This Texas Town Is Fighting Over Beer

The serene town of Muenster, Texas, has been rocked by a bitter feud not over politics but over everyone’s favorite beverage: beer.

Muenster is a small ranching town near north Dallas with German heritage that celebrates a yearly three-day Germanfest, full of beer, sausages and German tradition.

But this year, instead of one joyous celebration, there were two…

Two festivals, each boasting beer, sausages, and lively music, just a stone’s throw away from each other. 

The clash, first reported by The New York Times, began with social media attacks and an anonymous letter lamenting the disharmony caused by certain residents. The heart of the matter lies in the competing visions of Muenster’s cherished event, the survival of community volunteer groups, and on how the town would decide to divvy up the proceeds from selling beer.

The Jaycees, long-time sellers of the festival’s beer, found themselves at odds with the Muenster Chamber of Commerce who wanted to negotiate their contract, leading to an all-out rebellion and a festival face-off.

The Jaycees, alongside the Knights of Columbus, the Boy Scouts, a local meat seller, set up their own festival across the street from Muenster’s Chamber of Commerce festival – taking their refrigerated truck trailer with space for about 200 kegs and 32 beer taps with them.

However, the dispute isn’t just about beer; it’s about tradition. Some have expressed concerns about the festival transforming into a tourist attraction.

“It became more of an outsider thing and lost that local touch,” Leslie Hess Eddleman, a resident, told The Times. “They turned it into this big show for out-of-towners, but not for us.”

In the end, the two competing festivals mostly did a good job of ignoring each other and had plenty of beer to go around, according to The New York Times.