Montclair, NJ 𑁋Montclair Brewery will be celebrating its Annual Oktoberfest on Saturday, September 24 from 12:30-10:30 p.m. This year the outdoor festival’s main focus is local and will feature four local bands, a local deejay, local food offerings and over 25 locally brewed Montclair Brewery craft drinks. The event includes other fun activities such as a U.S. Stein Holding sanctioned competition, giant Jenga and cornhole. The festivities will take place at the brewery’s Outdoor Beer Garden and indoor taproom at 101 Walnut Street in Montclair. Advance ticket purchased is recommended to guarantee entry. Tickets may be purchased at https://montclair-oktoberfest.eventbrite.com. A limited amount will be available at the door.
To celebrate the event, Montclair Brewery is presenting a wide variety of exciting drinks. In true Oktoberfest fashion, they will have their Czech style pilsner, Claremont Pilsner, and their new Oktoberfest style amber dunkel lager, Blue Stripe and their popular full-bodied German style, MB Lager. They are also thrilled to release their new Blue Mountain Rush dark lager (schwarzbier) with chocolate and coffee notes, inspired by the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. Both of their lambics, the Raspberry Frambois and the Strawberry Lambic are expected to be on tap as well as their selection of gluten-free hard seltzer cocktails. A variety of non-alcoholic craft drinks such as MB craft root beer and pineapple ginger beer will also be on tap.
Montclair Brewery Oktoberfest live music segment opens up at 2 p.m. with Montclair native, DJ Olive, known as DJ No Requests. Montclair-based Jazz quartet, Jazz Boat, led by Craig Levine and three other local jazz playing dads playing bossa nova, jazz standards and Latin jazz gets on at 3:30. The Michael Reitman six-piece band hits the stage at 5 p.m. and is composed mostly of Montclair residents. Another six-member band, Howlin’ Poets, where lead Kyle Younger, hails from West Orange serenades the beer garden at 6:30 p.m. with blues, r&b, funk and soul. The evening ends with popular Montclair-based The Porchistas, a quartet known for their early start playing on local porches and block parties around the Forest Street area.
In addition to what is on tap and the live bands, there will be fun for the whole family, such as outdoor games like cornhole, giant connect four, giant Jenga and an Oktoberfest costume contest.
“Our annual Oktoberfest event gives us the chance to share what we know about German beer culture and allows us to put a Montclair local twist on it so that everyone can feel like they can celebrate it” states co-owner Denise Ford Sawadogo “we’ll have stein-holding competitions and the official tapping of the first keg and we encourage people to come dressed in Oktoberfest inspired clothing, if they wish.” For the first time the annual stein-holding competition is a registered qualifying event of the US Stein Holding Association and will follow official competition guidelines. The top male and female winners of this competition will represent Montclair Brewery at the state championship taking place on October 22nd at Kings Road Brewing Company.
Local eateries such as Butler & the Board Charcuterie and Ray’s Luncheonette are expected to prepare special Oktoberfest inspired menus for the event. “We are excited to be partnering with many local artists and businesses, especially now that we are mostly out of the pandemic and we all have to stick together and help each other out as much as possible,” says co-owner Leo Sawadogo.
Children are welcome and must have a ticket. However, infants being held or in a stroller do not need a ticket. Although pets are normally allowed at the brewery, they will not be permitted during the Oktoberfest event.
Advance general admission tickets are $22 and VIP tickets are $30 and include guaranteed covered seating. Each ticket entry includes one free drink ticket and the first 150 ticket purchasers will receive a souvenir Oktoberfest stein and commemorative pin. Most drinks will be at a reduced price during the event. A limited number of tickets can be purchased at the door for $25. For further information and to purchase tickets, visit https://montclair-oktoberfest.eventbrite.com