Wisconsin Foodie

This week on Wisconsin Foodie

A beer garden, in its truest form, is a public place. It's basically a managed picnic ground that serves beer.

Group

Prost. And given our relationship with the Hofbruhaus, we decided to keep that going here, so I eventually succumbed to the idea that I, too, should be a beer baron and open a beer garden. Milwaukee, it was the beer garden capital of the world, probably other than Munich, up until Prohibition. Former beer gardens are the foundation of the Milwaukee County Park System. It's kinda cool.

festive polka music

Kyle

Hans, how's it going? What do you think? This is epic and historic and classic, and it's like a tidal wave of Munich coming at me. It's like a Cubist painting of great Bavarian drinking culture happening all at once to my senses. That is an incredible explanation. From here, we're gonna make our way to the beer garden and then we will have the crme de la crme of beer social experiences at Oktoberfest at the Hofbru Festzelt. We're going to see every element of what I call Bavarian social life.

festive music

Kyle

Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank

the following underwriters for their support

Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board representing the dairy farm families of Wisconsin who foster a proud history with generations of family-owned dairy farms working to sustain the state's economy through job growth and providing acclaimed cheeses and other dairy products. Every product tells a story and every story starts with a seed. Your story, your product, your company all started with an idea. Illing Company ensures you have the right packaging to help you proudly take your harvest to market. Illing Company is dedicated to packaging your vision. American Kitchen Cookware is proud to support Wisconsin Foodie and helping food lovers everywhere embrace their own culinary adventure. With cookware manufactured right here in Wisconsin, we're working every day to make people's lives better in and out of the kitchen. Employee-owned New Glarus Growing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993. Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made. Milwaukee's landmark art deco hotel offers luxury accommodations, legendary hospitality, and world-class dining. Award-winning chef Jason Gorman's contemporary take on cuisine, paired with the hotel's "Roaring 20's" vibe, makes the Ambassador a must-experience destination. Society Insurance, small details, big difference. Edible Milwaukee magazine. Also, with support of the Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

fast upbeat music

car whooshing by

chickens clucking

beverage bubbling

crunching

pop

sizzling

guitar music

"The Tick Tock Polka"

the following underwriters for their support

With a name like Hans Weissgerber, it's definitely difficult to escape your German roots. So I always had kind of a, a penchant for all things Munchen, or all things Munich and all things Bavarian. And so, the idea of building the beer hall downtown to represent a little snapshot of Bavarian social life and Bavarian culture was very interesting to me. And so I pursued that project, and it went well and to me the natural next step was a beer garden and given our relationship with the Hofbruhaus we decided to keep that going here and so I eventually succumbed to the idea that I, too, should be a beer baron and open a beer garden. A beer garden, in its truest form, is a public place. It's basically a managed picnic ground that serves beer. I mean there could be anywhere from 650 to 1,000 people here. And you'd never know it because it never really rises above a subtle rumble of, you know, laughter and conversation. Come here by yourself, come with friends, share a table with somebody, meet new people, talk about what you have in common.

Group

Prost!

guitar music

Group

At the time that Estabrook Beer Garden opened, there were no beer gardens in Milwaukee, other than maybe, like, a tavern or two that had a patio outside the back door with a sign that said "Beer Garden." Milwaukee, as far as the beer garden world goes, it was the beer garden capital of the world probably, other than Munich up until Prohibition. And the various breweries throughout the city own large tracks of land all up along the coast of Lake Michigan and along the river here. Former beer gardens are the foundation of the Milwaukee County Park System. It's kinda' cool. This overlook here was overgrown. You couldn't use the stairs. This was all rebuilt by the Friends of Estabrook Park. We sell beer mugs here and we give all the revenue to the Friends group and that money stays 100% in this park and goes to projects here. I just love that fact that what it's turned into in the last six years, it's a wonderful thing. This is such a great thing, and you were the first. You were the first to actually do this, and how many years did it take you? I always like to say, "We were the first. Milwaukee was the first." - Milwaukee was the first. Cheers to that. - Exactly.

Polka Master

Four, one, four, let's have one more! Tonight, it's technically the grand opening of the Estabrook Beer Garden for the 2017 beer garden season. Big stage here, and people are enjoying some beer and sunshine because the sun always shines in Estabrook Park. We're gonna head on into what we call the stockade here. And then into the kitchen. A pretty simple place, we've got a grill, and an oven, pretzels, brats. We tap beer up here. That's really the operation.

Customer

Thank you. I want to welcome you all to the Estabrook Beer Garden and thank you for coming out to celebrate our Maifest. We like to think of this day as the official opening of beer garden season in Milwaukee. I would like to introduce Pastor Marion Lars Hendrickson. He'll be blessing our brat beer tonight. Bless, oh, Lord, this creature beer and grant through the invocation of your Holy Name, that whoever drinks of it may gain health in body and peace in soul.

Amen. - Group

Amen.

applause

Amen. - Group

Well done, sir. Thank you. Okay, let's get to the tapping. Alright, go ahead, light it up. Oh, get it in there! Get in there, hit it again! That was beautiful.

crowd cheers

Amen. - Group

Alright, come on up. Let's get some beers going.

"Ein Prosit" polka

Amen. - Group

Ein Prosit, ein Prosit (A toast, a toast) Der Gemtlichkeit (To cheer and good times) Doing good, Tiger. I love you. Oans, zwoa, g'suffa! (One, two, drink up!) Alright, ladies and gentlemen, if you have entered the Masskrugstemmen. Alright, you see how I'm holding this mug?

Group

Yeah. That's how you need to hold the mug. Straight out by the handle. It's called "stemmen." You're supposed to be like the branch of a tree, okay? Contestants, are you ready? Eins, zwei, drei, stemmen! Straighten that arm, lock that elbow! Oh! Straighten it out. Last warnings. Oh, we lost, we're losing 'em. Get them straight.

cheering

Group

Get it up, get it up!

cheering

Group

You did it! You did it! AH-HA-HA! I feel very weak, like I can't lift my arm at all. But it's rewarding. It's very satisfying. Like this beer. That was the best drink of beer I've had all night. Whoooo! Today went great. The people from the community came out and they're here to celebrate. The people here really care about community and tradition and that was what we had here today and couple thousand people came out, drank some beer, partied and they're still going, and they're gonna be going until 10 o'clock tonight and it's gonna be awesome. And it is awesome. So, we love you. Prost!

festive music

Kyle

Hans, what is happening? Hey! Here we are in Germany, in Munich and the iconic Hofbruhaus. - It's beautiful. It doesn't get any more ein prosen, ein prosen, der Gemtlichkeit. Ein prosen, ein prosen, der Gemtlichkeit. Well, I've heard it sung, I'm just trying to fit in. You're doing a great job. What do you think? This is epic and historic and classic and it's like a tidal wave of Munich coming at me. It's like a Cubist painting of, of great Bavarian drinking culture happening all at once to my senses.

Hans

That is an incredible explanation. You grew up, not here, but with this. When was the first time you came here? Fourteen years old with my dad. I had my first liter here in the Hofbruhaus. Well, I can tell you the first time I was here, I definitely felt a sense of home and a sense of belonging. You know, and that's something I think that is truly part of the Hofbruhaus experience and I think as time went on, the idea of, you know, being in a full service restaurant business where I grew up became less interesting and this sort of thing became more interesting. You have to be in a really bad mood and be committed to that, to not be changed, to just be glowing with happiness inside. You know, I think, Walt Disney with the whole idea of the happiest place on Earth? Yeah. They're trying so hard to be the happiest place on Earth but this is the happiest place on Earth. It's just a great Bavarian beer hall, everybody.

That's right. - Kyle

Yeah, I love it.

Hans

You don't need a mouse and a castle, you just need a liter of beer.

festive music

Hans

This is the pinnacle of Hofbru life, so to speak. There are only 616 stein lockers in the Hofbruhaus and it is incredibly difficult to get one. And a hundred thousand million people that would, beer lovers, that would like a mug. Absolutely, like to have their own here. And if, if I'm a... If I'm a billionaire from the States or Japan or wherever and I'd just love to have a stein here, a mug, it doesn't matter, right? To quote a lady who just said something to this, "The answer is NO."

laughter

Hans

You have a better chance of getting Packer tickets than you do about getting one of these. In addition to this, there are 3,500 of what they call st ammgste or stammtisch guests. Those are different clubs that have a reserved table here, a certain night of the week or a certain night of the month.

Kyle

Oh, that's what we see. They have the little sign.

Hans

They do. They all have their own sign.

Kyle

And their names.

Hans

Correct, and if it is their time, you have to get up out of that table and let them sit. So you're having a wonderful time, but the stammtisch shows up, and it's like, you, yeah...

trumpet polka music

Hans

So on average, how many people roll through the Hofbruhaus, non-Oktoberfest? Around 3,500 a day on average, which is indicative of the max capacity of the place, but on a busy day, there could be as many as 5,000 to 6,000 people who come through the building. So here we are in the middle of the beer garden. In the middle of the Hofbruhaus. There's a term in monasteries, where they have the little green space, where they connect with the Almighty, through that little, it's called the Cloister. Yes. That's what this is essentially for the Hofbruhaus. I've frequently refer to the Hofbruhaus as the "Vatican of beer."

laughter

Hans

This is it. This is the Vatican. And I think part of the beauty of this place is that it is, in fact, alive unto itself. It's like an organic being, the Hofbruhaus. 365 days a year, this is the atmosphere, this is the energy level. This is, this is the heart and soul of Munich right here.

Kyle

Well, my only complaint to your tour so far is that I'm getting a little jittery because I still don't have a beer.

Hans

I think we need to order a beer.

Kyle

Let's get a mass

krug.

Kyle

- Let's do it. Danke. - Danke schn. And this beer that we're drinking here is a classic Mnchen Helles, a Munich what they call light beer or golden beer and that really has become the iconic beer of Munich. This is what they call the Hofbru original. And it truly represents Bavarian lager. Freshness is everything when it comes to beer and the fact that this beer is being depleted at such incredible rates mean that it's being replaced with fresh beer constantly. Hans, I feel a little bit like, "Stick a fork in me, turn me over, I'm done," already coming here. But I know that we've got more places to go. We're just getting started, Kyle. From here, we're gonna make our way to the beer garden. To the English garden, to see some beer gardens and then we will have the crme de la crme of beer social experiences at Oktoberfest at the Hofbru Festzelt. We're gonna see every element of what I call Bavarian social life.

festive Bavarian music

Kyle

Hans, you have taken me to one of the most beautiful outdoor spots, maybe ever. Look at this! You got the water, we got the sunlight. This is, this is the Seehaus, which means the lakehouse. There are several beer gardens in the park as well as on the perimeter of the park, but the beauty of Oktoberfest and also of these beer gardens is we can all sit down and come here with a different ideal, but we can find common ground in sitting down and enjoying a beer together. And this resonates with me like Estabrook does. I mean, you're in this beautiful park setting, you're mixing with people from all around the city and the region, and in this case, the world. There's water nearby. In Estabrook, the river's flowing, but here we've got this great lake. Like it, it just feels like a place that you can settle in and be expansive. It's what a beer garden's supposed to be? I don't know. You're the expert. Yeah, you know, one of my big like, primary points when even proposing the beer garden idea at some county parks, was centered around the idea there can be no fence. I always look at is as a sanctuary from urban life. Right. - You know, yet it's, yet, by creating the beer garden there, you create this I guess kind of a civilization that allows you to incidentally enjoy the park. You don't have to plan. You don't have to bring a picnic basket. You can just say, you know, I've had enough, I want to go sit in a park for a couple hours and relax and enjoy myself and get some sun and have a beer. Thanks for bringing me to this sunny spot, my friend.

masskrugs clink

Kyle

Prost. - Prost.

festive Bavarian music

Kyle

Just gonna have a little snack-- Oh, that's good-- on the way to the table. Feeling hearty, I'm gonna start with the pork knuckle. I know this is probably not the proper parlance but I went a little crispy, I went a little meat, I think that looks like a good bite right there. I may have overdone it. But that is juicy, crispy, porky deliciousness. Mm-hmm. Oh, wow, that's good.

festive Bavarian music

Kyle

So why do we take this journey? Why do we start at the Milwaukee River in Estabrook Park and the old German beer hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and come all the way to Munich in Bavaria? If you want to understand the heritage, the history, the true tradition of something, you have to go to the source. In 1810, Oktoberfest was begun. By 1860, there were more Germans living in Milwaukee than anywhere else on the globe, save for Germany and if you were coming from the southern part of Bavaria, why wouldn't you want to bring this grandeur, this sense of belonging, this sense of place and celebration? Why wouldn't you want to bring all of that joy with you? Well, now the task is to find Hans amidst 10,000 people in the Hofbru beer tents. Let's go. Hans! Kyle! Velkommen. Ha, Ha! I found you! Half a million people here, 10,000 in there and here we are. Here we are. - In front of the Hofbru tent. Dude, you can bring it. Look at this outfit. This is some sort of...

Hans

Trachtenmoden. (costume fashions) I feel like we are definitely not in Milwaukee anymore, Dorothy. This is the real deal. You have arrived in Oz. - Yeah. This is the Super Bowl, the Carnival, the, like I don't even know what analogy this is. This is Oktoberfest. - It's Oktoberfest, right. It defies analogy. It is the analogy used for other things. Truly, yeah, yeah. So behind us is the Hofbru, it's not fair to call it a tent. It's the Festzelt, which means fest tent, but it is truly a massive structure, it's built every year, starting in July. Okay, actually, June they start putting foundations in, July, they start putting it up. It costs over a million dollars a year to put it up. When this is over, within three to four weeks, there will be nothing here but an open meadow. Wow. And you have seats for us up in the balcony? Yes, we're gonna be on the balcony overlooking the whole sea of people down below. Wow, I don't know what we're waiting for. I'm not shy. - Let's go drink some beer. Yeah.

cheering

Hans

That's overwhelming. This is so exciting, and it's the balcony of the Hofbruhaus in Munich for Oktoberfest. This is like the Opera Box of beer. And with, you know, a few friends and beer enthusiasts. This is, this is the hotel, this is fantastic.

group singing

Hans

It's awe-inspiring to think about how many people are here from all over the world and they're all having a great time.

Kyle

But every 20 minutes, they play one of two songs.

Hans

The "Hofbruhaus Song, "or "Ein Prosit." And roughly 10,000 people take a sip and how much beer is consumed? It's about 1,000 liters every time they play this song. Everything here is served in glass, on china, with silverware, by service staff. So this is my first Oktoberfest. This your twelfth, thirteenth? I think this is my thirteenth, I kind of lost count. Your first time here is the best, right? Nothing like it. - There's nothing like it. I mean, it's a pretty awe-inspiring thing, right? Yeah. - I mean, I think it's-- You look at this out here, this is humanity. That's good beer.

crowd singing

Hans

So I'm about to descend to the belly of the beast. I have this much of my second liter, there's frivolity, there's celebration and there's a good time, it's everywhere, really.

Passerby

Coo! Coo!

laughter

Passerby

It's impossible to be in a bad mood and be here. And it has nothing to do with the great Bavarian beer. Come with me. In a world where so many things are copied and troped on, this is the authentic experience. This is history. This is true German beer. This is, this is togetherness, this is a sense of place. There's nothing happening here except for people conversing, having great beer, toasting each other, and enjoying life. This is the spirit of how we live. This is Oktoberfest.

crowd singing

Hans

It's gonna get rowdy.

"I've Had the Time of My Life" by Bill Medley, Jennifer Warnes

Hans

I've had the time of my life And I've never felt this way before Yes, I swear, it's the truth And I owe it all to you

Crowd Member

Ahhhhh!

crowd continues singing theme song from Dirty Dancing

Crowd Member

It's the truth It's the truth

Women

Want to make some

inaudible

Women

? With my body and soul I want you more than you'll ever know So we'll just let it go Don't be afraid to lose control Yes I know what's on your mind When you say "Stay with me tonight"

accordion music

Women

Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank

the following underwriters for their support

Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board representing the dairy farm families of Wisconsin, who foster a proud history with generations of family-owned dairy farms working to sustain the state's economy through job growth and providing acclaimed cheeses and other dairy products. Every product tells a story and every story starts with a seed. Your story, your product, your company all started with an idea. Illing Company ensures you have the right packaging to help you proudly take your harvest to market. Illing Company is dedicated to packaging your vision. American Kitchen Cookware is proud to support Wisconsin Foodie and helping food lovers everywhere embrace their own culinary adventure. With cookware manufactured right here in Wisconsin, we're working every day to make people's lives better in and out of the kitchen. Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993. Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made. Milwaukee's landmark art deco hotel offers luxury accommodations, legendary hospitality, and world-class dining. Award-winning chef Jason Gorman's contemporary take on cuisine, paired with the hotel's "Roaring 20's" vibe, makes the Ambassador a must-experience destination. Society Insurance, small details, big difference. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The Central Wisconsin Craft Collective. Something Special from Wisconsin Rushing Waters Fisheries. FAB Wisconsin. Edible Milwaukee magazine. Also, with support of the Friends of Wisconsin Public Television. For more information about upcoming Wisconsin Foodie special events, dinners, and tours, please go to wisconsinfoodie dot com. There you can sign up for our mailing list to be the first to know about our events and offerings. Also, get connected with us through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.