Märzen
Fonta Flora Brewery

 

16 oz can.

Pours a hazy amber gold color with a monstrous off-white head. Pretty good head retention. Leaves some cobweb lacing as it dissipates.

Aromas of toasted malts and sweet dough, caramel, honey, and floral hops.

The taste follows the nose with toasted malts, honey, caramel and doughy bread. Finishes with floral hops.

The feel is medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Creamy and exceptionally smooth.

Overall, a good Märzen that's both flavorful and drinkable as hell. Nothing special but definitely worth a try.

 

 

Light amber pour with a pinky finger of white foam for the head, very little retention though. Pretty standard smelling: toast, caramel malt, bready yeast, a kiss of flowers and earth. Taste has more hop bitters built in that detract from the classic flavors of the nose, has a of herbal earthiness or beets, in the background that is hard to nail down but distracts. Feel is flat yet malty and generally clean, bright. Feels like a great marzen wants to break out but falls a short into an average fall crusher

 

 

 

Review 1639
Marzen
Fonta Flora Brewing
Date: Maybe August or September
My continuing quest to drink Marzen-style beer/Festbiers landed me here. I used a traditional dimple mug; the temperature is around 44 degrees. The pour created an off-white creamy and airy head with okay retention. The somewhat fast dissipation left some lacing on the glass. The color charts around SRM 12, medium amber with dark straw yellow hues. I am not seeing a traditional Marzen-style color in this beer. The transparent beer shows some carbonation. The appearance of the beer is average.

The aromas are floral, bread crust, herbal, a hint of caramel, and some phenolic notes. The nose on this beer is unusual; not what I was expecting. The beer seems more hoppy than malty.

I taste caramel, bready, toasted crackers, nuttiness, floral esters, herbal, a hint of band-aids, some earthiness, and toasted cereal. I was expecting a wanna-be hop bomb Marzen; however, I got a delightful Marzen-like beer.

The mouthfeel is soft and creamy.

The body is medium, has soft carbonation, and has a quick finish.

The nose worried me but was the beer redeemed itself by the surprise flavors. Some hops are noticeable, and the caramel flavor refrained. I could drink the hell out of these beers; alas, I only have one.

 

 

 

 

Poured from 16oz can into a dimpled mug. Canned on 8/19/21.

Appearance: medium golden hue with a light haze and a finger of frothy ivory foam. It looks nice.

Smell: malty, bready and toasty; like and a little bit biscuity, but not too much. Not bad.

Taste: much like the aroma, it's got a rather bready malt, but it's slightly dry and not too sweet. I must say, I'm actually rather liking this; the comparative dryness for the style is what is selling me. Bitterness is appropriate and adds a nice balance.

Mouthfeel: medium-light body with a decent carbonation and creaminess.

Overall: this style isn't always my favorite, but I'm rather liking how drinkable and almost downright crisp this beer is.

 

In May 2021, I drank this Marzen from probably the 2019 release. It was dull and flat. So consider that in my low rating.
I also think that Fonta Flora has to be better at their Belgians and Wild fermentations. I very much like their theme of bringing the Appalachian terroir to the U.S.

However in the future, I think I will stick to saisons, a specialty of Fonta Flora.

Watery, along with an odd grassy note. Unbecoming of the style.

The color is a deep amber color...darker than most Märzens. Clear. Moderate head which settles quickly to a thin layer of bubbles on the surface. Some slippery spots for lace.

Strongest aroma of lightly sweet crystal malt bringing a toasted nose. There's also graininess: some raw barley and some corn?

The flavor is nutty, almost like a watered down brown ale. Good body with an elevated carbonation level. What makes this beer unique for the style is the amount of hop present. Although I didn't detect it in the smell, the hop is very present as a balancing agent. The aftertaste is of darker malts and black pepper bitterness.

 

 

Look: It pours deep amber with an off white head. Head retention is moderate.

Smell: It has a malty rich aroma with toffee and low levels of caramel. It has an herbal element with some earthen notes.

Taste: The flavors are representative of the aromas. It has toffee as the lead with low levels of caramel and some herbal elements. There is a bit of a low cherry to it as well.

Feel: It has a medium body with moderate bitterness.

Overall, there are some additional notes from cherry that I won't expect in most Marzens, but it does add a nice touch.

 

 

 

A: Pours a crystal clear medium copper in color with moderate amounts of active visible carbonation rising from the bottom of the glass and faint medium golden yellow + burnt orange + amber colored highlights. The beer has a three finger tall dense foamy dark beige head that reduces to a large patch of medium thick film covering a little more than 80% of the surface of the beer and a medium thick ring at the edges of the glass. Light amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Moderate aromas of bready + toasted + caramel malts with a light amount of caramel sweetness. Light aromas of floral + earthy + spicy hops.

T: Upfront there are moderate flavors of bready + toasted + caramel malts with a light amount of caramel sweetness. That is followed by light flavors of floral + earthy + spicy hops which impart a light amount of bitterness which does not linger around for too long.

M: Medium bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation. Slightly crisp upfront with a clean finish.

O: Easy to drink with well hidden alcohol. Enjoyable with a very pleasant malt profile include a fair amount of toastiness and a decent balance between the sweetness of the malts and the bitterness from the hops. Definitely one to grab for the season.