King Festbier

Formerly brewed at King Brewing Company
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Pontiac, Michigan USA

First of all, I’m glad that the guy at the store warned me that it would explode in my face, because it definitely did. The foam just kept coming and coming coming and coming and it took about 20 minutes for the foam to settle down into an actual glass of beer. I thought it was annoying, yet my boy Ankur argued that it was all in good fun. Once settled, it poured into a brownish mess of a haze with a foamy white head. The head had dark brown flecks of yeast and perhaps some of the spices of the beer on it. The beer itself looked like apple cider, with chucks and flakes swashing around throughout. It smelled strong of malt and that’s it, however the tasting had much more to offer. It had a wintery spice and smooth finish of a delicious holiday ale. However, after the foaming fiasco, the brew is almost flat and could afford a little more carbonation once in the glass. The body is a solid medium, however sludgy it looks from the side. Overall it’s drinkable and interesting and I would have totally hated it except for its splendid flavor. From the few other ratings, it appears maybe the batch to Michigan had too much yeast or was shakin to hell for a week straight, who knows. At least I was warned beforehand and thus only suffered MINIMAL property damage...

Pours a hazy effervescent copper orange. An inch of creamy tan foam sticks around for a long while. Good webby lacing. Generic sweet aroma lacks character. Odd astringent flavor up front - medicinal and herbal and almost bleachy. I get little beyond this - maybe some dusty malt. Medium body, good carbonation, unpleasant sweet and dusty and medicinal aftertaste. The infrasructure (appearance and body and carbonation) is okay. The taste and aftertaste make it utterly avoidable.

I wonder if this one had some issues, might’ve been skunked so I guess I’ll take that into account. Bottle shared by sliffy...thanks...I think. Pours amber with a gigiantic foamy head to which the first thought in my mind is infection. The aroma pretty much smelled like sour malt and iodine. The flavor was some light malt, corn...kinda gritty with a skunky finish. I’m sure this is better when not skunked, but still all that fantastic.

Bottle picked up at random off a single shelf: Ruddy copper color with a monster off white head. Aroma was a little grassy, smelled a little skunked. Flavor, caramel, some other lighter malts. Not that great.

Looks like an amber, deep copper color. Not much aroma to speak of. Tastes like an autumn beer, not too malty. Nothing that makes it stand out, but nothing that makes it bad.

Deep amber with absolutely no head. Aroma is rather muted toasted malt and nothing else. Flavor is very astringent through and through. Very hard to pick up any individual flavors. Body is thin at times.

Bottle from Jim (walleye) Thanks! Straight from the bottle, too lazy to get a glass. Would imagine it is orange in color. Smells malty and fruity and a little sour. Taste is also kind of sour, not hoppy at all. Pleasant and not an overwhelming sense of bullshit that most Marzens carry with them. I enjoyed it, actually.

A nice copper amber color with a generous and sustained head of off-white foam. A little tart in the nose at first but there is also some nice Oktoberfest malt character (caramelly, toasty, and some nice marshmallow), almost perfect, except for that tart character. This was tasting amazing, until the tart character arose. It does not taste like an infection, but more like a water problem. I am almost sure they do not (or do a poor job) of removing the chlorine from their water. Just like what chlorine will do to coffee or lemonade (which is destroy the flavor by ’chlorinating’ it), it has done it to these beers. Recipe formulation seems to be excellent to me except for some overly aggressive bittering hop.