Its That Time of Year

by | Sep 26, 2026 | Beer, Food & Drink | 97 comments

Its a wonderful feeling.

Feel the love in the room from the floor to the cieling.

Its that time of year….Merry Christmas Happy Holidays.

***record scratch***

Wait, my fault. Its not Xmas, its Oktoberfest!

Like previous year’s haul these will be based on a number of unquantifiable attributes:

  • Chuggability
  • Maltiness
  • Skunkiness
  • Import Duty

Like previous years this will also be presented in no particular order…

Smog City Smogtoberfest

Chuggability: moderate.
Maltiness: moderate.
Skunkiness: moderate.
Import Duty? Negative.

A fine example of what happens when Trader Joe’s stocks your product on its shelves. I don’t really mean anything by that, I was just being witty *kicks pebble*. Overall 3.0/5

Athletic Brewing Co Fest Brew

Chuggability: Unbelievably high.
Maltiness: Unbelievably low.
Skunkiness: Only what’s between your legs.
Import Duty? Nein.

I’ve been drinking a lot more NA beer so I jumped on it. Then I instantly regretted it. All I will say, is at least they tried. Overall: 1.3/5

Bells Octoberfest

Chuggability: moderate.
Maltiness: high
Skunkiness: low but entirely unnecessary.
Import Duty? nope.

Still good but I recall this being better last year. I conferred with Swiss and he concurred. Overall: 3.0/5

KC BC Zoktoberfest Lager

Chuggability: moderate.
Maltiness: moderate.
Skunkiness: for the love of God, why?
Import Duty? no, and it has that going for them.

I was most upset when it occurred to me these four pints cost me 750 calories. There are better ways to ruin your workout. Overall 2.5/5

Societe Brewing Octoberfest Lager

Chuggability: high.
Maltiness: fairly low.
Skunkiness: low.
Import Duty? No.

This one is a bit lighter, so what stands out is still the simulated skunk. While I stand by my indication it is low, the rest of the beer doesn’t counter it so it seems higher than it should be. Overall 2.8/5.

Pedalhaus Oktoberfest

Chuggability: high.
Maltiness: moderate.
Skunkiness: moderate.
Import Duty? only the applicable SALT.

I have to have at least one local offering but I forgot which one I reviewed. This might be a repeat, and as we’ve discovered even if I did it might not be exactly the same as last year’s. It was fine, nothing to complain about. Overall 2.8/5.

Hofbräu Oktobrfestbier

Chuggability: moderate.
Maltiness: high.
Skunkiness: nein.
Import Duty? Damn you MAGATARDS!

There must be at least one offering from the fatherland. I’ve had it and probably reviewed it. It was however it bottles last time I bought it so I was interested to find out if it had the same effect that canning did to the Spaaten offerings that came out last year after my review was posted.

Yeah its better. This one is the standout of this year’s haul. When discussing with Swiss he also concurred it was particularly good this year and indicated his local watering hole has this one on tap. Is it good enough to the point where I might rethink my opinion the Germans are overrated and anyone competent enough will produce a product of similar quality? Let’s not get carried away, but this is good. Overall 3.5/5

About The Author

mexican sharpshooter

mexican sharpshooter

WARNING: Glibertarians.com contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. https://youtu.be/qiAyX9q4GIQ?t=2m22s

97 Comments

  1. Brochettaward

    If you rely on a special time of the year to be, then you are not First.

    • Threedoor

      How many of us are unemployed or seemingly unemployed based on the frequency of our commenting.

      The two of us have to be at the top of that list.

      • Evan from Evansville

        Hey, now. I strongly resemble such unemployment status. Closer to the “seemingly” side these days.

      • Threedoor

        Monday Evan?

      • Evan from Evansville

        Though I’m not unemployed, I will remain “seemingly” unemployed until next Monday, Oct. 5. This year:
        * Walmart – fired on Jan. 15 cuz too many points, despite always calling in. 34hrs PTO eaten. *frump*
        * Meijer – Gas station, curbside for a week, and Receiving bay
        * Standardized testing contract for 5 weeks while at Meijer
        * Escrow processing for three weeks before they let me go, but paid for FIVE!
        * Document Agent for Cox Auto begins soon

        I’d be beyond thrilled if I only have to file those five for taxes. The gig starting soon, if I mesh well into it, will be enough to get a comfy place of my own for at or under 1/3 of my earnings. Game changing opp! Yeesh. I hope the gig’s easier than it sounds, quota-wise. It kinda has to be, and I’m technically pretty well-trained at finding shit, scanning and organizing it.

        *perches fingers together* Should be interesting.

      • Brochettaward

        Excuse me sir. Firsting isn’t just gainful unemployment – it’s the greatest service one can render to his fellow man.

      • Brochettaward

        If they were seconded by man, they can be Firsted by man.

  2. DEG

    Hofbräu Oktobrfestbier

    I avoided the HofBräu tents when I was at Oktoberfest because there were too many Americans in them. And then I ended up partying with Americans at all the tents I went to.

    Hofbräu used to make both their current and original Oktoberfest for the American market. Poking around the Intertubes, it looks like they’ve stopped doing so. This looks like the current Oktoberfest that you’ll get in the Wiesn (original is in the Oide Wiesn).

    • Chafed

      I love German beer in Germany. I need to find the time to go back and engage in debauchery.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Hmm. Good information. 👍🏽

  3. Chafed

    Jeebus MS. I hope you didn’t have to drive anywhere after doing your research.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      I now have two teenagers that can operate a motor vehicle.

      • Threedoor

        I have an eight year old that can kinda drive without power steering and a clutch.

        Not well but he may be able to get me to a hospital.

        I told him I was teaching him to drive so he could drive me to go get more beer. He was skeptical and told me he didn’t think it was legal.

      • Fourscore

        I have a 64 year old that lives in Austin, TX and knows everything

  4. Threedoor

    I haven’t had a beer for two months.

    I have a couple NAs in the pantry I should chill them and enjoy this afternoon.

    Some are pretty decent.

    • Chafed

      Enjoy?

      • Threedoor

        I’m taking a pain pill every night post surgery. After two months with n alchohol and some hydrocodone I think the NA is up my ally.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      There are only two I like. One of them is the fake Guinness.

      • Swiss Servator

        Guinness 0/0 is the closest NA to real beer ever made.

    • Chafed

      ” At the same time, all festival guests were warmly invited to pause together and pray for a peaceful and safe Oktoberfest.” It may be worth praying certain, uh, uninvited guests don’t show up with a large truck.

      • DEG

        There was bombing at Oktoberfest in 1980, but the perpetrator was a guy who had been involved in neo-Nazi groups.

        There was a bomb scare in 2025. The scare involved an uncomfirmed threat to the Wiesn, but all the police activity was not near the Wiesn despite some news outlets claiming otherwise. The only information I could find on the suspect is that he was a 57 year old German citizen with a dual-citizen (German and Brazilian) adult daughter.

        When I was at Oktoberfest pre-Rona Panic, there was a fuck ton of security around it. When I went into the Wiesn, I had to walk through a gauntlet of security guards who occasionally pulled people out for searches. They were backed up by police with what looked like MP-5s. The Munich and Bavarian authorities know that any attack on it would be bad for business.

    • Nephilium

      There was a Mass held on Sunday at the local Oktoberfest as well.

      • dbleagle

        Well Bavaria is majority Catholic.*

        *Before all the diverse immigrants. Now, who knows?

  5. Gender Traitor

    I’ve been drinking a lot more NA beer

    Ah-HAH! I get a raft of grief here whenever I mention drinking NA beers with the resident recovering alcoholic. Have you found any you actually like? (I don’t expect nor would I ask you to devote an entire post to them. You rarely devote the entire much of any of the post to beer anyway.)

    I’ve settled on Mich Ultra Zero Lime as my usual go-to. It’s low carb and it’s as if Sonic offered a Barley Limeade./obviously not a beer connoisseur

    • Ted S.

      Not Adahn makes beer?

      • UnCivilServant

        No, 🐱‍👤 steals them from his fridge.

      • Gender Traitor

        Good kitty! 😁️👍️🐈‍⬛️

      • mexican sharpshooter

        He gets around

    • Nephilium

      I’ve had Athletic a couple of times at fests (their table was closer than the nearest water station), it’s been non-offensive. I take issue with the price point it sells at though, considering it’s the same price as regular beer, I don’t pick it up.

    • Evan from Evansville

      I second Athletic. Their Wheat, IPA and Hazy-IPA are all good for what they are. I prefer those first two.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Have you found any you actually like?

      Yes, the fake Guinness, and I have reviewed NA beer.

    • UnCivilServant

      It would be funny if the Chinese AI decides the CCP is the problem and deletes the party for being insufficiently devoted.

      More likely the power will simply fail to the whole country and the Chinese AI will shut down.

      • rhywun

        I imagine most of this is just the government deciding it wants more natives in this field, but as for outsiders… who ponders two job offers, one from the CCP and one from the US and says, “I’ll take China”.

      • UnCivilServant

        I certainly wouldn’t take the Chinese job.

      • dbleagle

        The CCP just this week announced a new law where they can prohibit foreigners from leaving the country for up to three years if they fear them taking information “detrimental” out. No trial, no jail, just you can’t leave.

      • rhywun

        Just… wow.

        Meanwhile they come to the US, rob us blind of industrial secrets, and nothing else happens.

      • DrOtto

        “Meanwhile they come to the US…” plenty of US Corps have ran to China to hand them industrial secrets personally. The impatient ones are now coming here.

      • rhywun

        ran to China to hand them industrial secrets personally

        Yeah, it is a condition of being allowed access to the market there. “Free market” my ass.

  6. PieInTheSky

    There is a german beer store near me which i realised i rarely visit. I went there a couple of weeks ago but did not look for fest beer. This was their fridge then

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/MCEjzyVmutverMjKA

    • rhywun

      Some good ones in there. I especially like Weihenstephaner. I don’t see my favorite – Spaten (lager).

      • DEG

        Weihenstaphaner is great.

        I see Kloster Andechs in there. I remember when you had to go to Germany to get it. I was happy when it came into America. Much easier to get a hold of and just as good.

      • dbleagle

        There are good biers in there. None of my personal favorite, Reutberg Dunkel, but a solid line up.

        Try a dunkel weissen. Your taste buds will “danke du.”

      • PieInTheSky

        i dont like wheat beer.

      • rhywun

        danke dir

        /pedant

      • DEG

        I think I’ve had that.

      • rhywun

        Neat. I have been to Flensburg – on the border Dänemark.

      • Evan from Evansville

        Look at y’er fuckin’ umlaut privilege, rhy.

        *가늘게눈을 뜬다*

      • rhywun

        Option-U then A, O, or U. Easy to type them.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    So fucking tedious

    A federal judge has held the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in contempt for deporting a teenage asylum seeker to El Salvador in violation of court orders and directed the Trump administration to return him to the United States so he can pursue his asylum claim.

    In an order issued Friday, Stephanie A. Gallagher found that federal officials violated the court’s Nov. 25, 2024, April 23, 2025, and July 29, 2026 orders when they removed the teenager, identified in court filings as E.L.A., despite protections afforded to him under a class-action settlement governing certain asylum seekers who entered the United States as unaccompanied minors.

    The contempt finding primarily compels compliance with the court’s orders and remedies the effects of the removal, including by requiring E.L.A.’s return to the United States.

    Bring him back and keep him in solitary confinement for eight years while his case winds its way through the system.

    • rhywun

      Where “solitary confinement” is actually going to be a nice hotel and three squares a day until the fraudulent “asylum” case is inevitably declined. I can only think of one reason why he would be afraid to return to his native country.

  8. Evan from Evansville

    I lived in Freiburg, Deutschland for a semester at university there in 2008. My first trip in Korea was to Japan in 2010, but I also went to Oktoberfest later the same year! I went back to Freiburg, cuz it’s (still) my favorite city in the world, but I went to the fest in Munich and dropped into nearby Konstanz as well, which I was tremendously impressed with.

    Wow, that was a long time ago. Still upset with myself, my biggest regret sparks from 2005/06 at IU with coulda/woulda been my dream gal, but I was too naive, unsure of myself, and foolish, ignoring a year of her rolling out the most comforting welcome mat I coulda asked for. Such is the pity of youth, I s’pose. Wasted on ’em, yes.

    • rhywun

      I hit the real Oktoberfest while I was living in Würzburg – still my favorite city. But I have heard that Germany has changed a lot in, what… forty years?? JFC.

  9. Nephilium

    You say it’s not XMas yet, but I’ve heard Christmas music being played at two different bars yesterday. I will not be going back to those bars if I have any choice in the matter (outside of burning it to the ground).

    • mexican sharpshooter

      I can only offer you thoughts and prayers.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    Fake news

    This week, a report that generally garners little attention, the S&P’s purchasing managers’ index, showed the economy could be picking up steam. The report, which measures manufacturing activity, registered its biggest monthly increase since 2022, while a reading on the service sector jumped to the highest level since 2021, powered by new orders.

    The labor market is showing similar resilience. August payrolls jumped by 162,000, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%. Until this spring, healthcare and social assistance had largely carried the labor market. Since then, hiring has broadened to include a wider range of industries, and over the summer, total job gains averaged a solid 74,000 per month.

    Top Federal Reserve policymakers view consumer strength as a primary driver. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh noted at a recent press conference that economic strength is the primary driver of long-term yields.

    But we’re one Trump rain fart away from a full on depression!

    • rhywun

      The labor market is showing similar resilience.

      That new, desperately needed coworker I got a couple weeks ago and disappeared less than a week later? Turns out he got a better offer.

      “rain fart”

      Eew.

      • DrOtto

        I had one of those last week. Eew, indeed.

  11. UnCivilServant

    I got back to my house, slept for an inordinate amount of time (amazing how much more comfortable your own bed is than any random hotel bed) and went into the end of month routine. That vacation wiped out my retro pay and my regular pay for the whole check. Add in the end of month bills and I’m at lower cash on hand than when I set out.

    😣

      • Sensei

        U.S. small business high quality. Makes the price go down better.

        Shouldn’t have wasted the $40 making the OEM grips for a P01 fit.

      • Spudalicious

        Nice pair of shoes.

    • Fourscore

      In the meantime you had a wonderful vacation with wonderful people you only see every few years. Sort of like a college reunion without meeting old girl friends.

    • R.J.

      But did you have fun?

      • UnCivilServant

        Query does not compute.

      • Evan from Evansville

        Oooh, UCS – You’re in an interesting matrix: You employed pre-Incident Evan for editing work, and you just met post-Incident Evan, who was recently re-employed at that point. Have you ever seen two of me in the same room?

        You’re through my looking glass, here. That’s all sorts of fun to compute.

  12. Gender Traitor

    Just finished a little yard work – just some trimming of shrubberies – and I suppose I should go in and watch the Buckeyes play. (State law, don’tcha know.) I’d actually be tempted to root for Illinois, simply because my mom’s college roommate/best friend was from IL and taught my mom their fight song*, which she then taught us. However, I don’t know if that excuse would stand up in an Ohio court. (Another confession: I don’t know tOSU’s fight song.)

    *At least what their fight song was several decades ago.

    • Nephilium

      Doubt they’ll show it, but tOSU’s marching band will be playing at the Browns home opener tomorrow.

      • Gender Traitor

        I could stand for televised college games to show more halftime marching bands and fewer talking heads.

  13. Trigger Hippie

    Hofbräu Oktobrfestbier is right near the top on my list of favorite beers. Grabbed a couple six packs a couple weeks ago. I’m sure there’s better out there but I’m too cheap to find out.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    watch the Buckeyes play

    It’s on in the background. They’re not losing yet. QB still looks like he’s 12 years old.

  15. Brochettaward

    I had never heard of California proposition 187. The initiative:
    Denied Services: It banned unauthorized immigrants from using public schools (K-12 and higher education), non-emergency health care, and public social services.

    Required Reporting: It forced teachers, doctors, and local agencies to report people suspected of being in the country illegally to state and federal authorities.

    Penalties: It made buying, selling, or using fake citizenship documents a state felony.

    The courts struck this down claiming only the feds could enforce immigration law. Of course, no aspect of this enforces immigration law per se. And none of it conflicts with federal immigration laws. And the courts have had zero issue with sanctuary city laws which clearly do conflict with the feds enforcing said laws.

    This is like the opposite of regs in the military (you can add to, but not take away). you can take away, but not add to. Because that would fuck-up the plan of replacing the electorate with more pliable browns.

    • DEG

      Prop 187 passed in 1994. I knew about it and I was living in PA at the time.

      Pour one out for a good proposition.

      • rhywun

        I can’t imagine anything similar even making it on a ballot today.

      • Spudalicious

        I voted for it.

  16. DrOtto

    A new drug scare has arrived regionally, it’s cychlorphine. “Up to 10 times more potent then fentanyl.” Won’t somebody think of the children?

    • Fourscore

      I thought there was already something 10x more powerful that fentanyl. I surprised that there are any druggies still alive with all the good stuff available.

      Narcan takes the fun out of an overdose.

      • creech

        It is kind of surprising any are still alive. After all, every fentanyl bust “was enough to kill 10 million” and we know only a small percentage is intercepted.

    • Threedoor

      Nice.
      I have to admit I’ve never watched all of it. Liked what I have seen though.

      • Nephilium

        You should rectify that. B5 is well worth watching.

    • RAHeinlein

      Ah, B5 Season 1 is the best – before Michael O’Hare (Commander Sinclair) literally went crazy in real-life.

  17. kinnath

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT3AipiG_v0

    Brilliant fucking video.

    I wonder where the youtuber falls on the political spectrum. I probably don’t want to know.

    I started writing a transcript of the key points and stopped, because it’s all worth noting.

    Then I did discover there is a transcript you can copy. I now have the transcript saved on my hard drive.

    Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice.

    You can fight evil. You can expose it, resist it, lock it away. Evil has a logic. It wants something. And because it wants something, you can see it coming. But against stupidity, you have no defense. Because the stupid person, . . . isn’t someone with low intelligence. It’s someone who has given up using their own judgment.

    • kinnath

      So, the youtuber has three, count’em three, videos posted under that screen name. One was posted 6 days ago, but I know that I watched it a long time ago.

      Looks like someone is reposting content under a new handle.

      • SandMan

        I see a lot of stuff reposted under new handles, I wonder if it is just stolen? Very prevelant with a lot of WW2 history, probably elsewhere too but that’s where I’ve seen it.

    • RAHeinlein

      Good watch – thanks, kinnath!

      • kinnath

        you are welcome.

    • Fourscore

      See, that’s why we need renewable energy, regardless of cost. It’s me and Kermit against the world. I learned that last week because hydrocarbons are environmentally bad.

      From a person that has been in West Texas and seen the environment damage but rare earth production is Gaia friendly.

  18. Evan from Evansville

    Put things in perspective: Justin Verlander made his MLB debut for the Detroit Tigers July 2005. I was a delivery driver for Jimmy Johns that summer between the end of high school and my first semester at IU.

    He made his final start today and did fairly well. Fun, surprising game, no spoilers. I daren’t count how many jobs I’ve had over 2.5 continents in that time. (Singapore’s that middle dot.)

  19. Sean

    JFC, Plex…why so many political commercials?

    It’s like non stop. 🤬

    • rhywun

      My cable TV has been non-stop Shriners and St. Judes commercials for years. With a few ASPCA and lately ACLU. Just anything begging for money.

      • Ted S.

        I thought you were getting constant commercials for old fart drugs.