But until then, here are a few upcoming events targeted squarely at those who love good beer.
Already ongoing is the Addison Oktoberfest, which started last night with a keg-tapping by Addison Mayor Joe Chow. Booths will offer Spaten's lager and Oktoberfest and Franziskaner's Hefe Weiss, three are solid German beers that should be a fine complement to the bier barrel rolling, wiener-dog races and carnival rides. But if you want to branch out, the Addison Conference Center will serve as a drinking hall for "Biers of the World and Weingarten" featuring German wines and beers from Germany and elsewhere, including Franziskaner's excellent Hefe-Weisse Dunkel, Weihenstephen, Harpoon IPA and others, plus educational seminars tonight through Sunday presented by Spaten, Blufeld Riesling and arts organization The 500 Inc. See schedule and full lineup of beers and wines here.
Starting at 3 p.m. Saturday, The Common Table (2917 Fairmount St.) manager Jeff Fryman, an official beer judge and cicerone, will lead a beer and cheese tasting. Eight beers will be paired with eight cheeses from Scardello Artisan Cheese for $40 per person. Reservations are recommended at 214-880-7414. If you thought cheese pairing was strictly a wine thing, I highly recommend trying an event like this. It brings to mind the "cheese wars" that beer writer and Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver likes to wage occasionally with an unsuspecting sommelier, in which he pairs beer and the wine expert pairs wine with a set of cheese. Boasted Oliver in a visit to the Park Cities Whole Foods last year: "I always win."
And speaking of Garrett Oliver, as you may have already read on City of Ate, he'll bring some rare Brooklyn brews, including a cask-conditioned ale, to the Meddlesome Moth next Sunday, September 26. Despite the $75 price tag and the odd 4 p.m. start time, the early afternoon five-course beer dinner is sold out. But there are still tickets available for the $55 Trappist Ale dinner 4 p.m. Sunday, October 24, featuring Orval, Westmalle Dubel and Chimay's red, white and blue varieties.
But if you missed out on tickets to the Brooklyn dinner at the Moth and still want to catch one of the beer world's greatest ambassadors, he'll be on hand for a five-course "Brooklyn Brewery Gastropub" food pairing at Central Market 6:30 p.m. Saturday, September 25. Seats (a bit cheaper than the Moth dinner, too, at $60) are still available for that one.
And it's just one of many cooking and educational courses as part of Central Market's "Brewtopia" events running from Wednesday, September 22, through Tuesday, October 5. Other highlights include pairing dinners featuring Boulevard, Shiner, Magic Hat and Stone; Wednesday's cooking-with-beer course by Kent Rathbun; and a homebrewing workshop Sunday, October 3. Check out the full lineup of events here. If you can't make the beer-and-cheese event at the Common Table this week--or even if you do--Central Market is having a similar event, its "Beer Roundup," 6:30 p.m. next Friday, September 24. Check out the websites for Plano, Southlake and Fort Worth Brewtopia events as well.