Augustiner Bräu at the Oktoberfest

Augustiner beer at the Oktoberfest

"O'zapft is!" The Munich Oktoberfest is the most famous folk festival in the world, with around 6 million visitors each year. The people of Munich affectionately call the Oktoberfest "Die Wiesn." For the Augustiner Brewery, the Wiesn is one of the highlights of the year. And so it is a special honor for our brewmasters every year to be one of only six traditional Munich breweries to brew the Oktoberfest beer. With "Augustiner Oktoberfestbier" - our Wiesn noble - we brew a special specialty that is only available during the Wiesn.

According to city operating regulations, only beer from traditional Munich breweries may be served at the Oktoberfest. Only six Munich breweries are allowed to brew the famous "Oktoberfest beer" with an original gravity of at least 13.5 percent - the Augustiner Brewery is one of them. In accordance with the Munich Purity Law of 1487, the Augustiner Brewery brews a strong, quaffable Märzen beer with an original wort of at least 13.5 percent - which corresponds to an alcohol content of around 6 percent by volume. Our full-bodied Wiesnbier is also available from specialist retailers.

Die Außenfassade der Augustiner Festhalle Oktoberfest
Innenraum der Augustiner Festhalle, lebhaft gefüllt mit fröhlichen Menschen

Only Wiesnbier from the wooden barrel

The Augustiner Brewery is proud to be the only brewery at the Oktoberfest that still serves beer exclusively from wooden barrels. We put a lot of effort into this - living tradition and beer care are worth it to us. Every night at midnight, the beer trucks roll into the Wiesn. While in other tents beer tanks holding several hectoliters are filled at high pressure directly from the tanker trucks, in the tents where Augustiner beer is served, the process is much more complex. Full kegs of beer are delivered to the Wiesn and brought to the cooling systems of the tents by muscle power. In the Augustiner Festhalle, the Augustiner tower serves as a wooden barrel storage facility.

The empty wooden barrels are driven back to the brewery, cleaned and refilled. At the Wiesn, beer is served from our largest barrels, the so-called "Hirschen". These are handmade oak barrels that hold around 200 liters. Our barrels are made in Gut Freiham near Munich in a wooden manufactory and pitched in our own picherei. To ensure the outstanding quality of our Augustiner beer at the Oktoberfest at all times, our quality assurance department closely monitors the quality of the beer and the hygiene at the taps. Our beer care meets the highest standards. Just like our Augustiner beer.

Augustinian history at the Oktoberfest

The history of the Oktoberfest began with the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on October 17, 1810. A horse race was held in honor of the bride and groom. The bride gave the festival meadow - at that time still outside the city gates - its name: Theresienwiese. The Oktoberfest has been held on it ever since. The city grew - today the "Wiesn" is located in the middle of the city between Bavariaring and Theresienhöhe. The earliest pictorial evidence that our Augustiner beer was served at the Oktoberfest dates back to 1867. In 1903, the Augustiner Brewery built a festival hall in the style of a castle. In 1926, a new tent building followed: 80 meters long and 40 meters wide with space for 3,000 guests and a tower as a distinctive landmark visible from afar.

Today's Augustiner Festhalle was built according to this model. On the occasion of the 200th Wiesn anniversary in 2010, we also had the tower rebuilt. It houses our wooden barrel warehouse as well as an elevator that transports the 200-liter barrels, our "Hirschen," directly to the pub.

Today, as in the past, our Augustiner Oktoberfest beer is served exclusively from the wooden barrel. At the world's largest folk festival, the Augustiner brewery is thus the only one where wooden barrels are still freshly tapped without exception.