Festbier
City Brewing Company

 

 

 

A - Poured a light copper color with an off white head that leaves lacing behind

S - Is of biscuit malt and some spice

T - Starts off with pretty sweet malt them has a bland finish

M - This beer has a medium body with medium carbonation to it

D - As with many beers only if it tasted beer would this be more drinkable it looks and smells decent but the flavor is lacking I pretty much only got it because it was in a can

Amber colored with about a finger and a half of fluffy white head. Leaves some lacing.

Smells of malt with some spiciness.

A little bit of hoppiness up front followed by some maltiness. Next there is a slight sweetness and some spices. One big problem I have with this beer is a metallic taste at the end that ruins the beer for me. This brew would rank much higher without that strange aftertaste.

Mouthfeel is a little to thick for the style, I think it should be a little smoother.

Drinkability is below average due to that strange metallic taste, I find myself wanting this beer to be finished.

Of the three beers in this City sampler pack, this was the best of the marginal bunch for the style it's trying to be, but what do I expect. When swigging this from the bottle, it was okay. So, on the pour, darker amber, no head and no lace. Weak, malty smell and sweet. Mouth was creamy, with a sour bite at the end and just a slight alcohol remainder. Flavor, sweet malt, almost too sweet, with honey. That's it. Mouth finished the flavor. The only real difference between this and the City Pale, is this lacks to candied hops flavor.

Never again, but still the best of the pack (Pale rated better for appearance and smell and the retired "Golden Leaf" wheat was old enough to pour.)

City Brewery's Festbier pours out a stiff rocky head over a honey
colored brew. Carbonation is slow, and the nose is malt and lager
yeast. The flavor is sweetish malt up front with a nip of a grassy hop
finish. The aftertaste is more of that grassy hop flavor and it actually
gets a bit more pronounced as you continue to drink. It's okay but
this is one I don't think I'll revisit.

Appearance is light copper with mild rednnes but very pale compared to most American festbiers light fizzy off white geige head lacing is thin and sporadic. Aroma has a slight metallic mild caramel sweeetness herbal leafy tone not horrible. Taste is grainy with a tart offness iwth copper penny metallic bursts what a poorly made beer. Mild sweetness light hops just grainy offness floods the flavor profile. Mouthfeel has somewhat heavy carbonation lighter body pretty unremarkable overall. Drinkability contains too many off flavors to enjoy in number this is one mediocre example of the style look elsewhere please.

Pours a five finger, white head that fades to a thin layer leaving a good lace. Crystal clear amber color. Medium carbonation and medium bodied. Malty/hoppy nose. Starts balanced some malts, mildly hoppy finish. Late aftertaste bitterness. 89¢ for a 12oz bottle from John's Grocery Iowa City, IA.

Appearance: Light orange body, a finger height of foam, fades fast, leaving a creamy head.

Smell: Light biscuit malt, sort of sweet.

Taste: Malty and very sweet, an overriding honey flavor, metallic and fairly obnoxious. The hops are off, and some cooked vegetable is there, also. Not very good or drinkable.

Drinkable: There are better Oktoberfests than this, many of them.

I had this on tap in Winona, MN. Served in a standard pint, the beer is a copper/bronze with an off-white head. Decent lacing.

The nose is of caramel, sweet malts and a hint of raisins.

The taste is right to style. Lot of rich malts, toffee and a bit of spice from the hops. This was better than I expected. The taste remains solid as it warms with a bit of whole wheat bagel taste emerging late.

The mouth is a trifle bit thin, but it still manages to be smooth. Very easy drinker, I would love to try this one at the La Crosse Oktoberfest!!

I picked up a sixer from Hy-Vee in Cedar Rapids, IA while on a roadtrip for around $5.00. I was thinking that this might not be very good since the price was cheap for this kind of beer. I bought it anyways. I never had it and I always try to keep an open mind when trying new brews. Plus, I really like the label. I love the Fall season for many reasons (Oktoberfest is one) and being that I just drove about six hours in a snowstorm, this was inviting to say the least.

I poured it into a mug that I bought at The Cedar Brewing Company (nice place by the way). A light copper appearance with a one-fingered off-white head that dissapated quickly. A light coppery aroma wasn't very pleasing.

The taste was similar to the nose. A very light body, especially for this style, made this beer fairly unpleasant. I didn't think it was possible to mess this type of beer up. I was wrong. But with a cheap price tag, I guess it was expected and it's not a total waste.

From Vinnie’s in the La Crosse airport. Bright amber color with a medium thin khaki colored head. Thin and spotty lacing. Earthy malt aroma with mild hops as well. Medium-bodied with hoppy bitterness at first, and more malt and caramel showing up later. It seems unbalanced all around though, veering from a generic Lager to a generic Oktoberfest. The finish is mildly bitter. Altogether avoidable.

Clear, pale amber hue, slim, soon gone head...

...slightly sweet, malty nose, but a bit wan...weak...flinty...

Taste: terribly dull and half-hearted, some malt, a twist of fruit and vegetable...but a better "festbier" or marzen would have more heft. And a more pleasing taste. This just lacks on so many counts.

Light body, blase' mouthfeel, vacant finish..."eh, it's beer"...sigh...

Upshot: it only cost me $2.99 for the 6-pack. Still too much.

12oz single from Woodmans

appearance: a pale amber, very much see through, a thin layer of white head...looks like apple cider, though a little pale

smell: some very sweet malts, apples, corn

taste: pretty sweet, midwestern corn, very apple juice-esque at times, slight hops matched with sweet bready malts. not that great

mouthfeel: a little thin, carbonation on the tongue

drinkability: fairly easy drinking but not very good

12 ounce bottle. Pours out a clear light brown color with a large off-white head. The aroma is a delicious blend of caramel, nuts, and toasted malt. The flavor is similar to the aroma, but lacks assertiveness. There should be a stronger malt flavor. The flavor as it stands is thinly malty and has an annoying metallic quality. The mouthfeel is too thin. This is a decent Oktoberfest, it just needs a fuller flavor.

Clear pale orange color with a thin greyish-white spongy foamed cap that slips away quickly to leave a thin collaring and lacing is minimal in spottyness.

Aroma is mild and clean with a noticeable whole grain aspect, a bit of musky hop and a dulled sweetness.

Taste is clean and a bit buttery with a slight malted sweetness with a whole grain backing keeping a tinge of mild toasting, slight hop profile in a grassy herbal sense which clings to some of the toastyness. Not bad, but seemingly overly sweet and cloying slightly.

Feel is sticky, some cloying within a medium shy body, sweet, slight toasted edge and whole grain bread doughyness submerged in butter. Slick through and through with a major sticky return late in the finish. The finish is a bit off but is manageable and its overall clean yet slick downability is pretty good. Somewhat solid session material and above average but by a slight margin.

Nearly clear, pallid, amber-influenced orange topped by a dirty ecru head of whipped froth that leaves a short collar and a few wayward scraps of lace higher up the glass. The nose is grain-like with musty hop overtones. In other words, Festbier smells like what a Bud or Miller Oktoberfest would smell like if they dared brew such a thing.

On the palate... light on the malt, inexcusable in this style. There's a reasonable toast-like flavor, but it's undercut by a rough, raw graininess that isn't helped by a thin, borderline harsh mouthfeel. It's slightly sweet and slightly sour at once. In essence, the flavor profile is a mishmash of flavors and flavor sensations that don't work well together. A faint metallic echo on the finish doesn't help. I have no complaints regarding the carbonation, but neutrality doesn't add anything of value at this point.

Festbier isn't grimace-inducing, not by a long shot, but it is one of the poorer quality Oktoberfests that I've had. Its faults aren't major on an individual basis, but add them all up and you're left with an autumn seasonal that is best passed over for more quality fare. I can do much better than this and so can you, no matter where you happen to live.

Golden less-than-amber appearance with a thin paler head that sits atop the glass for about a minute. Simple string laces. Aroma is refuge in quality, light cane sugar, corn syrup. Stolid mouthfeel, doesn't move anywhere so generates little traction. Flavor is lightly bready, seems to highlight crystal malt qualities to my mind. Finsihes clean with a touch of aftertaste. Hops are barley detectable and there's not much spice or toastiness to add some interest here. Broadly drinkable but pretty forgettable as a beer for the chillier months of Autumn.

Gold with orangish tints...nice little white head...nose is unremarkable..adjuncty to tell you the truth...body is medium...a sweeter fllavor but it seems more corny than anything..Billed as a 100% all-malt lager..seems more of an amber lager...not horrible by any means and i don't remember it costing that much...I like sweter lagers and this is decent enough...It just lacks the O-fest feel to it...I'll gladly drink the rest of this six-pack but I won't be eagerly anticipating them..