It’s not a holiday. It’s not even an event that hails from this country. But it’s the biggest party in the world and we want in, even if it’s just a piece. What am I talking about? Why, Oktoberfest, of course! And because of our affinity for portmanteaus, our little slice is called Klocktoberfest.
If you’re a local Grand Rapidian, there’s a good to fair chance that you’ve celebrated Klocktoberfest with us in the past six years we’ve held this event. But perhaps you’re less familiar with the OG, including why it is what it is. So let’s take a moment and learn a little bit about Oktoberfest.
Celebrated annually in Munich ever since 1810, Oktoberfest is one of the biggest and longest running events in the world, anticipating more than 6 million people every year and 2 million gallons of beer consumed. And why are millions of people annually showing up in the Bavarian state of Germany? Was it due to a unification treaty, making it the biggest Founders Day celebration in the world? The anniversary of some great war that demonstrated the need for peace? Did someone see a comet and foretell doom lest they party their asses off?? No, none of these things! It’s literally the wedding anniversary for Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen! You know, that famous couple… (Yeah, I’d never heard of them either.) When the happy couple got married in 1810, they invited the entire city to celebrate and held festivities for two weeks, including a horse race (which remained an integral part of Oktoberfest for about 150 years) and of course huge amounts of traditional food and beer.
Imagine throwing a wedding reception so epic that people insisted that it happen again the next year. And now imagine one so epic that’s still happening annually more than 200 years later. The Crown Prince, who later became King Louis I of Bavaria, was a proponent of the arts who was integral in transforming Munich into the artistic center of German, so it makes sense that he’d be behind one of the country’s most prominent cultural festivals. So each year, going for 16 days and ending on the first Sunday of October, the party simply continues! Various events take turns being prominent, from horse races to parades, but the central perk of drinking fest bier and dressing in traditional garb has brought millions of people out annually, and that’s not even including all the smaller iterations that take place wherever Germans happened to have immigrated.
So what can one expect this Saturday here at Klockow Brewing Company for Klocktoberfest? The first thing you’ll see is an inordinate amount of people wearing traditional Bavarian swag. Think lederhosen. Think German Alpine hats. The next thing will be the music. If you thought you could come to an Oktoberfest celebration and not get knocked over with some raucous live polka music, you’d better think again! In the same way that a room full of people who hate country music are all of a sudden singing along to every line in a Dolly Parton song, there’s no such thing as someone who doesn’t love polka at Klocktoberfest. We got Nathan Neumann kicking things off for us to keep it traditional, but we’re getting more into the folk side of things by late afternoon with The Lindula Brothers and ending the night with MorningBird.
Amongst all this music you’re hearing, you’ll probably also notice the different games throughout the parking lot, many of them hosted by local non-profits. I’m talking Nagelspiel and Bier Spatzier. And what is this? It’s a bouncy house for the kids, and even a giant inflatable Wack-a-Mole game, no doubt for the kids at heart.
If that isn’t enough for you, and I hope it’s not, there is plenty of beer. We have much of our regular menu of good drinks, like the Supply Line Hazy IPA and the Stranger Ranger American Style Light Lager. But the star of the day is always the Münchkin Oktoberfest, our traditional Märzen. A huge hit every year when it’s released, we’ve been selling it like we’re about to run out since it was first tapped at the beginning of the month. But we won’t; we made damn sure of that. At least not until after this weekend.
And to sop up all those delightful suds, we are obviously going to have Singing Chihuahua Taco Truck! Ok, maybe not the most Bavarian of food options, but we just love working with them. That, and they make a killer Rueben-Style taco. That’s some Bavari-Mexi food fusion right there! And for dessert, be sure to grab a cup of small-batch ice cream from our friends at Borealis Creamery.
If that’s not enough to satisfy our lovely customer-base, well, we’re just out of ideas. With luck we’ll have scores of happy, tipsy people with safe rides home by the end of the evening.
We Barley Know You, But We Hop to Change That. It’s the Yeast We Can Do: Susan Sheker of Singing Chihuahua Tacos
Question: How long have have you been coming here, both as a customer but also as the food truck?
Susan Sheker: Pretty much, I think, we started about the same time. It’s been maybe six years. I can’t remember… were we here the first year? Eh, it’s been five or six.
Q: That’s a good amount of time. So in all that time, what’s your favorite Klockow beer?
SS: Well, right now it’s Billy (Bumbler Belgian Tripel). I dunno, I like the Oktoberfest beer a lot. And Hays on Tay (Scotch Ale). If I had to pick a favorite, right now Billy is my favorite.
Q: What about Billy speaks to you?
SS: I dunno, it’s just smooth… yeah, I just like the flavor of it.
Q: When you’re not drinking Klockow beer, what do you like to drink?
SS: Umm, I mostly like to drink Klockow beer! But I do occasionally get the Mango White Claws. And sometimes a little tequila every now and again. Not so often; mostly it’s Klockow beer.
Q: You’re most well-known around here as being part of the Singing Chihuahua Taco trailer. So what are some of your favorite foods?
SS: My favorite foods besides tacos, or just in general? [Laughs]
Q: However you want to answer that question.
SS: Probably one of my favorites is tacos. Mostly I like Mexican food, all kinds of variety of Mexican. I could probably live off of tacos and pizza!
Q: They’re good foods to live off of — endless variety!
SS: Right! You can put anything on a taco and put anything on a pizza! Just be creative.
Q: So what do you do in the taco truck? And besides that, what else do you do for work?
SS: In the taco trailer, I mostly run main grill, which means I cook all the meats. Do all the shells. Put it in the rack and get it ready. Then usually Gus will put the toppings on and serve them. If we’re in the (Farmers) market or an event, I’ve got two other people in the trailer. Sometimes three. Riverfest we had five people in the trailer total! Everybody works a station.
I prefer the grill over the window lots of time because I also work at the post office as a clerk, so I deal with people all day there. Sometimes it’s nice to get in the flow of things on the grill. It’s cool. It’s kind of like a dance; coordinating things and everything has a different cooking time. I didn’t think I’d like running the grill when we started the trailer. So I was at the window and he was on the grill. And the first big event we did, neither one of us could switch because he didn’t know the cash register and I didn’t know how to run the grill. That was our second time out!
So we quickly learned we need to multi-task.
Q: What do you like to do for fun?
SS: I like to ride my horse, which I never get to do. I like to go fishing, which I also don’t get to do in the summer. [Laughs] Next week, darn it! I’m going fishing!
Um, any kind of art: painting, drawing. I don’t spend much time doing that, but I’d like to get back into it a little more. And reading. I can seriously get lost in a book.
Q: Nice. So what’s a fun/interesting fact about yourself?
SS: Because I’ve always been a horse person, I used to rodeo, which was a lot of fun. I grew up in western Nebraska, so there’s a lot of ranches and people with high-end horses. Rodeos are a family event, and I’m the only person in my family who likes horses. So my dad got me a truck, got me a trailer, and found a horse that was acceptable. I high-school rodeoed most of my junior year and all of my senior year. I ended up third in the state in polls, and fourth in the state in barrels. So I got to go to national finals in Wyoming, which was a total hoot!
Used to do three rodeos a weekend, in the trailer by myself. Sometimes I’d bring a girlfriend. It was a lot of fun!
Q: We’re down to the last question: What’s your favorite holiday and why?
SS: It used to be Halloween because you could dress up and be someone else for a night. Roll playing is fun, I like that. But now that I’m older… gosh, I don’t know. Probably Christmas. Just because I really love going out and getting a tree, decorating it, hanging out with the fam, cooking the turkey.
Q: I asked that question on the off chance you’d say something like Labor Day. [Laughs]
SS: Labor Day is good because I don’t have to go to work, but then Tuesdays after a holiday at the post office are a nightmare! So anytime you get a day off, it’s kind of like - [stressed-grumble sound].
EDITORS NOTE: Saturday is Singing Chihuahua Tacos last day for the season! Be sure to come out for a bite before they’re gone… until next year.
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Thanks for checking out our humble little brewery! As long as you keep coming by, we’ll do our part by making the best damn beer possible and serving it in our always inviting atmosphere.
The Klockow Staff
Beer and Shrubbery Drops this Week:
Local, etc -
Smoke on the Water - Coleraine
Boulder Taphouse - Grand Rapids
Dutch Room & Mad Dog’s Pizza - Grand Rapids
Pickled Loon - Grand Rapids
Pokegama Plaza Liquor - Grand Rapids
SuperOne Foods - Grand Rapids
SuperOne Liquor North - Grand Rapids
Swan River Red Eye
Bottles & Brews Liquor - Grand Rapids
Balsam Store - Bovey
Gosh Dam Place - Deer River
Ron’s Korner Market - Bovey
Sammy’s - Grand Rapids
S&S Bottle Shop - Deer River
Zorbaz on the Lake - Grand Rapids
Bigfork, etc -
Kocian’s - Bigfork
Timberwolf Inn - Marcell
Antler Store and Motel - Bigfork
Big Fork Wilderness Bar
Frontier Sports - Marcell
Range, etc -
Super Smoke Shop - Virginia
The Great Outdoors Bottle Shop - Pengilly
Crossroads Convenience/Liquor Store - Iron
SuperOne Liquor - Virginia
SuperOne Liquor - Hibbing
Keyboard Liquor - Chisholm
KM Corner Store - Nashwauk
Marge’s Liquor - Eveleth
Sawmill Saloon & Restaurant - Mountain Iron
Silver Creek Liquor - Virginia
Ely, etc -
Trapline Liquor - Embarrass
Insula - Ely
Ely Liquor
Zup’s Food Market - Ely
Mike’s Drive-In Liquor - Ely