Sad there's no official Oktoberfest celebration this year?

I feel your pain. This time last year, I was at an Oktoberfest in Vienna. I've been to Oktoberfest celebrations in Europe three times (Munich, Germany, in 2002; Stuttgart for Volksfest in 2016; and Vienna, Austria, last year). 

And this year, I enjoyed my Octoberfest festivities at home. 

In Chicago, we are fortunate to have an incredible food scene and access to many specialty markets. I celebrated Octoberfest last weekend with wurst from a lovely German butcher shop named Gene's in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood, and beer from a Chicago-based German-style microbrewery, Metropolitan.

I chose Gene’s homemade smoked spicy bockwurst, weisswurst with parsley (a personal favorite), and veal weisswurst for my meal (you can order yours from Gene’s too from anywhere in the US online). For brews, I got a mix of six Metropolitan beers from Binny's (a local liquor chain store). And because my favorite German food traditions include soft pretzels, I decided to make my own. I used Alton Brown's soft pretzel recipe.

Not to pat myself on the back, but it was my first time making homemade pretzels and they turned out perfectly. It was a delicious meal and I highly recommend visiting Gene’s and Metropolitan if you live in or visit Chicago.

I posted just a few minor notes here below if you try to make these pretzels at home (and for future me when I try to make these again). Enjoy the photos and let me know how yours turn out if you try making them.

Tips for Making Alton Brown’s Soft Pretzels

Get the full recipe here.

• I substituted some of the water for milk. The liquid I used was 1 and 1/4 cup of water + 1/4 cup evaporated milk with sugar along with the yeast, and allowed the yeast to activate before mixing it with the salt and other ingredients in the bowl (slight variation from Alton’s recipe, but the milk give the yeast more sugar so I think it makes the pretzels extra fluffy and soft).

• When I rolled out the dough I had a lot of oil on my board and rolled the pieces out like a snake between my hands and the board. You’ll notice the white stripes in the pretzels. That is from the dough folding onto itself, but NOT sticking because of the oil. It gave them a cool look.

• I only used a half cup of baking soda in the boiling water. I was afraid of the baking soda affecting the taste too much, so I followed a suggestion in the recipe comments and found that they turned out well even with the reduction in baking soda. 

• I allowed the pretzels to rise 10 minutes again after I formed them into the pretzel shape before boiling. 

• I dropped each pretzel into the boiling baking soda and boiling water mixture and boiled two at a time (in a large stock pot), gently turning/flipping them over halfway through the 30 seconds. TIP: the pretzel dough will look shaggy, soggy and UGLY after you remove it from the boiling water, but it will turn out just fine. See photo here on the page.

• I rotated my baking sheets at 7 minutes into the 15 minute bake time front to back and top to bottom shelf (I did two sheet pans at a time rotating both) so each pretzel got an even brown color. 

Left to right: Volksfest with friends in 2016, Oktoberfest in Vienna with friends in 2019 and a bier tent in Stuttgart (Volksfest 2016).