October has Oktoberfest. August has Beerfest — a come-in-anytime international beer and food-for-beer event cooked up annually by the folks at Ryan's Grill.

Prost! Salud! Kampai! Burp.

BEERFEST 2007

Where: Ryan's Grill, Ward Centre, second floor, 591-9132

When: Daily, through Aug. 29

The appeal: A 109-strong bottle-and-draft menu of beers from 24 countries, and a designed-for-brews pupu menu.

That beer menu: Includes suds from Belgium, France, Germany, Britain, Singapore, Italy, South Korea, the United States (yes, including Hawai'i) and more. Bonus points for putting smooth and crisp Japanese rice lager Echigo Koshihikari in the mix. Ditto for a trio of better-than-the-idea-sounds beer floats (fruit beer, ale or porter with a scoop of sorbet or ice cream) and beer cocktails (apple beer with Guinness stout or Harp lager, anyone?).

That food-for-beer menu: Have the defibrillator on standby for the towering Steinlager burger — for $12.95, an American Kobe beef patty topped with jalapeño cheese sauce, onion rings and Steinlager-braised Portuguese sausage. There's also a grilled artichoke — charred and stuffed with a warm goat-cheese souffle — for $9.95. Offerings seemed a tad less inventively fun than last year's Beerfest menu, but with eight pupu and three desserts (all of it paired with Beerfest beers) it was still a mad strong lineup.

Favorite grind: An open-face lamb sausage gyro ($10.95) — mildly spicy grilled lamb sausage, split and served on sinfully 'ono rustic fried bread slices. Dug the tomato feta relish; less tzatziki sauce, please.

The crowd: More klatches of 20- and 30-somethings — dressed weekday-evening casual — than folks flying solo. Lots of patrons passing on the Bud Light and Heineken to experiment with imports. A full-house 'round 8:30 p.m. anticipating live Island Music Wednesdays.

The soundtrack (on Wednesdays): An appealing lineup of live Island contemporary performers often makes for standing-room-only crowds once the music starts at 9 p.m. A shout out to Ten Feet for its sweet originals and sublimely skilled spins on well-chosen adult pop covers — especially Paul McCartney's "My Love" and Maroon 5's "Sunday Morning."

A Beerfest second-half menu: From executive chef Robin Uyeda, it kicks off Aug. 8. Same selection of beers. A new menu of pupu until Beerfest's Aug. 29 end.

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.