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Munich's Strong Beer Festival

© Paul Ruschmann

Can you say Starkbierzeit? It's German for "strong beer festival," an event held every March in Munich. For two weeks, breweries bring out their most potent beverages, and beer halls throw noisy parties with lots of Bavarian entertainment and food. It's Oktoberfest without the tourists.

The festival's roots go back to the Paulaner monks who, according to legend, began making an extra-strength beer to sustain themselves during their Lenten fast. The beer, first brewed in the 17th century, gained a word-of-mouth following. The townspeople called it Salvator.

Strong beer's popularity took off after Napoleon rode into town and sold the monasteries to local businessmen. Paulaner ended up in the hands of an entrepreneur named Franz Xavier Zacherl, who turned the monastery into a beer hall and mass-produced the monks' beer. In an inspired bit of marketing, he promoted Salvator as a cure for the wintertime blues. Münchners answered the call, descending on Zacherl's beer hall in droves.

Salvator is classified as a doppelbock, which means an extra-strength version of the Bock style. "Bock," in Bavaria, is a generic term meaning strong beer--pale as well as dark. Just how strong are doppelbocks? They start at 7.5 percent alcohol by volume. And because their strength is masked by a strong malty flavor, they can sneak up on the most experienced of beer drinkers.

The site of Zackerl's beer hall is still the gathering place for Starkbierzeit--especially on March 19, St. Joseph's Day. Today, it's called the Paulaner Keller. This sprawling complex can hold 5,000 revelers, and there's room for thousands more outside. It has everything you'd expect in a traditional beer hall: sturdy beermaids; brass bands blaring out drinking songs; and plenty of malty, amber-colored Salvator Doppelbock. Paulaner Keller is located at Hochstrasse 77; take U-Bahn line 1 or 2 to Sendlinger Tor, then tram number 27 to Ostfriedhof.

It didn't take long for Munich's other breweries to follow Paulaner's lead and come out with their own doppelbocks. But as a tribute to the original Salvator, they've all given their beers names ending in "-ator." It's a tradition followed over here as well.

Paulaner's biggest competitor is Löwenbräu, which brings out its sweetish--and lethal--Triumphator in March. You can find it all over town, but if you want to join the party, the place to go is the brewery's enormous Löwenbräukeller. Show up on the right evening, and the entertainment will include boulder-lifting competitions and other feats of strength. Löwenbräukeller is located at Nymphenburgerstrasse 2. Take U-Bahn line 1 to Stiglmaierplatz; once you come out of the station, look for the roaring mechanical lion.