Victory Festbier

Brewed by Victory Brewing Company
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Downingtown, Pennsylvania USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Stein

Great on tap at the source. Nice balance of malts, very smooth and palatable, as are most at Victory.

12 oz bottle. Copper orange. Stick gooey off white head. Gets all chunky and nasty looking. Rather off-putting. Nose is light sweet malt with a bit of roastiness to it. Copper. Tiny bit of citrus and spice. Taste is lightly sharp malt with thin bitterness behind it. Not great.

Not my favorite Victory brew, but still a nice look into the style with their spin on it. Tasty and nicely hopped, but lacking a bit in the fullness for me.

12 oz. bottle. Pours pours a slightly hazy dark golden amber with a medium sized foamy off white head. The aroma has toasted malt, hints of caramel with mild sweetness. The flavor is lightly toasted caramel malts, slightly nutty, hints of hops but this is definitely malt forward. Medium bodied, pretty good Octoberfest.

The good people at Victory did a great job of this. Not only is it too style, even way out in June when I’m tasting it (making it a minimum of four months old), it still tastes fresher and better than most imported examples of the style. It doesn’t look great to begin w/--just a tiny head a top a bland, amber colored body--but the nice, strong Munich malt character in the nose more than makes up for it. This is definitely a malt centric brew but it’s balanced w/ a nice floral noble hop character. Though not the most complicated thing, it is hard to find fault in the balance here. Whatever else there is to say about it, this has the quality I most look for in a German-style lager: it makes me long to drink it by the liter in a beer garden.

Appearance is a clear, glassy reddish orange. One finger of foamy cardboard-brown head. Totally see through. Well-balanced sweetness in the light hops and mildly bitter German malt. Great combination! Smells fresh and flowery. Great aroma, like a fresh harvest ale. Bitter German malt dominates the taste, but the sweetness of the yeast balances that. Hops are very delicate, but also add a lot. Very malty and autumnal. Slightly bitter ending. Unusually smooth, nice body. A bit of Yuengling-like milkyness. Smooth feel perfectly offsets that bitterness. It’s really delicious and easy to drink. A truly excellent fall brew. Drinkable but not thin.

aroma is grassy with honey and caramel apparent as well,very mild pumpkin like spice ...appearance is pleasant enough clear orange red brown color white head that does not last except for a thin white ring..taste is roasty-ish malts honey and grassy hops with a distinct wheat flavor as well..palate is smooth on the bottom tingly and bitter up top... an interesting and flavorful oktoberfest beer I think one of the better ones too neither the malty or bitter flavors are subdued

A- Brew is pretty much what you would expect a good o-fest to look like. Clear nutty brown body with some bubbles that can be seen rising to the top. Head pours with about 2 fingers and is slightly off-white. fades to 1 finger and retains well from there. Leaves lacing all the way down the glass. S- Nose is a great mix of soft piny hops and caramel/German malt. Nice. T- Taste is very similar to the smell. Mild flavor upfront but caramel malt is defiantly the main character along with a mild German (can’t put my finger on what type) malt. The finish adds a faint touch of piny hop flavor to the initial flavors but is very clean. Nothing lingers on the palate. P- Medium carbonation and a nice, lightweight O-fest body. O- This is a nice O-fest. I bought this last year but made bread with it rather than drinking it (good bread too). It has a nice hop character to it and had the nice caramel malt flavor that I like. Good, very drinkable beer. Serving type: on-tap Reviewed on: 09-26-2008 01:50:40