Dogfish Head Festina Peche

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

Hazy white straw color with a tall bright white head. Dry aromas, with chalk, attic dust, cobwebs, and hints of pale malt lemon zest and peach pits. Sweet wheat and tartness greet the palate. This is a solid berliner weisse. There is a lightly sour peach part that contributes, rather than flavors or sweetens. This actually seems to gets sweeter as it warms, but that does not dampen the flavors. Some light floral and sweet herbs come in. Respectable brew.

Bottle: Hazy, light yellow, nice white head and light lacing. Nose of yeast, tarty hops and light peach. The flavor is tart, chewy and thick. Peach skin and sweet tart malts. Balanced, nice finish. Clean and tasty, nice. Lemon in the tail!

Bottle from Belmont Party. Poured yellow color color with a large frothy white head that mostly lasted with fair lacing. Moderate wheat sour fruit aroma. Light to medium body. Medium sour fruit flavor with a medium sour finish of moderate duration. Interesting, not my style.

Bottle. Thanks to Jason (kramer17801) for this one. Pours a hazy very pale yellow color with a small white head. Fruity and slightly tart aroma with some weak hints of peaches. Tart fruity peach flavor with some fruity hints. Long sour tart finish.

Draft at Capone’s. The pour was hazy medium golden with minimal head. The aroma was peach, pale malt, and some tart funky yeast notes. Tastes tart, like a berliner weiss at its core, with some tart peach and funky yeasty flavors. Just OK.

A hazy yellow ale with a very thick white head, highly carbonated. A rather pleasant epsom salt and fruity aroma, definite peach flesh and lactic acid. In mouth, a lightly fruity weissebier with loads of minerals, lactic acids, mouthpuckering. Rather thin and short in mouth. An interesting brew.

Bottle. Head is initially small, fizzy, white, fully diminishing. Body is hazy light yellow, bottle conditioned. Aroma is lightly malty (toasted grain), lightly yeasty (cobwebs), with light notes of peach, apple peel, lemon peel. Flavor is lightly to moderately sweet, moderately acidic. Finish is lightly sweet, moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Light body, watery texture, lively/fizzy carbonation, lightly astringent. Exceptionally refreshing, with a bold acidic bite. Not as puckering as Schultheiss, but a lot better than expected. IMHO, the peaches weren’t really needed in this beer, but even so this blows the doors off of the Berliners I’ve tried from Southampton, Nodding Head, and Iron Hill. One of the best things to come out of DFH in a long time.

12 ounce bottle from City Market in Burlington, July 2007. Served a bit above fridge temperature from a Chimay glass…..a vast but quickly receding snowy, smooth head covers the hazy, bright pale yellow-gold body….unripe peaches or more accurately peach skins, lemons and a bit of light woody hops in the low-powered but pleasant nose….on the tongue it’s fairly tart, and it’s nice to see that the peach isn’t overdone, in fact it’s quite muted, but there just isn’t enough real sourness, enough punch here to make this really attractive; instead it’s smooth, low-key, mildy fruity (sour apples as well as the peaches) with an almost velvety mouthfeel, and it nearly disappears at the finish. Amazingly this is the third new Berliner weiss I’ve had in as many weeks, and it’s definitely the weakest.