Each new season brings about a new set of beers at the Liquor store. Its like at some point along the way the breweries all decide to make a switch, from pilsners and golden lagers for the spring and summer, to stouts and brown and amber ales for fall and winter.
Breweries also seem to like to do small batches of specialty brews to mark certain holidays or occasions; like a Cranberry Christmas Ale for Christmas for instance. I'm all for it personally. I like to try new things and they are easy enough to avoid if the flavor combination sounds like it would be too much.
This time heading into the liquor store I saw that many breweries have produced a German Style fest beer for the month of October. Its obviously to celebrate the Oktoberfest occasion. Some towns and cities around here do have an Oktoberfest though its nothing like the real thing in Germany. I don't plan to attend myself this year but I'm excited to try some new festbiers! I grabbed one of each I could find in the store to give them a go. To be honest it will probably take me to November to finish them all but I've drank two so I may as well share the experience. Here we go!
Fest Bier
Brewery: Muskoka Brewery Origin: Bracebridge ON Canada Style: German Style Lager Abv: 5.5% Volume: 568ml IBU: Unknown SRM: Unknown
Marketing: This is a seasonal beer brewed for Octoberfest like I mentioned already. The can is a deep blue with contrasting orange and white accents. It has a subtle traditional stein mug image that provides some additional decoration.
There is a blurb on the back of the can with some additional info. The marketing suggests that this beer is "Stein size" but the term is being used quite relatively here. I know in Germany they drink 1L and 0.5L beers and this can is basically just over half a litre. So its a small stein I guess. Overall I really like the can design though and appreciate the slightly bigger beer.
Color: The beer poured a beautiful coppery orange color with a decent amount of head on top. I was expecting this to be a much paler yellow but was pleasantly surprised to see the deeper hues.
Nose: The aroma is very malty with notes of grains, hay and cereals. Its quite nice.
Taste: the tastes is mildly sweet and tangy upfront with a nice amount of bitterness in the finish to balance it out. I noticed a hint of caramel and toffee flavors coming through. Very fresh and tasty. Quite delicious actually.
Texture: Sharply carbonated with a nice smoothness underneath.
Impression: This was a great beer to me. It was fresh tasting and had a lot of flavor. It definitely lived up to my hopes and expectations.
Stockyards Festbier
Brewery: Stockyard Brewing Co Origin: Waterloo ON Canada Style: German Style Festbier Abv: 5.5% IBU: Unknown SRM: Unknown
Marketing: Another German style Oktoberfest beer, obviously. That is the theme of the day. This one boast a traditional style image of a German Stein with a woodsy wreath around it and "old world" European style writing. The can is a forest green color with brown and yellow, giving it an autum vibe.
The can accomplishes what its trying to achieve I think. Not a lot of additional information about the beer listed but it looks like it won some sort of award also.
Color: The beer poured a pale yellow color with a hefty amount of head. The foam was white and billowy and the liquid was clear and filtered looking.
Nose: The nose was strong with grassy notes, grains and cereals and maybe some pineapple which was a little unexpected. It smelled very fresh.
Taste: The taste was dry and bitter on my initial sip but I noticed some sweet and tanginess on going further into it. It tasted fresh to me but not well balanced, and was way over on the bitter side of the spectrum.
Texture: Fully carbonated with big bubbles and a light bodied mouthfeel.
Impression: The beer was fine but not amazing. The nose was very pleasant but I found it to be too bitter in the taste department to the point that it almost turned my stomach a little. I like bitter quite a bit but this was a little too much for me.
