Blue & Gray Brewery’s Oktoberfest

We spent early Friday evening at the Oktoberfest celebration at the Blue and Gray Brewery. Although this was the brewery’s 6^th annual Oktoberfest, it was our first visit.

When we first showed up, they were still setting up tents and food vendors and beer tastings, and the lines for beer and brats were long. But before long, we got into the swing of things, splitting our waiting-on-line duties, nabbing two early-bird specials of bratwurst on a bun and a 12 oz. beer ($5), and sitting down to enjoy the Lake of the Woods-based oompah band, the LOW ‘n Brows (I think the name says it all). The band handed out song sheets, and by round two, we were happily singing German drinking songs and ignoring the rain showers. We hung around to watch Spotsy supervisor Hap Connors ceremonially tap the keg of Oktoberfest beer (no speech–thanks, Hap). And as an employee of a Chamber of Commerce member company, I even got a free souvenir pint glass.

And I learned two important lessons about attending festivals: 1. Never go right at start time. It takes awhile for most events to get into full swing. And 2. Everything seems a lot more fun after a couple of glasses of beer.

The main attraction:

Delicious potato pancakes, and a cup of Oktoberfest beer:

On line for bratwurst:

The Cake Lady baked a beer keg cake: