GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Now through the beginning of October, you can celebrate a unique Oktoberfest-inspired holiday from one of West Michigan's favorite taphouses.
HopCat's return of "Hoptoberfest" is underway now through Oct. 6 at all of their locations, including their original location in downtown Grand Rapids.
The 2024 Hoptoberfest celebration is centered around the many iconic flavors of Germany with exclusive food items, authentic German beers on tap and an opportunity to win a trip to Munich for Oktoberfest.
HopCat's chefs have crafted special German-inspired dishes like the Currywurst Hoagie, Mushroom Spaetzle and Hoptoberfest Fries.
Beverage Director for HopCat, Justin Pollock said that they mainly focus on local beer, but for celebrations like this, there is just something special about working with a brewery that has been in business for hundreds of years.
"The thing we're most excited about is we work with some of the breweries over in Germany to pre order some of this beer and make sure it gets here just in time for our celebration," said Pollock. "We've been huge supporters of local beer, but there is just something different when a brewery has been doing it for three and 400 years."
HopCat will also be featuring eight authentic Bavarian beers on tap, including:
- Paulaner (Oktoberfest Wiesn)
- Hacker-Pschorr (Oktoberfest Märzen)
- Hofbräu (Oktoberfestbier)
- Ayinger (Oktober Fest-Märzen)
- Weihenstephaner (Dunkelweizen)
- Stiegl (Grapefruit Radler)
- Köstritzer (Schwarzbier)
- Athletic (Oktoberfest)
"Fest beers and Märzens, those are the traditional beers served over in Oktoberfest. And this year we branched off a little bit into a couple other German styles," said Pollock. "So we've got some really cool beers, like a Schwarzbier, which is a nice crisp black lager. We also have a beer, it's called a Dunkelweizen. It's a dark wheat, and it comes from the oldest brewery in the world. They've been operating for about a 1000 years now."
And if you want to bring back a souvenir from Hoptoberfest, be sure to pickup a limited-edition 22oz Hoptoberfest Glass Boot for $22.
Learn more about Hoptoberfest here.