Oktoberfest back for Year 2 in Russell

Sep. 29—RUSSELL — A family-friendly festival will return to Russell Saturday with music, games and craft beer.

Eridanus Brewing will host its second Oktoberfest celebration today (Saturday) at noon. The festival will offer multiple brewed beers to drink and a selection of German food to eat. Owners Justin and Kristen Matthews said the event is all about the spirit of fun.

"Oktoberfest is just a family-friendly event," Justin said. "We wanted to do something where the community can come hang out, but also where beer drinkers could enjoy German-style beers.

"It's just a fun thing for the community," Justin added. "We really encourage people to bring their families. It's not a rowdy crowd and it never will be."

Three special craft beers will be on sale — Honey Kolsch, Oktoberfest (Marzen) and a German Alt-bier.

"In addition to those we've also got the beers that we have on tap in the tap room," Kristen said, "which are the tributary stout which we brewed in collaboration with Dreaming Creek in Richmond, Kentucky, and their head brewer is actually from Greenup County. That was a really cool collaboration that we were able do with them."

Broken Throne Brewing, from Pikeville, will be at the festival.

"They are going to come and bring some beers as well — what they are bringing I am not sure, but they will be on site," Justin said of Broken Throne.

Kristen said Broken Throne previously brought a Banana Nut Bread Brown Ale that was a huge hit and people asked about it for months. She said they are excited to see what the brewery is going to bring this year.

Eridanus Brewing began preparations weeks ago for this year's fest.

"The beer-brewing started months ago, especially for the Oktoberfest — it takes longer than a typical ale, so we started brewing months ago to get ready for it," Justin said. "In addition to the food, and the beer, we have live music and games."

The schedule:

12-1 p.m. — Guyan River Cloggers performance.

1 p.m — Stein Holding Competition.

1:15 p.m — Keg Rolling.

1:30 p.m. — Stein Holding Competition.

1:45 p.m. — Team vs. Team Stein Relay.

2-4 p.m. — Live Music from Chuck Robertson Project.

4 p.m. — Stein Holding Competition.

4:15 p.m. — Keg Rolling.

4:30 p.m. — Music by The Rev. Mr. Jeremy Grizzle.

4:30-5 p.m. — German Spelling Bee.

5 p.m. — Final Stein Holding Competition.

"We are going to fill up plastic steins with water," Justin said.

"We don't want there to be any party fouls," Justin joked. "Basically participants will line up and hold two steins filled with water with their arms extended and the last man standing wins.

"Keg rolling is going to be a relay, we will do it in the grass so there won't be any injuries," Justin said. "You will roll it to one end and have it rolled back."

Kristen chimed in. "Typically in Germany they do keg tossing, but we know our insurance wouldn't really approve of that," she laughed. "Keg rolling it is."

An Oktoberfest in Virginia has inspired them to bring the festival to Russell.

"I lived in Richmond, Virginia, for a few years and there was an Oktoberfest put on for as a fundraiser for one of the local Catholic schools, and as we have built Oktoberfest that has been the model," Justin said.

They said they learned some things after hosting the first Oktoberfest a year agoo.

"It was successful," Kristen said. "We still have people talk about it from last year. People who didn't know about us saw pictures of those who came and they were just like we didn't know about and that look like so much fun.

"Based on last year we didn't even get to eat any of the food because it was sold out. We sold out of food within three hours of the event starting," she said. "We made more beer going into this year because we really ran low on last year, but Justin has been brewing in advance to be able to have all of our taps full of our own beers, which was a huge thing for us."

"Our ultimate goal is to make this a downtown Russell event," Justin said. "We don't want it to just be limited to our parking lot.

In the future, Justin said, he envisions street closures, vendors and a day-long festival for the whole city.

The festival is from noon until 6 p.m. at Eridanus Brewing at 501 Ferry Street in Russell.

(606) 326-2657 — ajohnson@dailyindependent.com