Oktoberfest and beer quiz questions for autumn quiz nights

Oktoberfest 2026 runs from 19 September to 4 October in Munich, marking the 191st edition of the world's biggest beer festival. Whether you're running a themed quiz night around the festival or just fancy a beer-soaked round for the autumn, here are 14 questions covering Oktoberfest's history and general beer trivia.

Feel free to lift these straight into your own quiz, or use our quiz creator to build a custom round around them.

Oktoberfest History and Traditions

1In which year was the very first Oktoberfest held, growing out of a royal celebration in Munich?

Answer:1810 (What began as a wedding party for Bavaria's crown prince turned into an annual tradition that's now run for over two centuries.)(click to reveal)

2Munich's festival grounds, the Theresienwiese, take their name from which princess, whose wedding celebrations became the very first Oktoberfest?

Answer:Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen (She married Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria in October 1810, and the horse races and public feasting held on the meadow to mark the occasion were repeated the following year, and every year since.)(click to reveal)

3What Bavarian phrase does Munich's mayor shout after tapping the first keg to officially open Oktoberfest each year?

Answer:"O'zapft is!" (Bavarian for "It's tapped!" The mayor performs the ceremony with a mallet in the Schottenhamel tent at noon on opening day, followed by a twelve-gun salute that signals beer can be served across the festival grounds.)(click to reveal)

4What is the name of the one-litre beer mug used to serve beer at Oktoberfest?

Answer:The Maß(click to reveal)

5A 1990 court ruling restricted which beers can be poured inside the Oktoberfest tents to only those brewed within the host city's limits. How many breweries currently meet that requirement?

Answer:Six (The ruling cemented Oktoberfest as officially "the Festival of Munich Beer," so no outside brewery gets a look-in, however big.)(click to reveal)

6Besides the two World Wars, which recent global event forced Oktoberfest to be cancelled in both 2020 and 2021?

Answer:The COVID-19 pandemic (The festival has only been called off a handful of times in its history, also including cholera outbreaks in the 1800s.)(click to reveal)

7Roughly how many visitors does Oktoberfest draw in a typical year?

Answer:Around 7 million (2023 set a record with about 7.2 million visitors, who got through an estimated 7.4 million litres of beer between them.)(click to reveal)

Beer Trivia

8Which German duke introduced the 1516 Reinheitsgebot, a law restricting beer's ingredients to just water, barley and hops?

Answer:Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria (It's one of the oldest food regulations still influencing production today, even though it stopped being German law in 1993.)(click to reveal)

9The original 1516 purity law left out a fourth ingredient that's now considered essential to brewing. Which one, and why?

Answer:Yeast (Its role in fermentation wasn't understood by scientists at the time, so it went unmentioned even though it was doing the actual work.)(click to reveal)

10Which country has topped the world rankings for beer consumption per person for more than 30 years running?

Answer:Czech Republic (Czechs have held the top spot since 1993, drinking close to 150 litres of beer per person a year.)(click to reveal)

11Which Bavarian brewery, founded on a monastery hill in Freising and still producing beer since around 1040, claims to be the oldest in the world?

Answer:Weihenstephan (It now operates as a state-run brewery in partnership with a technical university, making it older than most modern countries.)(click to reveal)

12The world's first pale lager was brewed in 1842 in which Bohemian city, giving its name to a beer style now brewed almost everywhere?

Answer:Pilsen (now in the Czech Republic. The beer, brewed by a Bavarian named Josef Groll, became the template for pilsner and is now the ancestor of most lager made worldwide.)(click to reveal)

13What's the key technical difference between a lager and an ale?

Answer:The yeast (Lagers use bottom-fermenting yeast at cooler temperatures and take longer to mature; ales use top-fermenting yeast at warmer temperatures and ferment faster.)(click to reveal)

14Which beer style takes its name from the British colonial destination it was brewed extra strong and heavily hopped to survive the journey to?

Answer:India Pale Ale (IPA) (The extra hops acted as a natural preservative on the long sea voyage from Britain.)(click to reveal)

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That should be enough to fill a round between pretzels and pints. If you're after more autumn quiz material, our Halloween quiz questions cover the other big seasonal night out this time of year.