Iron Hill is planning it's Oktoberfest celebration this year and was nice enough to share their recipes! For those in the area check the event out in person, but for those who can't make it scroll down for their recipes so you can recreate this feast at home.

WILMINGTON, DE – This autumn, ever-popular beer and dining destination Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant is offering guests a hearty, two-course Oktoberfest Menu at all seven of its award-winning locations.  This special meal will be available from September 15 until October 31, and costs $19.95.  Each course pairs with one of Iron Hill’s handcrafted beers, available in 10 oz. draughts for $2.50 each.

“For brewers, Oktoberfest is one of the highlights of our year, an age-old tradition that began in Germany and is now one of the most exciting beer events in the world,” says Director of Brewing Operations Mark Edelson.  “We love all aspects of beer culture, and this is such a natural way to celebrate by combining our two favorite things: great food and great beer.”

The first course of the Oktoberfest Menu is a Grilled Sausage Platter, with bratwurst, knockwurst, braised lentils, watercress and a stone-ground mustard drizzle.  Iron Hill suggests their Vienna Red Lager, an amber Austrian lager with bread-y malt aroma and flavor and a crisp, clean finish as an ideal complement to the flavorful sausages.  The entrée is a Pan Roasted Pork Tenderloin, with Yukon gold smashed potatoes, beer braised cabbage, house-made apple sauce and gingersnap gravy, paired with Oktoberfest, a seasonal, full-bodied amber lager with firm malt flavor, balanced with mild bitterness and a clean, dry finish.

Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant has seven locations, in Newark, DE; Wilmington, DE; Media, PA; West Chester, PA; North Wales, PA; Phoenixville, PA and Lancaster, PA.  All seven locations are open seven days a week for lunch and dinner.  For more information about Iron Hill, or to make a reservation at any of their locations, please visit their website at www.ironhillbrewery.com .

Read on for recipes

Whether you spell it Oktoberfest or Octoberfest there's one thing that's for sure, there's going to be some great beer. Oktoberfest Marzens offer something special, there's just no other lager out there that tastes quite like a good Marzen. Their rich complex malt flavors combined with extreme drinkability offer something special that no other seasonal beer does. This is a beer designed specifically for a celebration. By pure design it's meant to be consumed in copious amounts and sloshed from heavy liter glasses in tents filled by the thousands. For this and many other reasons we look forward to Oktoberfest every year. But the question is, which beer do you serve at your party? With so many options which beer do you choose? Well we got together with some friends and put in the painstaking hard work (ok perhaps it wasn't that hard) to sample 8 offerings this year, both American and German varities. Read on to see how each beer fared.

1st Place: Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen

Appearance: On the darker side of the orange/copper spectrum. Tan head, about an inch or so barely rising above the top of the glass.

Smell: A little spicy and less malt. Less lager smell as well. Very clean.

Taste: This is everything we look for in an Oktoberfest beer crisp yet malty, superbly drinkable a little nutty, just great flavor all around. It's not too carbonated but not undercarbonated either... just right. Almost juicy... we don't know what we mean, but we all agree: almost juicy. At 6% abv, it's on the high end, but it's so drinkable we don't think you'll care!

From the Stone Newsletter:

"We have two great testaments to the fun and creative spirit of being the craft beer movement to introduce to you this weekend, the Stone Cali-Belgique IPA and a collaboration called AleSmith/Mikkeller/Stone Belgian Style Triple Ale. Both of these beers will be available at the Stone Company Store starting today and will begin going to stores on Tuesday.

Availability:
The Stone Cali-Belgique IPA (aka Stone Cali-Belgie IPA) will be available year round, but in limited amounts (we'll brew it when we have time, but it won't always be on the shelves like our other year-round releases). The AleSmith/Mikkeller/Stone Belgian Style Triple Ale will be available once, and when it is gone - it's gone. Look forward to seeing more collaboration beers from us (and others) in the future!

These beers will have a permanent home on our website soon, but in the meantime you can click here to view the bottles and read the stories on the backs. "

With both these offererings coming from Stone, I'll have to check out my local store to make sure I get some. The Stone Vertical Epic 08.08.08 was delicious, and that was a similar style as the Cali-Belgique. Can't wait for these bad boys! Also, I'm stoked for future collaborations. If AleSmith and Mikkeller were among the first, I'm sure future releases will bring in some pretty great names as well.

And following today's theme of "Beer in the News," the New York Times wrote a great article about lower alcohol beers. We here at DrinkCraftBeer.com have been digging this idea a lot recently. Double IPAs, Imperial Stouts and Barleywines are great, but when you're out with friends you need something easier. This is DrinkCraftBeer.com... not PassOutAfterDrinkingCraftBeer.com. Our whole ethos is that beer should be social and fun. The "social" aspect is a big part.

Because of this, we're really happy to see some lower octane brews getting attention. While we're in the waning days of summer, I suggest everyone go out and drink some session beers this week! There's going to be plenty of time to have an 11% Imperial Stout warm you by the fire this winter. Have a barbecue, have some friends over, be outside and enjoy something under 6% abv. I know I'm going to.

Read the whole article on the New York Times website.

In their Food & Wine section, the top story on the Today Show's website is about canned beer and how it's getting more popular. An interesting article that proves that craft beer is getting ever more pervasive in our culture. It's a fairly good selection being that they featured 5 beers and are a mainstream show.

They also pair each brew with an entree and a snack, which is pretty neat. I think the Today Show should have Devon and I come on to do one of our tasting events. You know that'd be a fun show!

We here at DrinkCraftBeer.com are definitely glad to see beer, especially canned beer getting more attention. So happy in fact, that I'll totally ignore that they talk about the only-recently-canned Fat Tire as "a cult canned ale among mountain bikers in Colorado in the early 1990's." While it's been around a while, it was only canned this year. But, if that's the biggest error, then this article is pretty good.

Read the whole artilce on the Today Show Website.

So between starting a new brewery, self distributing, winner an award for cask beer at the Great British Beer Fest (Silver for their porter), the guys over at Mayflower Brewing Co. have been pretty busy. So what better to do in that situation than brew your first seasonal?!

On September 2nd Director of Brewing Operations Matt Steinberg and Assistant Brewer Ryan Gwozdz will mash in on their first seasonal beer. It's going to be a super-appropriately named Mayflower Thanksgiving Ale. What's so special about it? Well let's see... It's going to have oats, rye, flaked barley and much more... 40 IBUs of East Kent Golding, yum... a secret yeast (damn you and your secrets, Matt!)... and it will all be aged on American Oak Spirals with a light toast. Oh, and it clocks in at 6.5% abv.

Way to put together what sounds like it will be a delicious beer without going hop or alcohol crazy! This should be something you can drink during Thanksgiving Dinner that won't put you to sleep faster than the meal itself. They're looking for a style similar to American Old Ale/Strong Ale, "malty and earthy with subtle spiciness." Sounds like it'll go with turkey and mashed potatoes pretty well. We'll have a full report when we taste it.

Ok ok, so perhaps there's a bit of a catch to this. With InBev's recent acquistion of Anheuser-Busch the last of the big 3 (Miller, Coors, A-B) is now also owned by a foreign company. This acquisition has put put Sam Adam's into the #1 spot as the top American Owned brewery.

Click to read full article on CNN.