Festbier
Collective Arts Brewing

Appearance: Poured with a mere pinky of head, but it sure did try it's best to last and even produced decent lacing. The body is dirty blonde with slight haze with decent carbonation.

Smell: Maybe some biscuit malt behind a wall of dry dirtiness. The kind of dirt you kick up when it hasn't rained for a week in the summer. I suppose and the potency is there but I'm not exactly thrilled about what is to come.

Taste: Biscuit malt that gives way to earthy hops with maybe a slight dandelion note in there at the end. I would best describe it as inoffensive. There's nothing wrong with it, but there's nothing here that remotely excites me.

Mouthfeel: The carbonation is good, I will give it that, but the aftertaste is that dry dirty hop note that's just slightly overdone to the point where it doesn't have that dry note makes you drink more effect. Transitioning is fine, but it's such a short journey.

Drinkability: I mean, it's easy to guzzle it down that's for sure as it's very light on the system and it doesn't tip it's hand that it has that extra 0.9% added to it. That said, I can say that about some adjunct lagers.

Final Thoughts: I mean, I'm just not impressed by this offering at all. It's slightly too dry generic lager that's just kind of there. I mean if this stuff was cheap, I could see it as an alternative to Ice beer, but I know that isn't what this brewer is going for. I dunno, there's nothing bad here, but there isn't anything here that I'm remotely enthused by.

Pours clear bronze with a chunky everlasting head. The aroma is of nutty, lightly roasty malts with some herbal, woody hops. The taste is full of bready, toasty malts. Never cloying, actually quite dry, but malts dominate. The mouthfeel is full bodied with delicate, textured carbonation. Light bitterness and delicate leafy hops in the finish.

A fantastic Festbier. Loads of malt flavor and easy drinking. Worth a try.

Standard fest beer - malty finish with a bit more than a hint of bitterness.

Looks about right for the style. The smell is interesting, bit of sweet malt and a lot of an odd but not unpleasant clean, soapy note. Unfortunately that soapy note is much more prominent on the tongue. The taste starts off okay, with those sweet malts, some bitter weedy hops, but quickly overshadowed by that soapy, almost chemical taste. I guess that flavour could be from the hops, but even so, it's a bit unpleasant in my opinion. Overall that off flavour unfortunately drags the whole experience down quite a bit, making this fall rather short of what a festbier should be.

473 mL can from the LCBO, included in Collective Arts' Mix 6 sampler pack. Dated Aug 16 2022 and served slightly chilled.

Pours a relatively clear golden-amber hue, crowned with nearly two fingers of puffy, foamy white head that gradually seeps off. Five minutes later, a patchy cap and collar of soapy suds remains in place, with a beautiful, delicate coat of lace tossed about in the process - looks very attractive in the glass. It smells of fresh bread and grainy malts, with hints of honeyed sweetness, as well as a mildly grassy/herbal note.

Super clean, and very tasty - I'm getting bready pale malts, grains and some light caramelized sweetness at the forefront, with noble hops developing on the back end. Grassy and herbal, with grainy malt, honey and earthy, herbal bitterness persisting through the finish and into the aftertaste before drying out almost completely. Light-medium in body, with assertive carbonation that adds some spritz to this lager's smooth, pleasing mouthfeel. An impressive strong lager IMO; very well balanced and drinkable, with no sign of its (nearly) 6% abv.

Final Grade: 3.96, a worthy B+. Collective Arts is not exactly known for its lagers, but this Festbier is proof positive that they can brew up a damn fine one whenever they feel like it. As you'd expect, it's somewhat hoppier than average for the style, but if you enjoy German lagers and/or noble hops then I think you'll absolutely love this beer at least as much as I did. Please put this in a single format and I promise to keep buying it every autumn from now until my untimely demise.

Appearance - Pours a clear amber with four fingers of frothy white head.

Smell - earthy, leafy, and a touch of floral hops, bready and grainy malts, honey aromas, and earthy yeast.

Taste - earthy, leafy, and floral hops upfront. The bready and grainy malts come through next alongside the honey aromas and some caramel notes. The earthy yeast rounds out the brew.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes sticky from the hops and the honey and bready notes lingering.

Overall - A nice twist to the festbier style by making it more hop pronounced. I could sit back and enjoy a few of these especially for these cooler fall evenings here in Cowtown.

473ml can served cold into a beer mug.

Appearance - Golden / amber brew with great clarity lots of bubbles and two fingers of white head resting on top. Good staying power.

Smell - Some caramel, plenty of grain, a touch of fall leaves.

Taste - Semi-sweet. Lots of bready flavors, some caramel sweetness, then nice earthy bitterness afterwards.

Mouthfeel - A touch thin, but minor nit pick, reasonably good otherwise, medium bodied, reasonably carbonation.

Overall - A solid festbier that stacks up well enough with anything out there that doesn't specialize in German styles.