As a child growing up in a German family there was no shortage of merriment at the time of year when Oktoberfest rolled around. Although we moved to the united States when I was but a wee lad, the influence of the country we came from was always there.

Among those influences were beer steins from the historic Hofbräuhaus in Munich, Germany.

And why not? Serving Bavaria sine 1582 the incredible Hofbräuhaus is a fixture and their signature beers are consistently good. When I went to Germany in 2004 naturally I had to go to the Hofbräuhaus. There I sang the songs I remembered from growing up and tasted the iconic beer and food.

When I found out that there was a Hofbräuhaus in Las Vegas, naturally, I had to give it a test. Spoiler alert, if I were blindfolded and drinking the beer I wouldn’t be able to tell whether I was in Germany or in the US.

Whatever magical formula their beer is crafted with seems to translate well here in the US as I recently visited the Hofbräuhaus in Las Vegas again. I wanted to go last year but, alas, some goofy global pandemic forced them and many other businesses to shut their doors for a while.

This year I went and was glad to see the atmosphere, food and been had blasted back.

The beer at Hofbräuhaus

Essentially there are only a few types of beer on the menu at Hofbräuhaus in Vegas; their original lager, a Hefeweisen (wheat beer) and a darker beer. There are also seasonal beers including three that were on tap when I was there; the Oktoberfestbier, a Maiback and a Dunkelweizen or dark wheat. Unfortunately the atmosphere was so loud that I couldn’t hear the waitress at all, plus we started with masks so I couldn’t read lips, so I just pointed.

Incidentally the wheat beer is so good it saved Bavaria when that country was invaded

What I drank was a liter of their original lager and a liter of the dark beer. That’s plenty unless you’ve built up a good tolerance.

Knowing that their traditional lager has been brewed for hundreds of years there is definitely a quality and malty flavor to it but it’s a relatively mild beer. I like the taste of this style of beer.

Who am I kidding, I like beer. Period.

I was more a fan of the darker beer only because of the stronger flavor of that beer although it still didn’t have the strong taste of something like a porter. This beer has a relatively average alcohol content at 5.5% but still has a bolder flavor than the traditional lager.

I wish I had known about the three seasonal brews because all of those intrigue me. I was there twice while in Vegas and would have loved to have had a wider variety of beer, although I wasn’t sad about having a traditional and a dark both nights that I went.

Interestingly the Hofbräuhaus in Germany is actually owned by the state government. How cool is it that a local government owns an iconic brewery and hasn’t mucked it up? Well perhaps because of the German Beer Purity law

It’s not the sausages

While many Americans might think that the Hofbrauhaus’ menu is all about the sausages and pretzels, surprisingly, the food the Germans wait all year to enjoy at Oktoberfest is the Oktoberfest hens.

If you’ve ever been to something like an El Pollo Loco where they roast chickens on a spit you’ll get the idea of what’s going on here, but this is different also. Obviously they haven’t been using Latin American-influenced spices in this bird.

But they do use a lot of butter and the Hans are roasted for a good long time with butter being dripped on them. Then you get the typical side dishes from Oktoberfest; potato salad and possibly rotkraut which is a sweet red cabbage. Of course there’s always a slice of bread with butter as well.

This was on the menu and I tried it and, of course, it’s delicious. No wonder the Germans wait all year for this to return.

But there are also fantastic big pretzels which I also ate and this is served with a cheese sauce as well as two different kinds of mustard.

Of course there are plenty of different traditional German dishes and the ones I’ve eaten in teh past, including Sauerbraten (German pot roast) are also good.

The Atmosphere

The Hofbrauhaus is also an attitude and that attitude is all about having fun with friends and strangers alike. You sit in big long wooden tables and there’s a band playing. The music you hear is may be anything from Take Me Home Country Roads to a traditional German polka. This is true of being at Oktoberfest in Germany as well.

The night I was there there was plenty of music but also a conga line and stein holding contest. It’s a fun atmosphere to be sure. This is why I love the Hofbrauhaus.

Got spanked

For the first time since I’ve been going to the Hofbrauhaus I saw something new. There was a lady walking around offering shots of Fireball and Jaegermeister but with a twist.

You got your shot but then you had to bend over the table and she would swat you with a paddle that had holes drilled in it.

When I went on a Saturday night there were a lot of people taking the lady up on her offer and you could hear the crack of her paddle over the music. She definitely wasn’t shy about it.

In fact, since I had my nephew with me, I bought a shot for him and she didn’t hold back. I wish I had a photo of the moment the paddle and his posterior made contact - it was a bit like watching a surprised cartoon figure as his eyes definitely widened when she hit her mark.

Just go

The Hofbrauhaus is such a successful venture there are copies of it in cities all over the world. If you do have a chance to go and have any appreciation of beer and fun, I suggest you go. While a liter of beer was $18 as I write this, which isn’t cheap, you get music, food and a fun party atmosphere that has been entertaining a nation for some 500 years. That’s not bad.