Lost in Fremont - a beer lover hits Fremont Oktoberfest

Today we'd like to introduce a new contributor. To his friends, he is known as the Growler Guy because that's the way he rolls: showing up at parties, barbecues, and just about anywhere else with growlers full of delicious craft beer. Recently, not entirely by his own choosing, Growler Guy found himself at Fremont Oktoberfest. Here's his report.

Fremont Oktoberfest

By Growler Guy

Sometimes it isn’t always about the event, but about the experience you make out of it.

So when my wife and I, and our friends, loaded the car towards Seattle for the Fremont Oktoberfest, I kept my expectations low. For no good reason, we bypassed Auburn’s Hops and Crops and Des Moines’ Blues and Brews, which were basically in our backyard, and headed North. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, we were heading for a day in the city and beer was going to be plentiful. What was not to like, right?

I had been warned that the Fremont Oktoberfest was more frat party than craft brew festival. This was pretty accurate, but we still made the most of a great afternoon. Thanks to my friend Mark at Deschutes Brewing, we were on scholarship (free beer tastes even better), and ventured out to find the best beers to fulfill our five tokens.

Upon arriving in Fremont, I had an idea of what beers were being poured, and a little disappointed that I would be missing out on two of my favorites, Airways and Two Beers, who were both at the events we bypassed.

There were a ton of breweries from all over the West Coast to choose from, and also a great selection of German beers. We all started off with the selections from Fremont Brewing, because, when in Rome… right? I sampled the Mystere de la Saison and the Universal Pale Ale and loved both.

The beer tents were lined in kind along the streets of Fremont and when we went (around 1 p.m.) it wasn’t very crowded, which suited us just fine. As the day got later, a lot more people started showing up, the lines got longer and I imagine the party got a little rowdier.

I fully intended to stick to a strictly Washington Beer diet, but there were just too many selections and choices to pass up on. I can’t remember all the beers our party tasted, but I enjoyed the Big Al Tripel (8.9 percent ABV), Deschutes Jubelale, Ninkasi Total Domination and Roslyn Brookside. We spent a lot of time hanging around the Deschutes Brewery’s Woody and even got to sample their Black Butte XX with some Theo Chocolate.

To read the complete story on the Washington Beer Blog, click here.