Eichhofener Festbier
Schlossbrauerei Eichhofen

 

 

 

Appearance: It's deep amber with more orange than red, clear as a bell, under a snow white head that dissipated quickly. Looks very Märzen-like. The color indicates München and Melanoiden malts abound.

Aroma: Lots and lots of Münchner malt aromas, caramels and breadiness in a typical Märzen smell that draws you inside the glass and gets the tongue ready to savor the flavor.

Flavor: In the front I get a hint of tartness, and almost only a hint of bitterness, but it's lurking there and noticeable if you look for it. The middle is more pronounced tartness, almost a slight lemony flavor, but not quite, maybe from The sides pick up the caramel and bread flavor for the first time, exactly like the aroma. In the back, again, a noticeable tartness but also a nice amount of caramel from Münchner malts, not overwhelming or a majority of the taste, but it's got that Märzen-like flavor in the back. Basically, it's a sweet-sour-like combo of tartness and caramel flavors mixing quite nicely and equally to give this an interesting interpretation of the Festbier style. The aftertaste is all caramel and breadiness, lingering long after the swallow is done.

Mouthfeel: Typisch-Bayrisch, or typical Bavarian: thick but here not too much and a tad on the dry side from the large amount of tartness present on all parts of the tongue.

Overall, an immensely pleasurable aroma of a Märzen and the flavors of sweet caramel and tartness balanced equally, then finished off with full on caramel overdrive in the aftertaste. Very good beer. Not the best ever, but easily a cut about the average Festbiers. This beer held its own and complimented a wide variety of foods I ate, from cake to steak, fries to tortilla chips, though I found the sweet flavors of food worked the best as a compliment. What from the aroma and aftertaste is a typical Märzen, a sweetness that lulls you drowsiness like a siren singing her song, the tartness then gives a slight kick that picks you up instead. So it really is a nice beer to drink in summer and in winter.