Dogfish Head Festina Pêche review

Here's a beer style you don't see much of these days, a Berliner Weisse. Dogfish Head is known for brewing up some rare and exotic brews and this one is no exception. It is named: Festina Pêche. It's a wheat beer that was styled after a beer that was traditionally brewed in Berlin, Germany during the summer months. According to Wikipedia, this style is typically a low ABV beer that's cloudy and light colored and relatively sour. The Berliners were known for mixing this beer with syrups or fruits to take a bit of the edge off the sourness. In this case, Dogfish Head mixed in peach juice concentrate in this beer to make it distinguished from all other Berliner Weiss'.

Festina Pêche poured looking like a cloudy pilsner. It's light yellow colored and came with a small 1 finger bright white head that quickly went away. Swirling this beer created a bit of lacing but it was so thin that is is hardly noticeable.

The aroma reminded me of a couple different beers. First, the smell reminded me of a wheat beer only with a bit more funk and a hint of fruit. Now I don't eat peaches that often enough to know what they smell like but whatever that fruitiness was must have been the peaches for sure. It also had a unique yeastiness in the aroma that was hard to distinguish. This beer is supposedly bottle conditioned with a trace of yeast in the bottle. I didn't notice any floaties in the beer however when I poured it into the glass.

Festina Pêche was light bodied with an aggressive tartness on the front of the sip. Once I tried this I was immediately reminded of a sour ale. It was a remarkable tartness that was blended with peach and had a slight wheat kick. It tasted quite clean and gave me a very dry finish. Being light and low ABV (4.5%) this was a perfect drink for a warm early summer night.

I found myself drinking this one quite easily. So much so I opened up a second one and enjoyed two of them back to back. Now this is a style I could really take a liking to. It reminded me of a sour yet also like a flavored witbier. This was just the style I was looking for at this time of year.

I must admit, I enjoyed the taste of this beer much more than the smell of this beer. Normally I have to enjoy both the taste and smell in order to thoroughly approve of it. But in this case, Dogfish Head focused on bringing out a highly tasty and sessionable brew.

Festina Pêche was available here in Colorado in a 4-pack and sold for around $11. Normally I hesitate to spend that much for just four beers if it's just a session brew. It's a decent price for a 6-pack but then again this is Dogfish Head and all of the beers they make are a bit on the pricey side. But I've also come to realize it's worth the price.

This was only the 3rd beer from Dogfish Head I've tried. I simply loved their 90 Minute IPA and also was pleasantly surprised by their cocoa infused Theobrama at the GABF last year. Festina Pêche was definitely worthy for my tastes and I would seek it out again as a great alternative to a sour ale. It's that tartness that sold it for me. I really dig that sensation in a beer.

Related articles:
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA review
- The people you meet at the GABF - Sam Calagione - Dogfish Head
- 2008 GABF video tasting notes (Theobrama)

This article came from FermentedlyChallenged.com
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