The Professor Märzen
Fernie Brewing Co.

 

Appearance - Pours a copper red with two fingers of foamy cream coloured head.

Smell - bready caramel malts, earthy and leafy hops, and hint of fruity aromas.

Taste - Bready caramel malts followed by the hops and hint of fruity aromas.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes smooth with a lingering malty sweetness.

Overall - A enjoyable version of the märzen style from the folks at Fernie. Pleasant malt flavour alongside the hops make this brew a pleasure to drink. Well done.

 

650ml bottle - an ode to former head brewer Gord Demaniuk, who died last year. The beer was developed from notes in his recipe book by the new head brewer, who also happens to be his son, Jeff.

This beer pours a clear, bright medium red-brick amber colour, with four fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some decent tacky snow rime lace around the glass as it slowly dissipates.

It smells of semi-sweet, bready and doughy caramel malt, a minor pome-forward fruitiness, white toast, and some plain leafy, weedy, and floral noble hop bitters. The taste is grainy and bready caramel malt, a lesser biscuity toffee sweetness, some nice even toastiness, and more understated earthy, weedy, and floral green hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its supportive and gently teasing frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and mostly smooth, just a touch of wet ash maybe tickling the wrong tastebud the wrong way. It finishes off-dry, the big malt not about to go anywhere just yet.

Overall, this comes across as a well-made and very enjoyable version of the style - nice and malty and biscuity and with just a soupcon of hop bitterness. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has or will say it, and it's hardly my place, but I'm sure Gord would have been proud of this offering.