Allgäuer Festbier

Brewed by Allgäuer Brauhaus (Oetker Group)
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Kempten, Germany

Bottle sampled with Stegosaurus. Pours copper with an off-white head. Aroma of sweet malts and grain . Flavor is sweet, malty, weak, and thin for and oktoberfest. But drinkable.

Bottle. Pours orange\gold with a small off-white head. Aroma of sweet malts hardly any hops. Flavor is sweet, thin watery, slight hops and carbonation. Thin body, not a good oktoberfest, but a better than average brew.

Bottled. This beer has an aroma of mostly malts. It’s a very thin beer, watered-down, and unimpressive.

Bready malt forward aroma with notes of bubblegum and herbal, floral hops apparent. Hazy deep golden body is topped by a dense, fine bubbled, white head that recedes slowly to a lasting cover with nice lacing. Pleasant sweet malt flavour has notes of rye-like spice and herbal, grassy hops with light finishing bitterness. Medium body with soft bubbles that feel somewhat still despite the carbonation. Tulip glass. Allowed to warm from fridge temperature. Bottle (State Line Liquors, MD, Oct-05).

(500ml bottle) Lightly hazed golden body topped by big off-white head. Aroma is medium sweet, green apple, bread, light caramel. Taste is medium sweet, bread, apple, faint earthy. Watery light-medium body, minimal carbonation.

Bottle from State Line, Elkton, MD. Pours hazy dark straw with 2-finger white head. Aroma of malt, corn flakes, hopcit. Tastes malty, with corn flakes and some hopcit in the finish. Not real complex.

Mine was labelled "Oktoberfest" rather than Festbier. In any event, the pour was fantastic, with a huge billowing head and excellent clarity. But I must admit to being quite surprised by the flavor. The malt was of the sort I associate with English ales, of all things. It had the woody apple qualities which do not seem frequently to pop up in a German beer. Not bad, really, on the whole.

(500 ml bottle: $2.85 at Liquid Solutions in Tigard OR) A malty but decidedly average German Oktoberfest with a mild, toasty, lightly sweet maltiness and a gentle bitterness. Up to this point, this is a pretty decent beer, however, there’s a noticeable metalic flavor in the finish that leaves an awful aftertaste and ruins the beer. However, the metallic flavor becomes less pronounced with each sip, and it’s gone after awhile. Medium bodied, but gets a little watery toward the finish. The nose is malty and lightly toasty. Pale golden color. Small whitish head that fades to a thin layer, but shows good head retention and some patchy lacing. Not the greatest Oktoberfest out there, but I kinda like the toastiness. I’m not reducing the rating for the initial metallic flavor.