Food & Beer Culture

What dishes pair with beer in Straubing? Above all, what lands on the table in a Lower Bavarian festival tent: roast chicken, pork roast with dumplings, Steckerlfisch (grilled fish on a stick), pretzels with Obatzda and radish. It's all hearty, fatty, and salty, and the Festbier, with its soft malt and low bitterness, holds its own against it.

The Gäubodenvolksfest is the heart of the local beer culture. It takes place in August and lasts a good week and a half. According to the organizers, seven festival tents stand on the grounds, serving beer from five local breweries, including Karmeliten, Röhrl, Schlossbrauerei Irlbach, and Arcobräu. Nearly 1.4 million visitors came in 2019, most of them from the surrounding area.

Part of the festival remains agricultural to this day. It recalls its founding in 1812, when farmers and traders came together. Horse races have run every August since 1922, as long as that date has existed.

Outside the festival, there are the brewery taverns, the beer gardens, and the cellars. There, people drink Helles with their Brotzeit, and Weißbier belongs to the Brotzeit table too. First-time visitors to the city quickly notice: it's all about sitting, talking, and waiting for the next round.

Serving sizes are clearly defined: the Maß is one liter, the Halbe half a liter. Beer is a food item, but it's also a drink meant to be enjoyed deliberately, not gulped down in a hurry. In the tent, it's customary to stay seated through the meal, raise a toast, and keep talking for a while after eating. The beer doesn't run out any faster for it — but it tastes better when sipped slowly.