Raining beer

My university (Technical university of Munich), and particularly my campus (Weihenstephan) is pretty big on brewing technology. I have no clue where these people hide, or what exactly there is to be studied about the process of making beer that is so interesting, or attractive, to so many people. There are quite a bunch of brewing people here. Bavaria is also absolutely stuffed with breweries (Weihenstephaner being the local big boi). To me they’re all the same. They all brew Weizen or Helles, and for me there’s no difference (this is some brewer heathen blasphemy right here).

Anyway. Brewers. Beer. Their product. These people brew a lot of it, and they are also doing projects at many different breweries. There has been this long tradition of organizing a Beerfest once a year, where beers from different connected breweries are brought in and distributed over the typical Stein beer jugs. I must say I don’t really know what I’m talking about. This is what I think is happening. The details and background don’t even matter. What matters is that this annual event has not taken place these past two years. I had only heard rumors. Today they finally celebrated it again – the 28th edition of the Freibierfest.

The idea is simple. You acquire a (limited) Stein for 20 bucks, and refill it as often as you please. For some this is a source of happiness and bliss. Me? After two, I pleased no more, and they took me the better part of four hours to empty. I’m no longer fit for drinking. I’m a dad now. My youthfulness and beer fitness have lost their shine. I just came home, from an evening of this event with some colleagues. It was a fun evening, albeit an evening with rain and generally crap weather. I can’t remember the last time I saw so many drunks, or people in Lederhosen and Dirndl. It was an interesting experience. But fun.