Oktoberfests now pouring at the Public House.

I’ll miss Oktoberfest in Munich again this year. My last visit was in 2004, and before that, 1989, and if the truth is be told, I’ve learned too much about beer over the years for Munich’s oversized spectacle to impress with the intensity it once did.

At the same time, everyone should try to go at least once if given the opportunity. While there surely are other world cultural fests that overshadow Oktoberfest in sheer weight of pageantry, and I’ve been to one of them (San Fermin in Pamplona), the enduringly cool thing about Oktoberfest is that the immensity of the experience is all about beer culture, Bavarian-style, not bullfights, wine, voodoo or the installation of a new Pope.

There’s nothing like it … and, concurrently, I’ve seen enough of it for a while. Give me Sandkerwa in Bamberg instead, a local festival with far more beer diversity than Oktoberfest, and without the unfortunate necessity of dodging vomit from hordes of foreign tourists.

Back here in New Albany, for much of the remainder of September – while supplies last, so they say – NABC is segueing out of our own modest Sandkerwa draft sampling and into Oktoberfest-as-beer-style season. From the list below, we’ll have one imported and one craft brewed Oktoberfest pouring until they’re gone, which should take us two or three weeks into the month of October.

New Albany’s Harvest Homecoming parade is October 4, and booth days open on the 9th. NABC’s “Fringe Fest: Harvest Culture on the Skids” tent party with beer, food, music and art will be running during booth days in the parking lot of the Bank Street Brewhouse downtown (415 Banks Street; information will be coming soon). A week later, Lupulin Land Harvest Hopcoming kicks off on 17th.

And then it’ll be holiday season again. Anyone know where the year’s gone?

* means that it's on tap now.

BBC Oktoberfest
Bell’s Oktoberfest
Breckenridge Autumn Ale
*Clipper City Balto-Marz Hon
HeBrew Freaktoberfest
Left Hand Oktoberfest

Schlafly Oktoberfest
Thirsty Dog Barktoberfest
Upland Oktoberfest

Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen
Paulaner Oktoberfest
Spaten Oktoberfest
*Weihenstephaner Festbier