Victory Festbier

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

12oz bottle. Pours a brilliant, rusty-looking copper with a medium-sized, short-lived, tan head. The aroma is biscuity and malty with some notes of toasted bread and subtle hints of fruit (dates). The flavor starts crisp and bready with notes of spicy hops and some residual malt sweetness. The maltiness and breadiness remain consistent throughout - from beginning to end. The sweetness is not too strong and is well-round. It is also well-balanced by a light and very clean bitterness at mid-tongue. The finish is malty and somewhat dry with subtle notes of hop bitterness and lots of dry, bready, toasty flavors. The mouthfeel is medium in body - and feels surprisingly full considering that the carbonation is also decently high. The beer isn’t spritzy but has enough gas to give a zip on the tip of the tongue and a tingle all over as the beer washes down. Overall, the beer is a decent, full-flavored, all-malt lager; but it is far from the best Oktoberfest beer I’ve had. Drinkable for sure, but not particularly special.

Bottle, pilsner glass. Pours an amber orange. Scant head leaves a temporary, spotty lacing. Aromas of malt and wet earth. On the first sip, the earthiness hits first: the impression is squash-like, zucchini perhaps. Sweet malts and orange zest are in there, too, but surprisingly for a marzen, lost in the carbonated sensations and general earthiness.

sour apple taste with some malt backing in the palate. Much yellower than expected for a marzen.

Poured a clear copper color with a tall foamy tan head. There was a light amount of carbonation bubbles rising in the glass. There was a light fruit aroma mixed with a bit of a sweet aroma from the malt. There was a nice smooth mellow flavor of the sweet malt with just a hit of hops on the finish. This was an easy drinking beer, but not very special.

Pours a clear reddish amber with a large foamy beige head. Sweet aroma of crystal malt, lots of hay and some honey. Flavor is the much the same... light flavor, lots of hay, some crystal malt, nothing interesting. Lighter body with softer but crisp carbonation. Very disappointing.

Pours a clear copper with no head at all. Aroma is caramel malt and spice. Taste is nutty with carmel sweetness. Hop flavors and bitterness are almost nonexistent. Finish is tart orange peel, as others have noted.

bottle. amber pour with thin head. rich malty aroma. body grainy. light fruit, nutty malts and light bitterness. A let down for the price.

Bottle: pours a dark amber with a thin white head, aroma is slightly malty, a little sweet, taste is malty, some caramel, nothing fancy but certainly drinkable.