Eins, zwei, drei. On cue, 13 men from across the country raise 13 massive, beer-filled steins out in front of their bodies with straight, outstretched arms. They hold them there, each of their brew-bearing arms parallel to the ground, one hand tightly gripping the mug’s thick glass handle.
Their challenge is to hold up the 1-liter stein, known as a maßkrug (pronounced moss-KROOG), longer than any of their competitors. If they fail to keep the mug up and their arm parallel, or they spill any beer, they’re out.
Trembling begins almost immediately. Teeth are clenched, breathing is deep, exhales loud. By the sixth minute, half of the contestants have given up; the remainder are struggling, their arms shaking. “Bring it up, bring that arm up,” shouts Lenny Coyne, the emcee and judge.
A few minutes later, just two men are left standing: Zak Strauss, 27, a red-bearded fork-lift mechanic from Levittown, LI, and Cody Banes, also bearded, a 31-year-old who works at a bar in Sugar Land, Texas. Like all of the contestants, the two remaining men won regional contests to get here: the 4th Annual National Maßkrugstemmen Championship held last Saturday in Central Park following the German-American Steuben Parade.
Moments later, Strauss’ arm falls too low, and he’s out. Banes keeps his focus, the national record in his sights. Nine minutes . . . 10 minutes . . . His wife is crying, anticipating the trip for two to Munich her husband has won. His mother shrieks from the audience. His brother cheers “Go, go, go!” along with the rest of the enthusiastic crowd. He lasts 11 minutes, 24.7 seconds, smashing the previous national record of 9 minutes, 59 seconds.
“Maßkrugstemmen,” which roughly translates to “the lifting of a 1-liter mug of beer,” is a centuries-old Bavarian competition that’s taken off in the US in recent years after Hofbräuhaus Las Vegas held the first competition stateside in 2004. “Once they try it, they’re hooked,” Coyne says of the drinking game’s appeal. “No one can believe that something that’s a little over 5 pounds is beating them. But it is. It’s gravity.”
With Oktoberfest, that annual celebration of beer, brats and brass bands, upon us, German bars across the city are holding maßkrugstemmen competitions. The 202-year-old celebration, which officially begins Saturday and runs through Oct. 7, actually honors a Bavarian crown prince’s wedding anniversary, and was initially focused on horse racing. Today, the sport of maßkrugstemmen has stepped in as an honorary contest — and can be played all over the city.
Here’s where you can COMPETE!
DIG UP YOUR DIRNDL
Typically laid-back Fort Greene spot Der Schwarze Kölner will host an all-day Oktoberfest on Saturday with live music, beer specials, staff in traditional garb and a free beer for every customer who arrives in the same. At 8:30 p.m., it’ll ceremoniously tap a traditional wooden barrel of Hofbräu Oktoberfest beer flown over from Munich just for the occasion. The maßkrugstemmen is set for 9 p.m., and it’s anyone’s game; the reigning champion of the past two years will not be in attendance. (710 Fulton St., Fort Greene; 347- 841-4495)
CZECH IT OUT
Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden — the city’s oldest and best-known beer garden — is actually Czech, but it still celebrates Oktoberfest, and there’s plenty of German beer and sausage on the menu. Head to Astoria on Sept. 29 and 30 when the expansive brew-guzzling outpost will have a pig roast, beer specials, live music and a maßkrugstemmen contest at some point that weekend. (29-19 24th Ave., Astoria; 718-274-4925)
THE BEST PLACES TO GRIN AND BEER IT:
MUNICH IN MIDTOWN
A kitschy, sometimes rambunctious Bavarian wunder-bar near Grand Central, Bierhaus has festive activities year round — a biweekly rock polka band for instance — but it will take things up a notch for Oktoberfest with nightly maÃkrugstemmen competitions Thursdays through Sundays, between 6:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. (depending on when the band breaks). One of the competitors in the national championships, Brian Wilson, a 31-year-old who lives in Midtown and works in capital markets, first got into the sport at the bar just a month or so ago. “It was weird. I was holding a beer,” he recalls. “Next thing I knew I was the only one holding a beer.” (712 Third Ave.; 646-580-2437)
HIP TO THE HOFBRÃU
Williamsburg’s Radegast Hall & Biergarten will celebrate with a pig roast on Sept. 22 and Oct. 6 and live music every Saturday, including hipster-friendly Slavic Soul Party on the 29th. MaÃkrugstemmen competitors can see if different breweries affect their game: The first contest on Sept. 29 will feature Erdinger Oktoberfest, the second, on Oct. 6, will have Hofbräu Oktoberfest. The games will begin around 5 p.m. both days. (113 N. Third St., Williamsburg; 718-963-3973)
THE WÃRST OF IT
On Saturday at 3 p.m., both locations of sophisticated German joint Loreley Restaurant & Biergarten are getting the party started, tapping kegs of Hofbräu Oktoberfest and serving up their contents for free. Use it to wash down some of the restaurants’ creative new dishes, like bratwurst soft tacos ($11), or stay more authentic and order off their rather extensive schnitzel menu ($10-$18). Loreley will hold one maÃkrugstemmen event on Sept. 26 at 9 p.m. at its Lower East Side location. (7 Rivington St.; 212-253-7077 and 64 Frost St., Williamsburg; 718-599-0025)
JERSEY PRIDE
Hoboken hofbräu Pilsener Haus & Biergarten is having maÃkrugstemmen “heats” every Friday and Saturday between 8 and 10 p.m. throughout Oktoberfest, culminating in a grand finale on Oct. 19 and 20, where one lucky winner will heft home a 40-inch LCD HDTV. For the rest of us, there are pig roasts every Friday, and a New Jersey craft beer, Ramstein Oktoberfest, on tap, in addition to the traditional Teutonic tipples. (1422 Grand St., Hoboken; 201-683-5465)
Rules of the (drinking) game
The “competition is hard,” says Randi Lockemann, owner of Brooklyn’s Der Schwarze Kölner beer garden, where a maßkrugstemmen competition is on the docket for Saturday, but the “rules are simple.” Here’s a breakdown of the beer-holding regulations:
1 The stein must be held by one hand (either the left or the right) and gripped by the handle, not through the handle hoop, or by the actual body of the stein. The thumb cannot be on top of the handle. (Some bars are flexible when it comes to thumb placement, but the national championships are not.)
2 The holding arm must be stretched out in front of the body (not sideways), completely parallel to the floor. The other arm must hang straight down and not be supporting the body in any way.
3 Contestants may not wear any form of artificial support, including taping or bandaging, on their arms, elbows, wrists, hands or back. Powder, pine tar or similar substances on the hands are also forbidden.
4 There is no switching of hands once the competition has started.
5 If the arm holding the stein is not absolutely parallel to the floor, the contestant gets a warning. After two warnings, the contestant is disqualified.
6 Any spilling of beer is an automatic disqualification.