Octoberfest postcard from 1895, showing a visitor carrying a Maß and a waitress with several Maß in the foreground, and tents and lots of visitors in the background. Source: https://www.bavarikon.de/object/bav:MSM-ANS-00000BAV80071541
History

Beers at Oktoberfest 1895 and 1896

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I’ve previously written about beer at Oktoberfest, like which breweries’ beers were served in 1843, or about various breweries and beers between 1882 and 1936 that we know of from Oktoberfest programmes and newspapers.

The whole question interests me for a particular reason: it shows that the current restrictions on beer at Oktoberfest, namely that it can only be from one of the “traditional” breweries from Munich whose beer conforms to the Oktoberfestbier PGI regulations, which requires them to have a well going several hundred metres deep down, are not rooted in the festival’s own history. It is essentially a form of regulatory capture to make it exclusive to Munich’s big 6 beer brands that has been successfully defended in court before. German online magazine Legal Tribune Online has criticised the restrictions of market access as a “cartel” in the past, and how the city of Munich may possibly be violating antitrust laws with the current practice.

The reality is that beer used to be much more diverse in the 19th and early 20th century than it is nowadays. But if you want to experience a traditional Volksfest with 20+ different beers available, you need to go to e.g. Forchheim for Annafest, because Oktoberfest is not that place anymore.

The two years 1895 and 1896 are in my opinion particularly interesting because there were quite a few really unusual und (at least from our modern perspective) unexpected breweries present in Munich:

There was of course the Dreher brewery from Kleinschwechat, the original inventors of Vienna Lager, who were first able to serve their beer at the Wiesn’n in 1895. The same year was also the very first time a dedicated Weißbier stall was allowed, the rights for which were won in an auction by restaurateur Fritz Reiss, who then served wheat beer by G. Schneider & Sohn. And then there were specialities like Thomasbräu serving their Pilsner in addition to the regular Märzenbier.

An ad for the "Waizenbierbude" (wheat beer stall) in 1895.
An ad for the “Waizenbierbude” (wheat beer stall) in 1895. (Source)

As I’m still working on my upcoming book, I got a bit sidetracked today while researching a few details to tie up some loose ends, and came across a lot more detailed list about all the beer stalls at the Oktoberfest 1895 and 1896, and it shows how great the variety in beer and breweries was back then. So here’s the list of all breweries that were served at the beer stalls 1 to 26:

  1. Franziskaner Leistbräu
  2. Zacherlbräu
  3. Gambrinusbrauerei
  4. Löwenbräu
  5. Pschorrbräu
  6. Löwenbräu
  7. Münchner Kindl
  8. Spaten
  9. Dreher, Kleinschwechat near Vienna
  10. Bergbräu (Henninger), Munich-Giesing
  11. Münchner Kindl
  12. Salvator-Brauerei
  13. Kochelbräu
  14. Thomasbräu
  15. Hacker
  16. Bürgerbräu
  17. Augustiner
  18. Thomasbräu
  19. Pschorrbräu
  20. Pschorrbräu
  21. Pschorrbräu
  22. Pschorrbräu
  23. Pschorrbräu
  24. Pschorrbräu
  25. Pschorrbräu
  26. Pschorrbräu

In addition to that, there was also the wheat beer stall that was unnumbered and actually a bit away from the other beer stalls, that served G. Schneider & Sohn.

And yes, that’s a lot of Pschorrbräu stalls! The source with all beers as well as a list of all the restaurateurs and how much they paid at the auction can be found in the Bayerische Gastwirths-Zeitung issue dated 25 August 1895. At the time, the beer of some stalls was not known yet (such as stall no. 3 and 9), and for no. 25 the beer changed later. We know this from ads for these particular stalls that were published in the official Oktoberfest programme.

We even have a plan that shows the layout how all the stalls were laid out on Theresienwiese:

Map with the locations of all the stalls at Oktoberfest 1895, including all beer stalls, cheese stands, sausage stands, toilets and urinals.
Map with the locations of all the stalls at Oktoberfest 1895, including all beer stalls, cheese stands, sausage stands, toilets and urinals. (Source)

These stalls at the time were nothing like the modern massive beer tents. You can get a good idea what these beer stalls were like from this 1897 postcard of the Dreher beer stall:

1897 postcard showing the Dreher beer stall at Oktoberfest. It shows a waitress in black and yellow uniform carrying beers, a dray with beer casks, the beer stall itself with a beer geraden behind it, Oktoberfest visitors, and other tents in the background. The beers advertised were Märzenbier and Wiener Kaiserbock
1897 postcard showing the Dreher beer stall at Oktoberfest. It shows a waitress in black and yellow uniform carrying beers, a dray with beer casks, the beer stall itself with a beer geraden behind it, Oktoberfest visitors, and other tents in the background. The beers advertised were Märzenbier and Wiener Kaiserbock (Source)

In 1896, the choice in beers slightly changed compared to the previous year:

3. Kochelbräu
4. Bürgerliches Bräuhaus Budweis (yes, Bohemian beer at Oktoberfest!)
10. Augustiner
11. Hackerbräu
16. Pschorrbräu
17. Spatenbräu
19. Kulmbacher Export
20. Augustiner
21. Hackerbräu
22. Unionsbräu
24. Klosterbräu
25. Hackerbräu
26. Bürgerbräu
27. Pschorrbräu

(Source)

Interestingly, the wheat beer stall is not listed or mentioned anywhere, but still appears on the map of stalls in 1896 opposite the Schützenwirth, next to the shooting range.

1896 ad for Bürgerliches Brauhaus Budweis at stall no. 4 (Source)

At least in the years 1895 and 1896, it was not unusual to have “foreign” beer from outside Munich served at Oktoberfest, like Vienna Lager/Märzen from Dreher, pale lager beer from Budweis, or Franconian lager from Kulmbacher Export brewery.

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