09/29/09

Grin and Bier It
Oktoberfest Your Umlauts Off

You don't need a reason to drink beer, but every year the great nation of Germany is gracious enough to give us one. (And what are the Germans if not gracious?) Here are five ways to hoist one in their direction.

SMASHING PUMPKINS

Oktoberfest & Pumpkin Beer Festival

There's always something crazy going on at Delilah's, but tonight you'll double your pleasure. Start with a beer seminar/tasting about every pumpkin beer in existence (plus or minus a few hundred), and then move into a multi-year tasting of the celebrated Bavarian export, Ayinger Oktober Fest-Märzen. It's BYO pretzels.

411:: No cost, 5-9pm, Sept 29, Delilah's, 2771 N. Lincoln Ave, 773-472-2771

DAS BOOT

Shoreline Sightseeing Oktoberfest Cruise

An autumn cruise down the Chicago River with a few beers and brats has an allure all its own, but you've always felt what was missing has been a little oompah. Here to rectify that: this cruise (really, a floating sausage and beer fest), which features German background music for the perfect ambience.

411:: $45, noon-1:30pm, Oct 3, Shoreline Cruises, Navy Pier (near Illinois St), 312-222-9328

ROCKTOBER

Oktoberfest at Mirabell

This year-round homage to Bavarian culinary tradition sets aside two weekends to amp up the offerings with seasonal specialties like roast duck, German-style fried chicken, plus the best of their wursts. Live German bands will start with traditional music, then venture in to Teutonic rock.

411:: Time TBD, Oct 9-10 & 23-24, Mirabell, 3454 W. Addison St, 773-463-1962

STEIN WAY

Costume Party at Überstein

Usually a giant glass boot filled with $10 Hofbräu is party enough—and it will be on Friday night. But consider it a warm-up to Saturday's costume party, which finally gives you a place to wear those lederhosen and mingle with saucy beer maidens wearing their finest décolletage-enhancing ruffles.

411:: 7pm-2am Oct 9; 8pm-3am Oct 10, Überstein, 3478 N. Clark St, 773-883-0300

THE OTHER BOOT FALLS

Beer Boots at Citizen

This after-work River North favorite is holding a three-day party with a bratwurst cookout upstairs on the patio and all the Warsteiner drafts you can drink out of their boot-shaped steins—basically, the German answer to drinking champagne out of a slipper.