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The Vegan Oktoberfest returns for its second year to Los Angeles this Saturday and Sunday for an event that will be larger than Helga the 27 stein holding beer wench. The organizers, Jill Ryther and David Burke, have upped the ante from last year by having the fest run for two days, they changed the venue to the LA Center Studios in Downtown LA, and everyone receives a 14 oz stein that has unlimited taster pours and three full pint pours! This Oktoberfest will still be as authentic to the German festival as an event can get, but of course without meat and animal products. I had a blast at last year’s fest and I’m as excited as a German teenager drinking his first Löwenbräu to go this year.
David introduced Jill to craft beer at UCLA Law School, and like all craft beer drinkers, she was hooked and couldn’t go back to the carbonated yellow water that she was accustomed to back in her home town in Michigan. They became vegan about seven years ago and started an animal rights legal practice where they’re both animal rights attorneys. You may think that this sounds like the synopsis for the latest courtroom drama on Animal Planet, but in actuality this is serious business (the FBI turned animal cruelty into a Top-Tier Felony). They even made a non-profit company called Expand Animal Rights Now (EARN) that helps cover legal costs for animal rights cases.
Jill and David found that the majority of vegan events in the vegan community either cater to vegans so people outside of the community don’t come or they cater to outsiders which deters the vegans. Jill and David wanted to make an event that caters to both communities as well as combine their other two passions of craft beer and animal rights. Thus they created Vegan Oktoberfest by supplying unlimited beer from 25 craft breweries (with more on the way) and donating part of the proceeds to EARN.
You may be asking yourself, “What makes a beer, vegan?” Many beers are vegan, they just don’t advertise it. The real question is “What makes a beer not vegan?” Several craft beers use a fine white powder called diatomaceous earth in their filtering process. This cocaine looking substance consists of diatoms, which are fossilized algae that are ground up into microscopic particles. It has a high porosity due to the hollow particles that help trap very fine particles that usually clogs or passes through paper filters. I use diatomaceous earth as a safe insect killer because it causes bugs to instantly dehydrate. Some people don’t want insect killer filtering their beer. That’s understandable. Beers like Guinness and most cask conditioned ales use isinglass which is collagen that is made from the dried swim bladders of fish. The isinglass helps with the clarification, or fining of the beer, which helps flocculate yeast into a jelly substance that settles at the bottom of the cask. Basically this yeast fish bladder Jell-O accelerates the fining process.
Several local breweries will be present at this year’s fest such as Hangar 24, The Dudes, Wolf Creek, Bootleggers, Venice Duck Brewery, and newcomers Solarc. Breweries from San Diego, NorCal, and the east coast fill out the list. Each brewery will have at least two different beers on tap pouring a wide array of brews from pumpkin stouts, IPAs, white ales, and of course Oktoberfest Märzens to fill your 14 ounce stein.
All your traditional Oktoberfest activities will be back like the Chicken Dance contest, a costume contest (for all you biertrinker cosplayers), beautiful beer maidens, an Oompah Band, and my favorite, the Stein Holding Contest (which I’ve been conditioning for harder than Rocky Balboa training to fight Ivan Drago). Your favorite vegan Oktoberfest food will be served, which may sound like an oxymoron to all the carnivores out there, but the vegan brats with fennel have been something I’ve craving for the last few months. Throw on your lederhosen (and you may not need anything else on because it will be a toasty 80+ degrees on the weekend) and head downtown to the Vegan Oktoberfest where you can feel good about helping animals, what you eat, and most importantly, what you drink.
