Three guest brewers from Germany were made to feel quite at home when they visited Brentwood Brewery for Oktoberfest, with some festival goers wearing traditional Bavarian costume, Oktoberfest drinking songs and oompah music playing in the background and Bratwurst on sale from the brewery’s snack van, Beer Grylls.

Following an arduous fifteen and a half hour journey from Pyraser Landbrauerei near Landkreis Roth, the VIP guests arrived with a van load of craft brewed German beer in time for Brentwood Brewing Company’s first Oktoberfest.

The Mayor of Brentwood, Cllr Will Russell, joined Brentwood Brewery for the festivities. He said: “I’m proud of Brentwood. We should be promoting the town as a brand. It’s great to see the community come out, enjoy this relaxed, family atmosphere and support this wonderful community event.

“It’s wonderful to do commerce between two countries and indeed between the two towns.”

Introductions between breweries came about thanks to Cllr Jon Cloke who is not only a friend of Brentwood Brewery but also Chairman of Brentwood Town Twinning Association.

“I do appreciate fine beer! At Brentwood’s recent German Town-Twinning Beer Festival I was asked by Roland if we could get some German beer for his Oktoberfest.

“Using my town-twinning connection as chairman to Anne Klier the chairman in Landkreis Roth, we managed to get Brentwood Brewery talking to the Pyraser Brewery in Roth.

“We now have a superb German brewery and a superb British brewery working together. This is a major benefit from town twinning for both Brentwood and Landkreis Roth,” said Cllr Jon Cloke.

Brentwood Brewery MD Roland Kannor said: “It’s true we have an ample supply of Brentwood and Elephant School beers in our cold store but we felt for our first Oktoberfest one vital, authentic element was missing – some genuine German beer.

“We’re delighted that our new friends at Pyraser Brewery could help us out by supplying some beer and were able to join us as well.

“We’ve been invited over to Germany to visit them next summer for one of their main events.”

The German brewers brought with them a selection of ten different Pyraser bottled beers to join those on the bar from the Brentwood and Elephant School ranges, brewed in Brentwood. The German beer proved to be very popular, particularly the schwarz or black beer and Hopfenflucker Pils. Elephant School Brewing’s Sombrero went down well too. As did Brentwood Best.

Alexander Schwab who handles marketing for Pyraser Landbrauerei said: “We brought with us regular lager beers from Germany, schwarz beer, red beer and a typical seasonal beer also, from the hop harvest where we put the green hop into the beer.

“People are very interested. They’re trying the German beers and they’re very happy to see that we’re trying the local beer from Brentwood Brewing Company. And we also like it very much.”

Charity donations were collected for Little Doves Christian Pre School in Navestock, which opened in May. The latest fundraising goal is to buy a new fence, climbing frames and storage.

Pam Biddulph, Manager of Little Doves said: “We’re a brand new pre school so we have lots of set up costs. At the moment we’re raising funds towards the outdoor play area and making the area secure and safe for the children.

“We want to develop that area, especially moving forward into the winter. We need to get some rubber matting and things like which is all very expensive, so any proceeds will go towards that.”

Keen to experience Brentwood’s nightlife, the guest brewers, accompanied by Roland, went to a traditional English pub (The Spread Eagle). Afterwards the German guests partied the night away at some clubs. Before catching the return ferry with a van load of Brentwood Beer, the Pyraser team also managed to squeeze in a whirlwind sightseeing trip to London.

Alex Schwab added: “We did a beer exchange. For our workers in the brewery, in Germany we have the house drink so everybody working gets eight cases a month free and then we’ll put some Brentwood Beers on top for them to taste.”

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