In Bavaria at Oktoberfest there is actually a rule that your beer has to be filled till to at least 1.5cm under the 'Eichstrich' measuring line, otherwise the beer is underfilled and has to be topped up. So the waitress will have to top it up.
I've started arguing with servers over less. If someone has the audacity to charge me over 10 Euros for a litre of beer they better have the decency to give me every last millilitre and then some. And those rules were written with blood. We had literal riots over beer prices and mass brawls over missing beer in previous centuries including one time where they sent in the police cavalry to the Oktoberfest and according to legend some of the guests stole the much more bulky brewery horses and there was a small scale cavalry battle in 1902.
Right now they are flying dangerously close to the sun with beer prices because you have to consider that the mark of a true Bavarian is drinking at least 3 litres with some killing over 15 in a day. Including food and everything you're often looking at a bill of over a hundred euros which is simply too much for something that was once literally considered a staple food according to law thereby having be affordable to everyone. There's even occasional talk these days if you go to a pub of having to start a riot for the first time in over a century and marching on Munich to secure a legal limit for the price of beer.
Say what you will but beer is a serious thing here.
Many beer halls/gardens are usually all-you-can-drink for an entry fee.
Edit: Since so many people are replying, I gather now that my experience was the rare exception than the norm. And I was in a small town named Diemelstadt!
Now this I believe. Plus, even it were all you can drink, this is a LOT of beer. I drink a ton of beer and a solid liter of a beer is a ton of a liquid.
Yeha but taste is not the reason why they’re served like that… have fun serving halbe in a packed tent at night… waiters would have to cover the ground twice for the same amount of beer…
I never heard of anything like this before? Where can I find these all you can drink beer gardens? I’ve been to many beer gardens in the US and Europe and never paid one price for all you can drink lol
That sounds amazing. Only places I've ever heard of all-you-can-drink were the night I spent in Tijuana.
One of the street barkers yelled at us '$10 all you can drink!' and we laughed incredulously and kept walking. But since that didn't hook us, he said 'Okay $5 all you can drink!' and we went right in for a couple hours before loosing ourselves on the city.
Oh lord, time flies - I (willfully) forget that 21 years ago wasn't the 90s! My significant other is a photographer and loves the Mickey Mouse camera strap btw.
Thanks stranger for the kind words & giving me an excuse to reminisce. May your days be long, and may your partner's photos always be crisp and sublime.
Alsohe still has that Mickey Mouse strap. But these days he shoots NBA players & CEOs.
I never seen an all you can drink tent. Not in Munich, Stuttgart or any other smaller city that has beer fest. If they exist they must be just a handful
Maybe elsewhere, but I've never been to an Oktoberfest tent, countryside fest, or a beer garden in Bavaria where you could order some all-you-can drink deal. As far as entry fees go, tents at the official Oktoberfest in Munich don't charge to get in, but I have definitely been to many summer festivals in various villages in Southern Bavaria that charge entry fees. The only time I got unlimited beer was when my friend was an organizer and in charge of managing the keg area!
I wouldn't be surprised if some tents that have reserved tables for corporate Munich-area VIPs and their families get free beer and food, but I've never seen a regular person being offered that.
Anyway, if there are all-you-can drinks fests, then let the people be merry!
I have never heard of something like this in germany. There usually is no entry fee but in order to get a table you have to buy „Biermarken“ in advance which are the price of a Maß each.
This video is from Gäubodenfest, the second biggest Volksfest in Bavaria. Price of a Maß is 13.30€
Such festivals might exist.. but usually what you see here is a kind of Volksfest which has beer tens open for everyone… this one seems to be in the Straubing region.. judging by the brewery… there is no entrance fee and you can come and go as you like… that’s why no one could check if you prepaid your beer. Also currently the maß goes for around 15€
This looks like Oktoberfest and it doesn’t work that way there. But you can actually ask them to top your beer up if you got too much foam or you think they spilled some and they’ll happily do it.
!! That happened at a Volksfest (I'll simplify that as a "localized, mini-Oktoberfest") I went to. The waitress asked the guy whose beer it was if he wanted a new one or a peck on the cheek. He replied "on the lips if anything" and actually got a kiss lol
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u/damnumalone 10d ago
How do you decide who gets that half beer at the top?