I went to Oktoberfest!

The beer is very sad. (unless all you like is fizzy yellow lagers)

The brands here are:

• Stella (not Stella Artois)
• Sakara
• Meister
• Heineken

Except for the Heineken, all the brands have a couple different formulations, though for the most part, they taste identical to me.

The Heineken is brewed here in Egypt under license. It is almost as “good” as Heineken you can get elsewhere.

The other day I met a gentleman from Munich (he lives here now). I asked him what he drank and he replied that he liked the Sakara Gold, but he told me of another beer.

There is a brand called Luxor that has been started by an upstart company here in Egypt. Well, they have a hefe-weizen. Supposedly, they have imported a Bavarian to be their brewmaster.
Found one last night at a restaurant. I hurriedly snatched the (1/2 liter) bottle from the waiter before he did something stupid with it.

I didn’t have the appropriate glass (sigh) so I poured off enough of it so that I could swirl the remainder to get the yeast in suspension. Then I topped off the glass.

It had some nice esters and good (mild) flavor with a clean finish. All in all a pleasant surprise. Now if I could just find in a store. (The major chain of liquor stores is owned by the Al Ahram brewing which is the competor for Luxor, so it isn’t carried there)

What about Oktoberfest?

Well, we were wandering around the other day, doing some clothing shopping to augment our meager supplies of linen and cotton clothing, when I saw a sign at the Sheraton for “An Oktoberfest Celebration”

They advertised “genuine” Bavarian food, beer and music.

Ok, this I gotta see.

So we went back a week later for the kickoff night of Oktoberfest. (Since Ramadan starts on the 22nd, I assume they had it early to avoid that conflict)
Well, they had a fenced off “bier garden” that had food, beer and an egypto-bavarian oompah band. (gack).

Unfortunately to get into the bier garden, you had to pay for the food buffet, which was LE110/person (about $20). We weren’t hungry enough to pay for a buffet.

Oh the Bavarian beer? They had Paulaner crystal and hefe in bottles. (And Sakara Gold on draught). The Paulaner was LE57 (about $10!). An outrageous price for Paulaner, even at the Sheraton.

We had one (at least they had the right glass) and went home.

This country is really starting to get on my nerves….