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Mets Oktoberfest Recap

photo by CeetarOktoberfest at Citi Field was basically exactly how I expected it. Better than nothing, but nothing special.

 

The line to get in was really long. You could only pick up tickets at the ticket booths outside the Bullpen Gate and it took us about 20 minutes to do this. We received two vouchers each for beer, and a voucher for our Mets boot, to retrieve on the way out. No glass inside Citi Field. The lines for beer were particularly long, mainly because they sold tickets to more people than should probably stay in the Bullpen Plaza. There was very little in the way of entertainment, just one DJ with a German music playlist. None of the food options were any different than anything you can get in the main area of the park, in fact I don’t even recall what the three or four items for sale were.

 

And of course, the beer. Ideal would’ve been a handful or two of local seasonal options, with perhaps a tasting glass so you could try many of them. Even just two or three local craft options would’ve been special. Worst case was that they’d simply provide the generic Bud Light and Coors Light options that they provide to groups that buy Party City seats. The Mets went with the barely acceptable option; they provided Oktoberfest beers from Anheuser Busch InBev owned breweries Becks and Spaten. This isn’t horrible; after all, Spaten is a storied brewery and one of the six that’s poured in Munich, but because it’s owned by AB InBev, it’s the easiest possible option they could’ve provided. You also had the option of St. Pauli’s Girl and Bud Light.

 

I ordered my two beers at once because there was little reason to wait on the line again, and we ended up just heading into the park. The area was open from 5:30 until first pitch, but there was really no reason to stay.

 

The Mets boot was a nice touch, it’s glass and says Oktoberfest at Citi Field and all, but it’s very cheaply made and one of ours was actually chipped. It’s so obvious that it’s just two simple pieces of glass fused together, and the top of the boot isn’t even rounded like a glass for drinking. It’d probably make a nice vase though.

Das Boot!

I like the idea of Oktoberfest at Citi Field, but I don’t know that I’d make a special excuse to come out again next year if there aren’t any real changes.

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Mets Final Weekend, Oktoberfest, Piazza

It’s here. The last weekend of Mets baseball before it slinks off into the off-season of unsubstantiated rumors and financial allusions.

 

I’ll be at two of the games. Tonight, the Mets are doing their Oktoberfest. I get a cool glass Mets boot stein, which is worth the admission to the event, but I’m not hopeful that they’ll have anything special in terms of beer. There are so many local Oktoberfest beers to choose from, and even some Anheuser-Busch InBev ones like Spaten, but chances are they won’t be specially acquiring beer for a small event on the final Friday of the season. Perhaps if the Mets were to clinch a playoff spot one day, we can rally them to add fall seasonals to the selection. Either way, I’ll write up my thoughts next week.

 

I’ll be rooting for the Mets. I know that seems to  be a contrary opinion these days, as many are obsessing over the Mets losing to get a better and/or protected draft pick. Not me. I root for the Mets to win, and I don’t cherry pick one specific aspect as the only path towards competitiveness. Sure, getting the protected pick makes things easier this offseason, but one pick who may or may not ever play in the majors some years from now is not going to make or break the Mets.  Certainly not enough for me to root against the Mets winning. The Mets might not target, or acquire, a free agent that requires sacrificing the pick. Draft picks are a consolation prize, not a goal.  It ignores the short term enjoyment for the long term projections, something I never agree with. You can sacrifice the present for the hope of the future endlessly, and never get there. It feels too similar to the idea that you should lose as badly as possible as much as possible until you’re in the best position to get really good, really fast. That seems too much like the Marlins methods for me to like.

 

Mike Piazza will be inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame Sunday, and I’ll be on hand for that too. Maybe the baseball Hall will get around to the same thing next year, but until then we’ll honor him as a Met because he’s one of our greats. They really should be retiring 31 too, and I’m not really sure why they aren’t. (And there’s a case for 15,16 and 17 as well) At least we’ll probably get another chance to honor Piazza next year when he’s inducted and then maybe the Mets have a retired number ceremony.

 

And then that’s it. The players go home. Citi Field goes dark. We start counting until pitchers and catchers.

 

The Islanders first game is next Friday.

 

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Your Questions, My Answers

I’m out of the country starting last night through September 30th, so I requested some Twitter questions to make a quick and easy post.  This is that post, submitted for your enjoyment while I tour Amsterdam, Munich for Oktoberfest, and Prague.

 

 

That’s an easy one.  I learned from the best.  If you don’t know, Ted routinely does a Friday Twitter Q&A at Tedquarters.  I wonder if Metsopotamia is big enough for TWO Q&A posts this Friday.  To truly make this ridiculous, I’m going to schedule a tweet to this post for Ted on Friday in hopes of getting the Internet stuck in a recursion error.

 

Amusingly, I had responded to a question by Emily Ragle on this earlier in the week.

She asked: “#craftbeer fans: Do any of you actually have a favorite beer? I can’t ever choose, and it’s the most common question I’m asked.”

So my response will be the same one I gave her: It depends on my mood and the season.  Right now for example I recently had a Founders Cerise, which is a delicious Michigan cherry fermented ale, and it’s the first thing to come to mind.  I’ll be in Oktoberfest in eight days though, and Oktoberfest/fall is still my favorite beer season, so that would get a nod if someone asking was looking for recommendations.  Visiting Hawaii two years ago I discovered a Toasted Coconut Ale at Kona Brewing Company that I absolutely fell in love with.  If you’d asked me before visiting the isles, I would’ve told you I didn’t like coconut, and now I love it.  I actually created a similar homebrew recipe for it, and it’s recently become available on the mainland in bottles and called Kona Koko Brown.

But this question is misleading.  Paul asks for my favorite beer of all time, and I haven’t yet experienced all of time yet.  I’ve been drinking craft beer for less than 10 years, and there are some really amazing beers that just haven’t been thought of yet.  So unless I stumble upon a TARDIS, I’m going to reserve final judgement.

 

More beer questions?  I thought I wrote a Mets blog?  Fittingly enough, Eno Sarris was talking about IPAs on Twitter recently so I had this answer readily available as well.  It’s Sixpoint Resin.  “Whatever flames upon the night. Man’s own resinous heart has fed.”  The beer is 9.1% alcohol and a whopping 103 IBU.  (International bittering units.  103 is extremely high) It comes in a nifty narrow green nanokeg (can) that I once heard someone describe as fitting perfectly among shampoo bottles in the shower.   IPAs can be a sore point for people that want to like more beer but find it daunting.  The bittering often turns people off, and is definitely an acquired taste.  A good IPA that I like to recommend is Flying Fish Hopfish; I find the malt in it balances the bitterness extremely well and makes for a delicious beer that’s not too harsh.

At least ‘ballpark’ is a baseball word, from the Banner Day winner.  This is a tough one.  At Oktoberfest beer is only served in liter-sized steins, called Maß and pronounced ‘mas.  These go for nearly 10 Euros, which as of this writing goes for about $12.8 since the Euro is doing it’s best 2007 Mets imitation and collapsing.  Plenty of beer in New York City is $5 for a pint, plus a dollar tip, so the prices doesn’t even seem bad.  Still, drinking liters of beer in one sitting in one tent is probably a poor way to see Oktoberfest, Munich, or Europe in general.

 

We will be there for 15 days, not including the plane travel days.  Three days in Amsterdam, Nine in Germany, and four in Prague.  Three of these will feature long train rides, and four of them with some extended family of my wife’s, which will probably raise the average amount I drink if what I’m being told about my German in-laws is true.  So let’s measure pints, because we’re American and it’s a decent enough beer measurement.  Given all the great beer and beer halls and the like around Europe, I suspect I’ll be drinking every day and mostly beer.  I’m going to guess three pints a day on average, with the travel days and jet-lag days dragging the average down.  So I’ll figure 45 pints of beer.  Feel free to weigh in over or under in the comments.  Assigning a, probably low, 200 calorie value to a beer, that’s 9000 calories which I’ll need to run ~50 miles on treadmill when I get back to burn off.

 

Yay, Mets questions!  When I started planning this trip early in the year, before the season even started, I knew there was a possibility I could be missing some big baseball games.  Clearly that’s not the case, and the way the Mets are playing right now is frustrating.  7:10 starts are 1:10 am starts in Germany however, so I imagine I’ll check in in the morning while checking email.  I’m sad there are only three games left, the final series in Miami, that I can watch though, and will probably click open a boxscore to see if David Wright has collected the hits needed to pass Kranepool for most in franchise history, if R.A. Dickey collected a win, or just to see who had a good game.

Greatest team ever, obviously.  Baseball is the greatest sport ever, with the possible exception of Calvinball, so the best team ever would have to be a baseball team.  New York is the greatest city in the world, so clearly the best team would be located in that city right?  The designated hitter is an abomination, eliminating the transplants from Baltimore, the Yankees.  The Giants and Dodgers have now played more games in California than New York.  The Mets, born of New Yorkers’ thirst for National League baseball, are clearly the greatest. Q.E.D.

 

 

Everything I’ve read about Oktoberfest suggests I’ll have lots of stories.  I suspect I’ll even tell some of them, probably at the non-Mets blog Garden Variety New Yorker, where I tend to post stuff I think should probably stay off a Mets blog.   I’m sure if I have WiFi here and there I’ll be tweeting the occasional European observation and picture.  I bet Jeff would appreciate a picture of the traditional Bavarian beer maid carrying way too many Maß of beer as well.  I’ve heard great things about Prague, and clearly it’s Beltran’s fault I’ll eventually have to leave there.

 

Thanks for the questions everybody.  I’m scheduling this for Friday morning, and by then It’ll be afternoon in Amsterdam and I’ll have just arrived.  I’m probably sitting on a rooftop bar at the hotel looking out over the city right now.

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The Bisons Beer Dinner, Mets Beer Competitions?

Prost!The Buffalo Bisons are having a Beer vs. Wine II dinner Thursday at Coca-Cola Field.  It’s a rematch of a dinner they had last November.

 

This is a pretty cool idea and a great use of the park during the offseason.  $60 gets you a 5-course meal and a wine and beer pairing with each.  Your vote decides which paired better, and the votes are tallied at the end for a winner.  Of course beer won the first dinner.

 

I’m not going to whine (haha, get it?) about the Mets not doing something similar at Citi Field, although I do think it’d be a fun idea.  I’m not that unreasonable that I demand all my interests to align in one centrally located area within Flushing.

 

Except this isn’t really that much different than an event the Mets already have.  Oktoberfest!  The Mets already have a plan in place for food and drink events, so why not host a couple more?  I’d make a point to go to a “Summer Beerfest” event before a Mets game.   The competition angle is one way to go too.  When the Padres visit in town, pour five Stone Brewery beers on one side, and five Brooklyn Brewery beers on the other. Ask fans to rank their top three beers and then announce the winner during the 5th inning, which would double as a great way to advertise the next competitive beer tasting event.