Wasser...

Und bratwurst mit senf, naturlich...

(i.e. don't forget to drink lots of water...)

(and on another note my pee smelled like Centennial this morning for some reason...)


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## stux (28/2/15)

Precisely why I had a heffe


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## Adr_0 (28/2/15)

When are you planning it, and are you kegging or bottling? Keep Centennial well away from any Oktoberfest...

I would put down an o'fest (decent pils, vienna, munich ii, melanoiden?) with Wyeast 2000 or the O'fest blend, and a schwarzbier w/ Wyeast 2000 and lager them over the next couple of months, then throw in a (pale) wheat beer a few weeks out with 3068 or 3333, nice and fresh.


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## Eagleburger (28/2/15)

Aldi kranksies are alright.


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## Bridges (1/3/15)

Eagleburger said:


> Aldi kranksies are alright.


I second this motion! German supermarket chain has to do good sausage!


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## Moad (1/3/15)

Adr_0 said:


> When are you planning it, and are you kegging or bottling? Keep Centennial well away from any Oktoberfest...
> 
> I would put down an o'fest (decent pils, vienna, munich ii, melanoiden?) with Wyeast 2000 or the O'fest blend, and a schwarzbier w/ Wyeast 2000 and lager them over the next couple of months, then throw in a (pale) wheat beer a few weeks out with 3068 or 3333, nice and fresh.



April 11 so not enough time for any lager styles. I've had a busy brew schedule with other events so never had space to lager anything. 

3068 is my go to yeast for hefe, I'll whip one up 3 weeks out.

Kegging btw


Edit: will grab a few kranskies to sample cheers fellas


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## stux (1/3/15)

There's time for Zoiglbier. It's a fresh lager served by community breweries in Oberpfalz, Northwest Bavaria, on the Czech border


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## Moad (1/3/15)

Tried the aldi bratwurst...not bad.


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## Moad (30/3/15)

Hefeweizen is fermenting away, down to 1.008 but very sulfery. Will give it until next wed before kegkegging and hope it dissipates

60 bratwurst, 100 breadrolls, 15 kranskies (as finger food) and some saurkraut all ordered. Ill get some standard snags for those less adventurous party goers

Lederhosen just fits and quality testing all the beers and food before the party is not helping.

Will post up some photos after the party


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## Moad (11/4/15)

edit: double post sorry


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## Moad (11/4/15)

T minus 3 hours


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## earle (11/4/15)

Looks good. Hope you're either in a quiet street or have security. You might be in for a few unexpected guests.


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## Moad (16/4/15)

I've only just mustered up the energy to post these up. Party was a huge success, cleaned me out of beer and got plenty of people jolly. Will hopefully be making this a yearly event around the time of the real deal. Hopefully the photos turn out, they were off a mates camera and were 20MB so these are just screenshots.

SWMBO got me a pretty awesome present, a week away down in North Victoria on a brewery/MTB tour finishing off with a comedy festival back in Sydney.


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## earle (11/10/17)

Trying to find a thread to tag this onto. This'll do. Just spotted these at Woolies. Probably not as good as doing them from scratch but can sometimes be a difficult cut to get. $10/kg and most were just over the kilo.


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## pcqypcqy (11/10/17)

earle said:


> Trying to find a thread to tag this onto. This'll do. Just spotted these at Woolies. Probably not as good as doing them from scratch but can sometimes be a difficult cut to get. $10/kg and most were just over the kilo.



Egads.

Just ask for a hock from the butcher, should be reasonably available. I got some specially done with my whole pig I ordered off Adam recently, did 2 of them up for a sunday lunch. Very good. I also got some jars of sauerkraut from coles, and made some potato dumplings from scratch (which went suprisingly well). This is a good guide: http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/pork-knuckle-potato-dumplings-and-braised-red-cabbage


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## earle (11/10/17)

pcqypcqy said:


> Egads.
> 
> Just ask for a hock from the butcher, should be reasonably available. I got some specially done with my whole pig I ordered off Adam recently, did 2 of them up for a sunday lunch. Very good. I also got some jars of sauerkraut from coles, and made some potato dumplings from scratch (which went suprisingly well). This is a good guide: http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/pork-knuckle-potato-dumplings-and-braised-red-cabbage



Photos or it didn't happen


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## pcqypcqy (11/10/17)

earle said:


> Photos or it didn't happen



I took a video and started a highly succesful series called Food Safari on SBS


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## earle (11/10/17)

pcqypcqy said:


> I took a video and started a highly succesful series called Food Safari on SBS



Really, must have missed my invitation to be an extra in the background tasting and supposedly enjoying said food.

Also, I don't recall Maeve O'Meara having a beard.


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## pcqypcqy (11/10/17)

earle said:


> Really, must have missed my invitation to be an extra in the background tasting and supposedly enjoying said food.
> 
> Also, I don't recall Maeve O'Meara having a beard.



I haven't aged gracefully.


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## earle (15/10/17)

earle said:


> Trying to find a thread to tag this onto. This'll do. Just spotted these at Woolies. Probably not as good as doing them from scratch but can sometimes be a difficult cut to get. $10/kg and most were just over the kilo.



In the interest of science I got one and gave it a go. Not bad. 
Pork knuckle with sides including cheesy leek mash, home grown broad beans, red sauerkraut and pickles. Some Weihenstephaner on the side.


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## pcqypcqy (16/10/17)

Did it taste like instant heart attack? It's not proper german food if it didn't.


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## earle (16/10/17)

Was in a definite food coma afterwards.


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