The first Oktoberfest was held on October 12, 1810. It was held to celebrate a
royal wedding. Since then, the date has been moved up so it starts in late
September and runs through the first weekend in October.
Only beer brewed within the city limits can be served, and must
conform to the German
Purity Laws (Reinheitsgebot). The first such law, in 1516, restricted
beer to contain only water,
barley, and hops. Yeast was later added to the list, but only after
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
improved the microscope enough to see it around 1674. Eventually, Louis Pasteur
discovered and explained the role of yeast in fermentation; there are
two types: the good type
caused by yeast, and the bad type caused by bacteria,
So how was beer brewed prior to the addition of yeast? It turns out
there is a lot of yeast flying around in the air
around you, and as the beer was left in open containers, air-borne
yeast started the fermentation process.
They would save some of the foam from current beer to start the next
batch. This is also related to
fermentation of bread, e.g. sourdough, but that's another story.
Anyway, back to Oktoberfest:
in 2011, almost 7 million people attended, each person drank a liter
of beer on average,
and a liter of beer cost about $12. The average price of a liter of
beer in Germany about $6.50
so people pay almost twice as much at Oktoberfest. There is
controversy about the high prices,
some want to limit the prices that can be charged, see e.g.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/
If you want to know what the price of beer is in cities and countries
around the world, you can
go to pintprice.com (its in pints, not liters, so multiply by 1.78 to
get the price of a liter).
royal wedding. Since then, the date has been moved up so it starts in late
September and runs through the first weekend in October.
Only beer brewed within the city limits can be served, and must
conform to the German
Purity Laws (Reinheitsgebot). The first such law, in 1516, restricted
beer to contain only water,
barley, and hops. Yeast was later added to the list, but only after
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
improved the microscope enough to see it around 1674. Eventually, Louis Pasteur
discovered and explained the role of yeast in fermentation; there are
two types: the good type
caused by yeast, and the bad type caused by bacteria,
So how was beer brewed prior to the addition of yeast? It turns out
there is a lot of yeast flying around in the air
around you, and as the beer was left in open containers, air-borne
yeast started the fermentation process.
They would save some of the foam from current beer to start the next
batch. This is also related to
fermentation of bread, e.g. sourdough, but that's another story.
Anyway, back to Oktoberfest:
in 2011, almost 7 million people attended, each person drank a liter
of beer on average,
and a liter of beer cost about $12. The average price of a liter of
beer in Germany about $6.50
so people pay almost twice as much at Oktoberfest. There is
controversy about the high prices,
some want to limit the prices that can be charged, see e.g.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/
If you want to know what the price of beer is in cities and countries
around the world, you can
go to pintprice.com (its in pints, not liters, so multiply by 1.78 to
get the price of a liter).
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