Dogfish Head Festina Peche

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

On tap at Brew Kettle. Opaque yellow/orange color with a thin white head. Aroma of wild yeast, vinegar and peaches. Sour flavor from beginning to end with lots of lemon and peach.

Hmmmmm. Almost mead like. Bit sparkling. A challenge to use peach, and all respect to Dogfish Head. Worth the challenge. Worth the try. Respect the effort. If anything, it’s a shot at something different.

Pours a cloudy dark yellow color, no head. Pungent aroma of yeast. Flavor is blasting tart at first but gives way to a fruity (peach) flavor. Finish is slightly bitter but more sour. Enjoyable summerish beer.

From a 12oz Bottle. Courtesy of CharlesDarwin. Pours a pale dandelion yellow color, mostly hazy, with a thin layer of small bubbled white foam. The peach notes come through softly in the nose, lying behind a grapey pinot grigio bouquet. Quite light and vinous, like a quenching summer wine. The wheat malt creamy characters come through as well, creating an additional level of aroma complexity. Light bodied, deceiving mouthfeel that’s both crisp with acidity and soft with wheaty malt. It’s actually very pleasing up front, with lots of acidic peaches softened by a nice, creamy wheat. Not overly sour or funky, allowing the lactic acidity to contribute mainly to the mouthfeel and refreshing drinkability. I was afraid this beer would be too peachy, but the fruit is actually not the focal point of the beer. Dry and refreshing. Like many DFH beers, an "imperial" rendition of the style, but unlike many other DFH beers, this actually works really well for me. This might be the best DFH beer I’ve had. Thanks, Tom!

12oz - Pungent aroma of wet musty malts, lemon and grassy hops. Pours cloudy yellow with a small head and good lacing. Flavor is stronger than I expected. Very tart lemon and peach with a cardboard malt finish. Palate is sour and crisp. Different and worth trying, but I don’t think I could drink two in a row.

12 ounce bottle

I was wary of this release based on the Red & White and Black & Blue but since it was a berliner weisse it was worth the risk. Thankfully it came in 12 oz bottles so I was able to deal with a much smaller amount. I’m giving it a bit of a bump for the style; were it something else I might drop it down to a 3.4.

Aroma / Appearance - The hazy light body was very pleasant to look at and just what I would have expected from a low alcohol wheat beer. Lively carbonation kept things moving up into the bleach white head that crowned my glass. Wheat, sour peaches and a hint of lemon meringue complete the trifecta of scents. It’s not very complex but then again based in the Kindl Weiss I did not expect it to be.

Flavor / Palate - Tart, dry peaches wash down the throat leaving behind a sour trail. It almost tasted like the peaches were fresh from the tree with the juice dripping on the lips. It went down easy despite the tartness which leaves me in an interesting position. I have to admit that Dogfish Head may have a good thing on their hands here even if it is a style I’m not likely to purchase very often. I wish I had a standard berliner weisse to use a reference for what sets this one apart.

This was a great beer!
Cloudy yellow with a nice white head.m Very faint sweet wine and peach aroma but with a big sweet-tart candy flavor but not so over powering that it didnt make me want to have another glass. A good change of pace.

Enjoyable summer beer, in limited quantities. Simple tart nose with some floral or fruity notes. Surprisingly unattractive cloudy gray pale straw body and a small head. Interestingly tart, citrus flavor with some contrasting sweetness. Thin mouth. Significant bonus points for coming in under 5% alcohol ... a drinkable session beer from DFH.