Why Pretzels Are A Perfect Oktoberfest Food

Oktoberfest wasn't always just about beer — it was originally a celebration of a royal marriage in Munich, Germany, over 200 years ago. Nowadays, it's a globally celebrated festivity with lots of beer, usually German lager in steins, a type of beer glass which holds a liter of liquid (about 34 ounces). Naturally, there's German food as well, and pretzels tend to be a classic pairing during Oktoberfest. Why do people break out the large, chewy, salted pretzels after the mayor of Munich taps the first keg to signal the start of Oktoberfest? It's not only tradition — it turns out there's a bit of food science pairing beer and pretzels together.

The answer all comes down to salt. Salty foods go just about perfectly with beer, because salt dulls bitter tastes, and German pretzels are heartily salted. Part of what makes beer an acquired taste is its bitterness, which comes from the hops used to brew it. When you have a big salty snack alongside the beer, you won't taste the hops so much and the drink will go down more smoothly as a result. It's precisely why bars serve salty foods like fries, chips, or small pretzels.

Salt doesn't just dull your taste buds; considering many people enjoy the complex taste of beer, a dish that only numbs it won't be a good pairing. On a chemical level, sodium chloride also enhances flavor by drawing out and intensifying the sweetness of the beer's malt. You don't want too much salt, but a subtle amount remaining in your mouth can punch up beer the same way it punches up the pretzel's milder ingredients. On a more cynical note, salt also dehydrates you so you feel thirstier, which makes that beer feel more refreshing — not that beer is truly hydrating in the long term, because it's a diuretic which will pass right through you.

The pairing works so well that some brewers have experimented with adding salt directly to beer, but pretzels tend to be the Oktoberfest pairing because they're a classic Bavarian snack. For an authentic experience, a German-style pretzel (which is both baked with kosher salt and sprinkled with coarse pretzel salt) should go with a Märzen beer, a reddish lager which is the traditional Bavarian Oktoberfest choice, or an ale like a German Kölsch beer instead.