Fest
Imprint Beer Company

 

Pours a burnt copper color with a half finger of head. The nose has some bread and a touch of nuttiness. The flavor profile is that of a pretty standard amber lager.

This is a fine beer, but it's lacking the flavor qualities that I expect in a Marzen (caramel, nuttiness, etc.). It's basically akin to Boston Lager but with a much more expensive price tag.

Canned on 10/8/20; consumed on 11/30/20

Pours a heavily foggy dishwater brown with tinges of orange contributing a redeeming brightness to the hue, and is topped with two fingers of fluffy, light tan foam; solid head retention leaves a vague curtain of cap, thin ring of frothy collar, and limited spatter of webby/spotty lacing around the walls of the glass.

Aroma opens with green apple esters beneath a dense layering of caramel as toasty malts progress against brown sugar over the middle; banana peel appears briefly on the back end, contrasting a slight minerality and distant bread crust lingering through the closing impressions.

Taste features doughy yeast and distant honeyed white bread opening, with caramel accentuating a burgeoning sweetness into the mid-palate; mild roast in the form of recycled coffee grounds feeds into a slight minerality on back end, where brown sugar meshes with bready spice for a toasty, semi-sweet finish.

Mouthfeel offers a medium body synchronized with a moderate carbonation; a subtle, palate-coating grit develops over the mid-palate, drying as a tinge of bittering takes hold toward the finish with a muddled, bready 'snap' on the swallow.

Strangely enigmatic, this Märzen overcomes a poor visual impression to highlight a sweeter, and surprisingly well-executed, aspect of the style; despite the consistent enjoyability, the one-dimensionality of the sweetness on display sees the purer, more foundational aspects of the lager stripped away, which ultimately becomes difficult to forgive.