Märzenbier
River Roost Brewery

16 ounce can with no discernible date, but we received this last week and guessing a few weeks old.

Moderate to vigorous pour yields a one inch off-white head over a copper body with scant lacing.

Very subdued nose of malt, bread (pumpernickel?), and caramel.

Taste of malt, caramel malt, and slight honey with a fairly dry finish.

Good feel with low to medium carbonation.

Overall, a nice stab at a Märzen and wouldn't turn down another.
Cheers!!!

 

On LuKr at Blackback pub

No canning date

Pours a clear, honey gold-pale copper body topped with a finger and a half of uniform, dense, off-white foam; good head retention leaves a slight, chunky cap and equally slim but frothy collar along with a lazy spatter of stringy/spotty lacing holding to the walls of the glass.

Aroma opens with doughy yeast paired with subtle grassy spice, easing to a middle defined by soft caramel malts; a refined minerality grows into toasted bread accented with hints of sweet tea on the back end/close.

Taste brings toasted bread and caramel malts upfront along with sparse wildflower honey and grassy touches interspersed between through the mid-palate; more defined, rounded brown bread notes present on the back end while light honeysuckle finishes.

Mouthfeel shows a taut,, medium body against a prickly, drying, moderate-high carbonation, which in turn peaks with a well-timed, crisp 'snap' into the mid-palate as a pillowy, gritty dryness takes hold, fading steadily to a clean finish.

A Märzen refined to a fault, too subtle for its own good, clean to the point of being almost sterile; while the traditional profile and lack of real weight gives this brew a certain appeal/high drinkability, it doesn't quite make up for the lack of impression left behind.

This one pours a dark-ish murky brown color, with a small head, and lots of lacing.

This smells like smooth sweet maltiness, caramel, dark fruit, and light tea-like hops.

This is solid stuff, but the malt character is honestly a bit too big, without the balancing hop character. The malt character itself is nice, though, with some fruitiness, caramel, toasted bread, etc. There's a bit of a tea character from the hops, but I'd want more spice.

This is medium bodied, creamy, and very drinkable, but sits a bit too heavy on the palate based on what I'd expect from the style.

I overall liked this, but it felt not exactly true to style in the other style categories.

From the can, it pours a hazy amber with a nice white head that reduces and leaves lacing. In the nose, it is malt and more malt. In the mouth, it is nicely malty as well. Enjoyable!

Dark caramel amber color with a thin light-tan head that quickly settles into thick crown and wisp .

The aroma whipsaws between sweet and dry. A hint of cherry at first, followed by dark bread with walnuts and sort of grainy quality.

The taste is similar, only more intense. Very sweet throughout, with flashes of oatmeal raisin cookies, dried cherries, light molasses, dark bread and walnuts. (At one moment I even got a seafood impression, but that, thankfully, was fleeting.) Dried fruit lingers in the aftertaste.

Just a touch thicker bodied and stickier than normally expected.

This is a hard one to score. It has way more depth and complexity than a traditional Oktoberfest, but doesn’t have the quaffabilty I look for in the style — even for a Marzen. Not one I would revisit.