Festbier
Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project

On tap at The Barrel in Estes Park, CO.

This one pours a light golden yellow color, with a small head, and lots of lacing.

This smells toasty and bready, with some grain, biscuit, and grassy hops.

This is really well done, especially for a brewery that for so long only did wild ales, as far as I know. There’s a really nice toastiness here, with baked bread and biscuits, and a slightly spicy, grassy, and minerally hop character.

This is very light bodied, crisp, clean, and quite drinkable.

This was absolutely excellent, super clean, and wonderful to drink up in the mountains.

 

 

16 fl oz pull-tab can:

High minerality prevents a crisp drinking festbier from manifesting, but it's clean and drinkable if a bit off texturally. Crackery malt, 2-row, Munich malt. Very bright for a festbier, trending towards high drinkability instead of the liquid bread/toasty malt thing I've seen many American attempts at the style embrace. Ah, finally a festbier I'd actually want a litre of at a festival...imagine that.

Soft, smooth, wet, light to medium-bodied, well carbonated. Not oily, gushed, hot, astringent, or harsh.

It does a lot of things right, but its mouthfeel is a bit off and it's so mineral-redolent it's hard to focus on the malts. Maybe some water adjustments are needed?

Boasts a pleasant crackery finish. This would pair well with saltine crackers or soft pretzel.

B- / WORTHY

Soft, golden yellow body; dense carbonation; thick, frothy head, white and creamy. Immense toasted malt nose with a slight suggestion of smoke; oak; very faint ester notes. The taste jumps past the aroma with rich, toasted grain flavors; kiln dried oak offset with a bit of juicy, pear-like elements; mild to moderate bitterness undercurrent. Medium-heavy body; soft and pillowy; very refined residual sugar presence; sublime dryness counterpointing the delicate sweetness.

Holy moley! What a superb festbier!! Everything about the beer is above average and then some. Subtlety, refinement, understated balance and depth are the hallmarks of this beer.

Pouring temperature: 51 °F; canning info: 8/22/2022

 

As I texted my friend after drinking this one, "You know who randomly makes a good Oktoberfest? Crooked Stave. Who knew?" This beer is not at all their usual style, but they did a very nice job with it. You expect good sours and funky yeasts from these guys, but you don't expect a really solid marzen. Count this as a pleasant surprise, and one that would certainly help them expand their usual repertoire. Hope it's back again next year.

 

 

 

16oz can. Poured out a pale, golden-yellow color with a small, off-white head of foam. It left sticky rings of lace on the glass. It smelled of caramel, bread crust and floral notes. Sweet bready caramel malt with a subtle bitterness and grassy bite.