Drink Outside The Box

By Brandon Schiwal
Contributing Writer

On Sept. 30 The Fargo Beerfest is bringing Oktoberfest to downtown Fargo. If you like beer and are a little short on cash to spring for a plane ticket to Bavaria, the Fargo Civic Center should be your destination. Strap on your lederhosen or dirndl and have your Oktoberfest celebration in Fargo this Friday.

The Fargo Beer Festival will take place at the Fargo Civic Center Lawn this Friday Sept. 30 between 6 and 10 p.m. There will be over 60 beers to sample from multiple microbreweries. We are not talking about 60 different versions of the same pale American light lager you see in all the television commercials. Jeremy Tjon, the General Manager from Empire Liquors which is helping to organize the event, made it clear that he intends Fargo Beer Fest to be a way for people to drink outside the box and experience the beers they may have seen on the shelf but never decided to take home. Jeremy said that he all too often spies people looking longingly at microbrew six-packs in the beer cooler, the ones that run around $9 each, but rather than opting for a night of something new, they opt to spend more and take home a case of the more bland and less traditional lager. Jeremy wants Fargoans to have a night where they can explore their options and see what they may have been missing this whole time.

When you walk into the gate you need to have your ID ready as this event is reserved for those over 21 years old. After showing your identification you will be provided with a wristband which is your all access pass to the beer from the beer vendors. When you enter the vending area you will see vendor booths lining the perimeter. Now there are 60 beers to sample, so each booth will contain a few beers. If you want to try all the beers you will need to hit all the vendor booths. A lot of booths will contain all different beers from the same brewery, and there will be a few that have a mash up of beers from a few breweries. If I can offer once piece of advice, it is to come early and plan to stay the whole time. It can take a while sometimes waiting in line and if there is a long line it is generally worth the wait. When you get to the front of the line you tell the vendor which beer you want to try and they will hand you a sample. It is also a good idea to come with a few people and all try to sample a different beer, this may save you from having to immediately walk back to the back of the line to try something you missed.

The Fargo Beer fest falls in the middle of the Bavarian Oktoberfest festival. The festival began in 1810 as a 16 day party to celebrate the marriage of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese but turned into an annual festival. While the festival originally started on Oct. 12 , it has since been moved up to start in September and end the first Sunday in October. The official beer of Oktoberfest is a Marzen style and The Fargo Beer Fest will be featuring beers in the Marzen and Oktoberfest styles in celebration of this. The beers featured will be from Samuel Adams, Spaten, Summit, Dundee, Shiner and more.

Aside from beer there will also be live music and food. VIP will be there cooking authentic German style Oktoberfest food. Cousin B and The Moody River band will be providing musical entertainment throughout the night as well.

The Fargo Beerfest is featuring a lot of beer venders from across the U.S. and even some international beers as well. One beer that should be the star of the show is the new Woodchipper IPA from Fargo’s own Fargo Beer Company. They have been working to getting their first beer to market for quite some time and a lot of people are excited to try it. It is definitely a great IPA with wonderful hop notes and flavor.

So save the money on a case of beer cheap lager and drink outside the box on Sept. 30. The Fargo Beer Festival will show you what has been in the enticing six-packs you may have been overlooking in the beer cooler.

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IF YOU GO
WHEN: Sept. 30. Doors Open at 5, Sampling from 6-10pm
WHERE: Fargo Civic Center Lawn
COST: $18. Tickets may be purchases at Civic Center Box Office or Ticketmaster outlets