Gordon Biersch Festbier

Brewed by Gordon Biersch Brewing Company
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Palo Alto, California USA

On tap. Poured golden-light with a nice standing two inch head in glass. Aroma of a slight bit of acetyldahyde and possibly a bit of DMS with the some malt and little (read no) hops. The taste is too thin, lacking the malt backbone that I would expect in a fest. The mouthfeel is also thin. I’d go with the Marzen instead...

On tap: poured a golden beer with a nice frothy head in a thick glass mug. Aroma was consistent enough to be smelt through out the drink. Grain and malt was mostly what the nose detected. Flavor had a tiny hint of spice and orange in the background with a little bit of yeast also. An average Oktoberfest style beer that could be drunk all through the season.

On tap at the San Francisco "Brews on the Bay" Festival. Pours a murky medium orange with a thick white head. Fresh lake water aroma. Falvor has some underlying ripening vegetable notes with a hint of caramel and some back end nuttiness. Very decent.

unfiltered yeast. More sweet than bitter, best bitter in finish and aftertaste. Aggressive carbonation a negative on mouthfeel. Amber colour. Lace in glass is class. Malt in aroma. Some spice from hops.

Slightly hazy golden coloured body with a thin off-white head. Aroma of malt, some caramel and little else. Light-bodied; Small cardboard flavour with some mild german hops, some caramel and a mild malt taste. Really nothing to speak of in the aftertaste either. Overall, not a great beer at all. Not what I was expecting for the season, but that was tasted as the Marzen (which is offered regularly?) instead. I sampled this on draught on 29-September-2004 at the brewpub on 9th & F in Washington, D.C.

(Draft: Gordon Biersch Brewing Co. in San Diego, CA) I was rather disappointed in this fall seasonal; It has an orange citrusy nose, light hops, perhaps lightly malty, or maybe I just want to smell some malt in my Octoberfest beer; But the flavor is definitely malty like an Octoberfest and fairly sweet, but unfortunately, more sweet than malty; The malt profile is less toasty than their Marzen; Medium bodied; Light amber color; Off-white head has good size and slowly fades to a ring with only a little lacing at the top

Sampled draught at Gordon Biersch, Las Vegas
Gold copper color, thick head & lacing. Nose of pommegranit and watermelon with light hops and grainy malt. Tastes dusty and dry with a sharp chemical finish.

Sampled draught at Gordon Biersch, Burbank.
Hazy pale orange. Fairly sweet. Medium bodied. The malt character is somewhat soft and chewy, but the beer is on the neutral side. Low bitterness. This is maybe the only American true-to-style oktoberfest beers I have, and it is not a bad one, but I’d like to see even more malty mouthfeel, and definitely more buttery malt flavour.