Why celebrate beer in October? Why is there an Oktoberfest?
The event was originally pegged to a Bavarian royal wedding two centuries ago. But there were practical reasons, too. Before modern refrigeration, brewers needed to empty their casks before the fall grain harvest.
Today, it’s the perfect excuse to explore various beer types – including the festival’s traditional amber lager – and dishes to go with them at these Irvine spots.
The Cut
Westpark Plaza
Wheat beer Straw-hued and hazy, spiced with coriander and orange peel, Belgian-style Allagash White enhances The Cut’s crispy calamari starter, with shishito peppers, Parmesan cheese, grilled lemon and basil aioli.
Board and Brew
Oak Creek Shopping Center
Stout With its dark chocolate and espresso notes, the luscious Dark Flow Nitro by Common Space could serve as dessert in any beer lineup. It’s a magical match with the Left Coast Pastrami sandwich.
BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse
The Market Place
Blonde ale BJ’s popular Brewhouse Blonde is a German Kölsch-style beer: clean, crisp and transparent gold. It famously pairs with, and is used in the batter for, the Brewhouse Blonde fish ’n’ chips.
Amber lager Oktoberfest is back – and so is BJ’s Oktoberfest amber lager, produced every fall for 30 years. Toasted malt flavor and crisp hop bitterness complement Sal’s Brewhouse Chicken.
Yard House
Irvine Spectrum Center
Pilsner Yard House’s Golden Pilsner offers herbal hops and refined malty sweetness; firecracker shrimp delivers spicy contrast.
Sour Tart, tropical and oak-aged, Belgian-made Petrus Passion Fruit Sour cuts right through deep-fried appetizers such as the Wisconsin cheese curds with hot honey and horseradish aioli.
India Pale Ale Lively, hoppy Bottle Logic Recursion ideally suits the savory BBQ bacon cheddar burger. The tropical and citrus notes of Relax, Offshoot’s hazy IPA, wow with Nashville Hot Chicken.
Eureka!
University Center
Brown ale Caramel, chocolate and mocha notes in Figueroa Mountain’s Davy Brown Ale accentuate the Fresno Fig burger, with fig marmalade, goat cheese, bacon and spicy porter mustard.
WHEAT BEER Enegren’s Schöner Tag is an unfiltered Bavarian-style hefeweizen, hazy with notes of banana and clove. Schöner tag means “beautiful day.” Enjoy it with Eureka’s beauteous ahi poke stack.
