A friend and I attended the first (I hope of many) Upper Kanawha Valley Oktoberfest held in downtown Montgomery. I really wanted to attend it not only to get out and about on the first real fall weather weekend so far this year, but to also see if the organizer’s  claims of German beer were true. That’s what the sign said, and I felt it my duty to check it out. Third Street became the festival grounds today. A performance stage was placed at one end with the promenade flanked by various food booths and a sort of “rag-tag” biergarten that was a little too far away from the music.

The weather was crisp and the smell of a pig-roast wafted through the air along with the sounds of Oompah music in the distance. The fall colors blotted the surrounding vista of the nearby West Virginia hills in the seemingly narrow river valley. The crowds grew as the afternoon went on. I wondered why the organizers chose to hold the fest the same day as “Bridge Day”, assuming it would limit the crowd. I am sure it had some effect, but not enough to dampen the festival spirit. I didn’t stay for the evening events; maybe the festwas overflowing with people by then.

WVU Tech college students were pressed into service behind the bar serving up four flavors of real German brew, with no macro lager to be found! The beer selection was quite good. Kulmbacher’s Mönchschof schwarzbier, a tasty black lager with roasty flavor and a clean finish. On the lighter side, Kulmbacher’s Edelherb was served. Edelherb’s brewer describes it as a premium pilsener though my friend Tim and I both thought it tasted more like a filtered wheat beer without much of a hop personality. Kulmbacher also brew a hefeweizen called Kapuziner, which was also available at the fest and was delicious. The fourth beer was indeed German, but unimpressive. Warsteiner’s Oktoberfest beer is hardly distinguishable from its pale lager counterpart.  

Beer wasn’t the only adult beverage offered at the fest. Celtic culture somehow managed to make its way into the biergarten, with a wide range offering of mead by Kenco Farms of Sutton, WV. Varieties of fruited mead (melomel) including blueberry and blackberry were sold by the bottle. Sweet (straight) mead and spiced mead (metheglin) were also available.

The UKV-Oktoberfest is a family event, with activities for children, affordable food, beer, live music and a fantastic pig roast! The music was a bit multi-cultural for Oktoberfest, starting in earnest with a German brass band, then on to Bluegrass and then venturing way off the Wiesn with the latin combo “Comparsa”.

As for food, the offerings were more traditional with bratwursts a plenty, soft pretzels and other sweets and treats, all at reasonable prices (beer at $3.00)! There was a very modest attempt to hold an un-sanctioned chili competition, but with only two entries, the chili makers found themselves serving up chili as appetizers for the roasted pork entrée. The organizers hope to plan the chili event a little better next year and maybe even hold a sanctioned cook-off which they believe will attract more contestants.

Where there are election-year crowds, there are politicians and the UKV-Oktoberfest was no exception. I shook hands with at least 3 or 4 campaign-button adorned political candidates and even had a chance to “bend the ear” of Delegate Danny Wells concerning the state’s outdated beer laws. What better place to raise the issue than in a biergarten while drinking German beer?

Overall, the first annual Upper Kanawha Valley Oktoberfest has all of the elements of a great festival. All it will take is a couple of minor tweaks to make next year’s event even better…

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 9:58 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.