Dogfish Head Festina Peche

Brewed by Dogfish Head Brewery
Style: Berliner Weisse
Milton, Delaware USA

12oz bottle-pours a retaining foamy white head and cloudy straw color. Aroma is mild peach, wheat. Taste is mild peach/apple with a vinegar and cider-like character, wheat. Interesting. OK effervescence.

Bottle: Pours a hazy effervescent golden with a small, nicely-lacing, wispy white head. Aroma of slightly doughy yeast and some pale wheat and tart fruity peaches. Body starts with a mild sweetness and big tart citrusy balance toward a crisp, authentic finish. An enjoyable Berliner Weisse.

Bottle… Cloudy straw-colored ale with a small, fizzy, white head. Very subtle, restrained aroma; I can only pick out the faintest note of peach puree. Pungent flavor with subtle peach and lemon nuances. Heavily acidic and citric with a very crisp hop bite. Light-bodied with fizzy carbonation. Lengthy, sour, refreshing finish. It sweetens up a bit as it warms and begins to present some unsavory corn and mash notes in the nose. I enjoyed it more when thoroughly chilled.

My Bottom Line:
This approachable Berliner Weisse has a light wheat character to match a quiet peachy fruitiness, leading to a moderately tart and watery finish. It’s clean and überdrinkable, but it’s ultimately soporific, as far as I’m concerned.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A ring of foam circles the cloudy blond.
-The body is really thin and the carbonation quite low, which is to be expected, but the tartness and fruitiness are so shallow it makes me focus on the frail mouthfeel too much.
-Our friend Paul’s own berliner weisse with peaches developed its fruitiness and tartness a lot better, and it was 2.5% abv on top of that!
-I’m not sure I would’ve found peaches in there if I hadn’t known.

Bottle.

Courtesy of beastiefan2k. Pours a hazy gold/amber with a dissipating white head. Smells of peaches, lemons, some wheat, hints of tartness. Tastes mildly sour with a peachy aftertaste. Somewhat on the thin side as far as mouthfeel goes. Touches of the lip smacking vinegary sourness is present on the finish which leans towards the dry end of the spectrum. Pretty good as a summer seasonal.

Growler from BierKraft. Cloudy pale yellow beer with a thick white head that quickly fades back to nothing. Hightly carbonated. Aroma shows crisp wheat wiht a hint of lactic tartness and light breadiness. Light peachy aroma behind the wheat. Flavour is very refreshing, light-bodied, crisp and tart. It’s a pretty tame attempt at the style, but it’s nice for the summer. After the opened growler sat in the fridge overnight, the acidity came up quite a bit.

Draft at the Gaithersburg pub. Murky hefeweizen appearance, cloudy and milky yellow. Sprizty and mildly prickly, sour lemon flavors abound, it’s not really a yogurt or lactic sourness at all, really just a straight lemon juice sour. Zesty up front, then more semi-sweet lemons on the back. Fresh tasting... overall it’s ok to good, but I don’t get any peach at all, really just straight lemon juice sour. Interesting but a bit far off from the other German Berlinner weisse I’ve had.

This pours a hazy straw body with a smallish head that devolves into a halo rather rapidly. The aroma is a combo of fresh peaches and canned peaches with a mild tartness beneath. That tartness becomes a bit acidic in the flavor, but in a way that works. This gives a lemon-like tang to the drink, the peach flavor still recognizable but subdued. The fruit returns more solidly in the finish along with a mouth-watering sourness. If it wasn’t priced so high, I’d have more of this FRUIT BEER during the remaining warm days of the year.
DFH can call this a neo-Berliner Weisse if they like, but no Berliner Weisse is brewed with fruit. I’m surprized it’s labeled as such on the site.

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