This is one of the premier Fall events in NEPA…
There’s a particular kind of magic in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Not the Disney kind. Not the kind you Instagram with filters and hashtags. The kind that smells like grilled bratwurst, tastes like smoke and malt, and lives in the cracked pavement of a brewery parking lot where people show up—rain or shine—to drink beer that tastes like home.
Susquehanna Brewing Company’s Oktoberfest (October 6th, 2025, from 12pm to 9pm) isn’t a festival in the glossy sense. It’s not dirndls on parade or corporate tents doling out light lagers in plastic cups. It’s working-class, family-built, messy, loud, and absolutely worth your time.
Picture this: a brewery tucked into Pittston, PA. The air heavy with the scent of sauerkraut and onions, music pounding out from the Schützengiggles Oompah Band. People jam shoulder to shoulder, laughing, shouting, sloshing pints of SBC beers. Kids run around with sticky hands while their parents toast to nothing more than surviving another year.
That’s Oktoberfest here. And it’s glorious.
The Beer
The star of the show is SBC’s Oktoberfest lager, and it’s everything you want it to be. Deep amber, kissed with toasted malt, crisp enough to keep you honest but heavy enough to remind you it’s fall. The kind of beer that makes you want to sit a little longer, talk a little louder, maybe even sing if you’re drunk and foolish enough.
They brew it with imported Pilsner, Munich, and Crystal malts, then lace it with Bavarian hops—Hallertau, Perle, Saaz. It finishes clean, but not forgettable. Five point seven percent ABV. One pint and you’re comfortable. Three and you’re speaking German you never knew you had in you.
The People Behind It
SBC is one of those rare breweries that doesn’t feel like it’s trying to be cool. They don’t have to. They’re beer people—sixth-generation family brewers who just get it. They’ve been making beer in NEPA long before you thought “craft” was a word.
Walk in and you’ll find brewers with calloused hands, bartenders who actually want to talk to you, and locals who aren’t shy about telling you which beer you should be drinking. This is their house. You’re just lucky enough to be invited in.
The Festival
Forget the weather. Last year, it poured. Sheets of rain, mud everywhere, shoes ruined. Didn’t matter. The place was packed. People drank, people danced, people cared. Because Oktoberfest isn’t about perfect conditions—it’s about defiance. About showing up anyway.
Live music, German food, steins in both hands, and a thousand conversations happening at once. You don’t stand on ceremony here. You stand in line for a beer, make friends with the guy behind you, and suddenly you’re clinking glasses with strangers you’ll probably never see again. That’s the point.
Why You Should Go
Because life’s short. Because beer this good doesn’t sit in cans forever. Because fall in Northeastern Pennsylvania is fleeting, and if you blink, it’s gone.
Susquehanna Brewing Company’s Oktoberfest isn’t a polished tourist event—it’s the real deal. Raw, human, chaotic in all the right ways. A community, a confession, a chance to let the world outside fade for a few hours while you drink something made with honesty and pride.
Go. Rain or shine. And when you raise that first pint, know you’re not just drinking beer. You’re drinking history, grit, laughter, and a little bit of what makes this corner of Pennsylvania unforgettable.
