Weihenstephan Festbier is underrated on BA scale

Haven't had the pleasure of trying that beer yet, but I'm sure I'd agree with you. Some styles are just misunderstood and underappreciated. Erdinger Weissbier Dunkel, for example, only gets an 84/Good. I think it is absolutely delicious, an excellent example of the style, and vastly underrated on BA.

 

I hear you. NA beers get a full point "too little" too. Maybe it's history, when they were bad. Now they are good.

 

NA beers?

 

Exactly what I meant

 

I totally agree with the OP. I really enjoyed that beer and rated it 4.24 which was 12.2% over the average. I absolutely loved it. In this area I'm having a difficult time even finding it on the shelf any more, evidently other people are digging it as well - seems to have sold well. I would be totally happy finding more of it.

 

I'm not going to get into the overrated/underrated debate, but I will say this... I've had Weihenstephaner Festbier each year for the past 6 or 7 years and it was better this year than I ever remember it being. So much though that I felt obligated to edit my review and bump up my rating. In previous years, I remember it being very light bodied for the style. Enjoyable for sure, but lacking the depth of flavor that I found in it this year. Whether it was the beer or just my tastes changing, I don't know. But it was one of the best Oktoberfestbiers I had this year.

 

You may have already looked at this, but if you go to your "beers" page you can sort your beers by "rDev" and see the beers arranged by how much more or less you rated them compared to the average

 

I think possibly because it’s not a Marzen, and it’s being judged against a different standard; and why festbiers need a separate category.

 

I don't see how a beer that has some 1800 ratings could be considered objectively underrated, in fact i would go as far as to say that it has a very accurate rating, you just seem to like it more than the average person, which is totally ok, but to declare is underrated given all the data seems unjust.

 

I agree that Weihenstephaner produces one of, if not the, best Festbier.

Most beers on this site aren’t rated to style, and lagers generally get marked down for not being IPAs or Imperial Stouts.

Add to that that many BAs first experiences with Oktoberfests were Sam Adams, Great Lakes or Ayinger — and the Marzen style becomes what they’re expecting. I suspect that has changed / is changing in recent years though.

I’m personally against separating out the sub styles though. The benefit of this website is the thoughtful reviews. If you want ratings, there’s another site for that.

 

Can't the near universal statement be "All lagers are underrated on BA scale." You have to apply the non-IPA BA adjuster, generally about 0.5 points haha.

 

There’s definitely a scoring bias against lagers, no matter how you try and smooth out the rating system guys will still judge them vs IPAs. You know how shitty a stout or ipa would be to rate it an 85? I would think the excitement of these seasonal beers might overcome this scoring bias, doesn’t seem to be the case. I like Fest beers over Marzens, I don’t believe I’ve had one that wasn’t anything less than outstanding. If you rate to style these beers should all be pushing top marks. Weihenstephaner does it as well as anyone, I mean really what could they do to improve that beer? Nothing.

 

Weihenstefaner Festbier is outstanding. One of my favorite beers.

 

So, my question is: who are all of these "one post wonders" and why do they swoop in and disappear? Very curious.

@FBarber

 

I don't know if I'd call that "countless." Seems to me that that number is 81 at the most.

The fact that this beer doesn't embody the character that people here associate with Märzen (or even potentially Oktoberfest for that matter) certainly plays some role in people rating the beer poorly. However, (in my opinion) adding more categories exacerbates the issue rather than actually addressing the root cause. This beer is a golden Festbier Märzen. The problem* isn't the classification, the problem is the way people approach outside classification coupled with the incredibly strange notion of "rating to style"... and then add the entire idea of ranking beers to the mix.

*When I say "problem," I'm not implying that the specific ranking of Weihenstephaner Festbier is actually a problem. It isn't. I happen to prefer it over almost every beer in that category that I've had with a higher ranking... and there are beers in that category with a lower rating that I like better. That's life (and it's actually a richer life for it).

 

I don't think you're crazy, and I'll bet that if you polled every German brewer that they'd agree these two beers are different styles.

 

Agree that it’s criminally underrated and said so in my review. It bought 3 sixers this year and was looking for another to make it an even case but it seems to be the first of the well known O’fests to sell out this year where I shop so it’s caught on. Still lots of Bitburger which I
like, too, but it’s no Weihenstephaner.

 

I fully expected the whole Märzen/Festbier thing to appear here.
Per what Ron P has repeatedly posted here, Märzen is based on a measure of strength/gravity and isn't tied to a specific color or flavor profile. Festbiers would be a Märzen in that case.
Festbier seems specifically referencing the pale/stronger being served at the Oktoberfest. Yet most of them aren't actually served at the fest, they're just brewed to be similar. Only six breweries are actually allowed to be there. Weihenstephan isn't one of them. Others (like Giesinger and Ayinger) are brewing the burnt orange variety that we know better over here in the US. The whole thing is kind of messy unless you look at Märzen as strength rather than a style.

 

Take a look at Top Rated Beers by styles, most #1 ranked Beers score around 4.00 to 4.25. The #1 ranked IPAs score higher, Heady Topper @ 4.76 and Pliny the Younger @ 4.75.

From what I've seen, the BA scores are most useful and accurate when dealing with the top ranking Beers. Weihenstephaner's Hefeweissbier Dunkel scores a respectable 4.27, I like the 95 World-Class BA score much better. And there is still room for something better to come along.

@sburg3 , rate your Beers as you see um.