Weihenstephaner Festbier

Brewed by Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Freising, Oberbayern, Germany

12oz bottle-pours a big foamy to rocky white head that laces and yellow color. Aroma is sweet grain, a bit musty. Taste is sweet grain/light malt, a bit musty/barnyard, secondary/mild (mostly hallertau?) hops-some woody. Seems quite like a helles lager. Easy drinking. Mild carbonation.

(Bottle 50 cl) Clear golden with a dense, white head leaving some lacework. Soft, malty aroma. Medium body with lightly sweet notes of malt and straw. Some alcohol is detected in the finish as well as some hoppiness. 101107

Two of this style in a row. A transparent honey pour with a with medium white head. Lots of carbonation and a sticky lacing. There is a definite crispness to this beer but it is malty and has honey flavors. There is a dry after taste.

Nothing to speak of here. Very watery, light floral aroma. Big head, very pale yellow. Have a Heineken, it’s cheaper.

06-Nov-07 (500-ml bottle: Purchased 30-Aug-07 for $2.99 at BevMo in La Jolla, CA) I love malt-driven German beers, and pouring the beer, ahhh, that amazing malty aroma typical of German brews already has me reeled in. On the palate, the prominent maltiness is clean and dry, and is balanced by mildly bitter, but flavorful noble hops. It’s that balancing contribution from the hops that really makes this beer different from many of the imported Oktoberfests on the market. Medium in body, but it’s clean with medium-strong carbonation and doesn’t weigh down the palate. The light-golden color would be a bit pale for an Oktoberfest, but as a Festbier, this is appropriate. However, the moderate haze isn’t ideal. A white, bubbly head rises to half an inch before quickly fading to a bubbly ring, but leaves considerable doily lacing on the glass. This is less malty than most German Oktoberfest beers I’ve tasted, and it’s not my favorite example of the style, but it has nice flavor and is extremely drinkable, and thus wouldn’t present a challenge to down a few liters.

Bottle. Grassy, dusty aroma, bready with light yeast and perfumed hops. Clear light yellow pour, not sickly but certainly not robustly colored, with a delicious creamy white head that makes up for the other visual deficiencies. Richly malty taste, sweet and perfumed. Light body edging toward medium, Touch of honey with an herbal note. smooth with the occasional prickle from carbonation, sessionable and extremely quaffable. Clean. Light toasty notes in the bready background, which slightly outlasts the perfumed hops in the aftertaste. Underrated, meiner Meinung nach!

Bottle at Sunset Grill on 10/13/07
Weak, filtered, appearance, with obviously loose carbonation and poor retention/lacing. An apple juice/white grape colored beer with white head.
I thought I got a bad bottle, but seeing as how this was refrigerated and freshly imported, and most of the ratings are pretty bad, I suppose this beer just sucks?
I don’t know, whatever I drank was a sorry excuse for anything, except for a poorly brewed, unlagered helles-type beer. Wax, vanilla, acetyldehyde and stale, cheap, powdered sugar all speak to the lack of quality here. A struggle to finish. Very watery, loose carbonation, light bodied and unpleasant. I’ll definitely be searching for more of it and give it another try. Hopefully this was just a bad bottle....

Very light amber coloured body - more golden than anything else, with a thinnish white head. Aroma of fresh malt, light hops, citrus and some mild spice and nuts. Medium-bodied; Bland taste up front with only a bit of the malt showing through. Aftertaste has a bit more complexity, but nothing showing strongly aside from some caster sugar. Overall, a pretty bad offering from any otherwise good brewery. I sampled this 12 ounce bottle purchased at Norm’s in Vienna, Virginia on 04-November-2007.