Flotzinger: Wies’n Marzen (Germany: Oktoberfest Marzen: 5.8% ABV)
Visual: Pale yellow gold clear body. An inch and a half of white bubbled head. Lots of small bubbled carbonation.
Nose: Crisp hop character and bitterness. Clean. Slightly floral and oily.
Body: Sweet, brown sugar and caramel. Palma violets. Lightly oily. Lightly peppery. Bready (Brown bread and some unleaven bread). Moderately bitter.
Finish: Vanilla. Brown sugar. Caramel. Bready – brown bread. Lightly peppery and very floral. Slight lime. Slight wet rocks. Unleaven bread. Popcorn hop feel in a quite bitter way.
Conclusion: Well, this does not end as it starts, I can tell you that for nothing. The aroma was pretty clean and crisp – more towards a standard German Pilsner than Marzen for the fest. So, having realised that I took a moment recalibrating my expectations before taking a sip.
That first sip then came in heavy seeming on the sweet and malty side, surprisingly so with even brown sugar like notes. That extra sweetness called more to what I had initially expected before the aroma, so I one again reconfigured my expectations. We have here a seriously malt sweet lager.
It is good like this, but over time the balance shifts. Initially a moderate bready character and peppery style come out, along with a grounding bitterness. It is a great contrast that enhances the beer massively – it is this part that I approve.
Then, later on the bitterness and breadiness gets a bit leaden and dominate the latter half of the beer. As good as it starts the initially contrasting elements start to dominate and by the end it feels too heavy and even more leaden.
So, great first half but weakens over time – overcompensating too much for the early sweetness. Ah well.
Background: I will admit I mainly got this as is is so painful on the eyes, Look at that eyesore, it is glorious! Anyway, grabbed from Independent Spirit this is an Oktoberfest Marzen like lager, but not one of the core six made for Oktoberfest, instead being made for the Rosenheim Autumn Festival – again something a bit different. Also, the name kind of looks like “wee in marzen”, which makes me laugh as I am puerile. Music wise, went with some solid happy hardcore to back, with Dune’s self titled album. He, heh, wee in marzen. Hey I never claimed to be mature.
