Fest
Kuhnhenn Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can tell it is an american marzen but still a killer easy drinking festbier.

 

 

 

 

Kuhnhenn Fest has a beautiful terra cotta colour, like red clay was dissolved in water. It has an impressively sized head, especially for something that spent nearly a week in the growler. It is clear but has very striking highlights and a deep, rich tone. Simply beautiful.

Nutty malts make for wholesome notes of biscuits, toasted bread and a trace of pumpkin flesh. While the richness of quality German malts isn't displayed quite as extravagantly on the nose as it is on the palate, it's clear that this has both confidence and copious amounts of flavour.

The taste has a distinctively biscuity maltiness; it reminds me of tea wafers and has a similar vanilla-almond-like flavour. The malts are incredibly nutty and rich! They provide a wealth of grainy flavour that is topped with just a small (could be my imagination) taste of pumpkin pie.

The mouthfeel provides a lot of herbal hoppiness; it's like someone dumped grass clippings into my glass. This agreeable bitterness balances all the nutty sweetness and avoids any caramel or butterscotch impressions from developing. The finish is almost spicy with a baking spice-like tinge.

Kuhnhenn Fest is a near perfect Märzen every which way you slice it; this rich and malty, considerably bittered, super approachable and refreshing ale is a quintessential example of the style. Kuhnhenn typically get's attention for their unique high gravity stuff but this offering reminds us they are adept, well-rounded brewers with as much technical skill as imagination.

 

 

This brew was served from the tap at the Kuhnhenn Brewing Company taproom in Warren, Michigan. It arrived in a generic pint glass, showing a ruddy bronze coloring, and sporting a one finger head of khaki colored bubbles. This showed nice retention, leaving geographic lacing all around the glass, and a tight film across the top of the liquid. A chill haze cut clarity, but no sediment was otherwise noted. Carbonation appeared to be active. The aroma was fresh and full of autumn, with gingerbread, pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon, and black pepper spiciness skirting along a base of amber and pale malts, bulgur wheat, adjuncty metallics, baker’s yeast, brown sugar, white flour, straw, and faintly citric, grapefruity hops far in the distance. Our first impression was very much the same, in that the flavoring also beautifully elicited a clear picture of fall, in all of its warmth and spice. As we sipped, the taste began with the bite of amber malts, crisply toasted pale malts, hot almond oil, vanilla extract, light booze, crumbled maple leaves, earthen hops, baker’s yeast, and black pepper spiciness. Spice crashes in at the peak, giving warmed gingerbread, cinnamon apple cider, oat, booze, nutmeg, allspice, continued amber malts, tinny metallics, and lactic acidity. The ending wash came with more sweetness of red apples and white sugar to meet the warmth and spice, with additional notes of vanilla bean, dirty grassiness, muddy mineral, a curious chocolate malt warmth, toasted almonds, dried apricot, and newspaper ink. The aftertaste breathed of ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, tree resins and maple sap, moss, pencil woodiness, phenolic plastics, light banana esters, and dirty pale metallics. The body was medium, and the carbonation was medium. Each sip gave nice slurp, smack, cream, froth, and pop, with the mouth left warmed, coated, and satiated. This gave eventually crispy and lightly floured dryness, but in the absence of puck. The abv was appropriate, and the beer drank easily.

Overall, what we enjoyed most about this brew was its authenticity of spice and cleanliness through both the aroma and the flavoring. The nose gave bright spice, but not so much as to knock you off your seat, or in any attempt to be over the top. Rather it was used as an accent, helping to blend with and clean up the malts around their rougher edges. The flavoring followed suit, with easy-drinking clarity and deliberate use of each component. Again, nothing was overly utilized or inappropriately represented. This is the type of beer you look for warmth in, just at the turn of the season.