Victory Festbier

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

poured a tarnished copper with slight hay tinge around the edges, almost zero head that completely vanished despite a relatively vigorous pour. Nose mostly of caramel, some nuts, irony malts, thin on the palate, typical festbier cereal flavor, hops show up lacklusterly in the clean lager finish both in bitterness and slight hay taste. Really underwhelming for a typically decent brewery.

Bottle from Sam’s consumed on 9/12/07. Pours a caramel amber with a white stone head. Easy drinking, slight caramel malt flavored marzen.

Beautiful amber color. Head was a bit thinner than I would have expected, but the bottle I had may have been >6 months old. Sweet malty flavor on first taste and some mild hop bitterness on finish. A good Oktoberfest marzen-style beer, but not great. There are many other better beers out there for this style.

A mildly malty, overly hoppy, highly carbonated, not very tasty beer. When I finish what I bought that’s the end of this beer. There certainly are worse brews but there a a whole lot better

Bottled. Light caramel and toasty notes, with mild diacetyl and weak fruity hoppiness. Sweet with a bit of biscuit. Medium amber-copper clear, with thin off-white lacing head. Medium bodied with medium-heavy carbonation. Starts with mild toasted grain and biscuit sweetness, light butterscotch and astringent bitterness. Light acidity, neutral fruit, and tannic cherry skins. Finish is medium bitter, with chalky and bitter after. Mild after and fairly clean.

Decent wheat and bread notes. Clear amber color with no head. Some bittersweet candi sugar flavors last with you for a while. Nice malt aroma and profile. I could probably drink a lot of these in one sitting.

Rated while drinking: Pours amber-red with an off-white head that quickly, quickly dissipates to nothing. Smells very malty with hints of maybe spicy hops or just spices in general. Pretty one dimensional, but it smells good. Fresh, malty, caramel-sweet taste with hints of sugar or molasses in there. Solid tasting for the style. A bit watery in body than I expected, but nicely carbonated and very drinkable from start to finish. Tasty variation on an Oktoberfest from Victory. Glad I was able to find it this season.

9/11/2007: Victory Festbier pours a slightly hazy golden amber brown with a foamy, but diminishing ivory head. The aroma is toasy, lightly caramel malt with is hint of sweetness to it. The smooth, malty flavor is also somewhat sweet with a nice caramel flavor and a hint of darker malt character in the background. There is a mild of carbonation bubbling through the medium-light body of this smooth and easy to drink beer. This is a solid and true-to-style Oktoberfest. I enjoyed it quite thoroughly!

12 fl. oz. bottle (Enjoy By Feb 24 07) from Jungle Jim’s International Market. Rating #280 for this beer...