It’s only 28 seconds, but it packs a punch. The video titled “Wiesn 2022 Wildstuben” shows a waiter at the bar pouring yellowish water into beer mugs from a full sink, while the band plays “Layla” in the background. Once a waiter comes by, picks up beer mugs with a nice head of foam and leaves again. A cursory look might give the impression that the bartender washed the beer with dirty water, and that’s probably why the video was widely shared on social media on Friday.
At first glance it looks pretty disgusting what is happening there. But in fact, there is nowhere to be seen that dirty water is getting into beer mugs that are picked up by the waitress. The host of the Wildstuben, Klaus Renoldi, also has a simple explanation for what can be seen on the video: “It’s just a short snippet,” he says on the phone, “if you could see everything, then it would be clear what was going on happens”.
One of the sinks at the bar was clogged and the bartender was in the process of emptying it. He poured the dirty water into half-empty beer mugs because nothing else was to hand. “I told him,” Renoldi continued, “next time something like that happens, please get a bucket and put it down so that people don’t get the wrong impression in the first place.” This representation is supported by the fact that even drinkers in an advanced state should immediately notice a clear difference to real Oktoberfest beer.
With 751 seats and 32 standing places, the Wildstuben is one of the larger of the small tents and is located immediately to the left of the entrance to the Wiesn on Matthias-Pschorr-Straße near Esperantoplatz. Augustiner Oktoberfest beer is served from wooden barrels. The Wildstuben have been at the Wiesn since 2009 and are operated by the Renoldi family of showmen from Bremen, who also set up beer tents with a similar Alpine touch, for example under the name “Königsalm”, at other large folk festivals.
Klaus Renoldi also operates the large indoor roller coaster “Höllenblitz” at the Oktoberfest. In 2019, the showman family hit the headlines because the public prosecutor’s office had initiated preliminary investigations into suspected corruption. At that time it was about a stand at the Bremen Freimarkt, one of the largest folk festivals in northern Germany with around four million visitors a year.