Bürgerbräu Wolnzacher Festbier

Brewed by Bürgerbräu Wolnzach
Style: Vienna
Wolnzach, Germany

Pours pretty cloudy due to a good amount of yeast sedimetn. Relatively light for an oktoberfest, being a golden deep yellow. Low head. Aroma is delicately smooht with light malts, munich, and some earthy and slightly floral hops. Flaovr is subtly in that it has a medium maltiness but balances well with the hops. Pretty good and smooth but needs to be a little darker and a little bit more malty for an oktoberfest. Perhaps more body is needed too. Pretty good overall but I expected a bit more from burgerbrau.

Sampled in a half liter bottle. Pours a mahagonny gold color with a lot of carbonation. The carbonation was a little overdone for my taste. Smelled like malts, apple and citrus. The citrus is also present in the taste. It outdoes the maltiness that I would expect from an Oktoberfest. This was pretty good, but not my favorite style.

Coppery golden. Appley aroma , which fades rather quickly. Full bodied, with some dusty hops, as well as a hint of that apple that I detected in the aroma. I suspect this is rather old, and will have to rerate.

A nice spice, grainy, lager nose. Pale gold color and a tight white head. Full honey-ish malt body with a fair amount of hops that form a broad bitter across the mouth. Not a fabulous Oktoberfest, but classy, clean and straightforward.

Fresh, floral, spicy hops linger over a pleasant grainy malt base. Hazy orange-gold with very strong white head that recedes slowly to generous cover with some lacing. Very assertively hopped without being overly bitter. The floral hop flavour leads through to a lightly grainy malt base and a dry, lightly bitter finish. Smooth and soft in the mouth with a light refreshing body. The perfect wake me up after an evening at the Extreme Beer Fest. Now I’m ready for round two. Enjoyed with ClarkVV, Eyedrinkale and Rastacouere.

Post-EBF at Clark’s Huge frothy white head tops a spectacular bottle-conditioned wonder of a murky brown body with tons of yeasties. Funky creamy farm aroma proposes plenty of hay, flowers, dandelions and honeysuckle hallertau flavours. Atypical Oktoberfest to say the least. It may be a bit old though as this is not so tasty as expected and surprisingly far hoppier than anticipated to be. Subdued caramelised apples are marched over by the floral hallertau that sticks on the tongue. Marvellous texture, fluffy, creamy, decadently full bodied. Original and delicate. Keep them coming Clark!

I think this was last year’s bottle (2003). Pours a light copper, minimal cloudiness, but obviously not highly filtered. Good white head. Smells of light grains, hint of metal and a touch of lightly fragrant hops. Flavor is well-balanced, mostly dry though, with some good malt balancing out the dryness and hops. Nothing terribly exciting going on. Some honey and a dry nut-toffee like flavor on the finish. Well-made. 5/4/6/3/12

Rerate Same bottling as before. Much better than I recall, with a much hazier look to it. This stuff resembled split pea soup. Green, brown and copper all swirled about, with so much sediment it dosen’t look like beer. Honey sweet malt in the aroma, with yeast notes, vanilla?, and some metal. Flavors of caramel and vanilla ice cream up front, very sweet and creamy, with orange blossoms and a bit of tart yeast notes as it passes down the throat. Lightly sour/bitter hops, a bit oily in texture towards the end, with some sweetness resumed. Hmm, everyone else loved this, so I’m glad for that, but it still dosen’t do that much for me. 7/5/7/4/15

06.28.04 500ml bottle. This had an unusual pour and right off the bat I thought I might have bought a bad bottle. The beer is a yellowish gold and is essentially flat looking with so few bubbles I could count them. There is barely any head. So far, not what I’d expect from a festbier. The aromas are sour on top of some lemon and honey, not too appealing, honestly. The beer redeems itself somewhat in flavor by not being as off-putting as the appearance and aroma. Very raw grain flavors with a grassy bite. Quite malty and mild, but not really sweet, a bit on the bland side. The body is thick and soft; where’s the carbonation? Overall, not a great experience.