Oktoberfest drinks?

[spinbaby]

I’m throwing an Oktoberfest party towards the end of the month. I have the food menu well in hand—largely stuff I can make ahead or get at Aldi during German week. But I don’t really drink beer and most of my friends don’t either. I’ll have some beer on hand, but was struggling to come up with non-alcoholic drinks that would fit the spirit of the event. Maybe root beer in those brown glass bottles? Birch beer? What even is birch beer?

[marble falls]

1. Drink Strohs. It only pretends to be beer.

[Chasstev365]

2. There are some great German Octoberfest beers around this time of year

Paulaner
Hofbrauhaus
Warsteiner

Many Micro Breweries also have good versions.
Oktoberfest (as Germans spell it) is a darker beer, but not biting like IP's. They're more like Ambers.

If you don't want alcohol, you can't go wrong with hot apple cider.

[Cairycat]

3. Apfelschorle is popular in Germany

and other German-speaking countries. From Wikipedia:

Apfelschorle (pronounced [ˈapfəlʃɔɐ̯lə] ⓘ (apple spritzer), also Apfelsaftschorle (apple juice spritzer) or Apfelsaft gespritzt (splashed apple juice, more widely used in Hesse, Bavaria, and Austria) in German, is a popular soft drink in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.[1] It consists of carbonated mineral water and apple juice.[2] The broader category Fruchtschorle consists of any fruit juice mixed with carbonated water, but Apfelschorle is by far the most common. Spritzer (that is, wine mixed with carbonated water) is called Weinschorle.

[spinbaby]

4. That's a good idea

It feels very autumn

[Nittersing]

5. Mulled apple cider?

Not sure it screams "Octoberfest" but still...


And last week I had a root beer float for the first time in decades and now I want another one.

[Old Crank]

6. Spezi

This is the Paulaner brand name for a very popular soda mix.
In the US you can make your own if you can't find it.

Equal parts Cola and Fanta orange soda.

Fruit juice schorles are good. Apple has been mentioned. Johannesbeeren, current juice and sparkling water, rhubarb.

You could make a wine schorle with alcohol free wine. I don't drink beer so that is my go to drink.

Have fun. We are going to Oktoberfest with friends.

[justaprogressive]

7. I would vote for this!

In discussing Oktoberfest for non-beer drinkers, this is one of the first questions that comes up. Sadly, the answer is no. While cider is a popular beer-fallback here in the US, this is not the case at Oktoberfest.

Apfelsaftschorle
However, if it’s apples you want, apples you can get. In that case, you’ll want to look for what’s called Apfelsaftschorle.

Apfelsaftschorle is basically a (non-alcoholic) apple juice spritzer. Literally, apple juice mixed with carbonated water. But, it’s still an option for you non-beer drinkers at Oktoberfest that’s somewhere in the realm of cider.

[sir pball]

8. Are you offering NA options because you don't like beer, or don't drink alcohol?

If it's the latter, Athletic Brewing has an absolutely wonderful non-alcoholic Oktoberfest (just picked some up this morning as a matter of fact); if you just plain don't like the taste of beer, Paulaner Sunset claims to be "Germany's most popular non-alcoholic drink", though I can't find anything NA that's specific to the festival.