Baeren Fest Bier is a 5.5% märzen from Baeren Beer, based in Iwate, Japan. It’s part of their autumn lineup that coincides with the Oktoberfests that seem to occur not just in Germany, but all over the world, but who are we to piss on a party? Baeren Fest Bier has been released every year since 2004, if not before, but no records are known it seems to exist in Japanese…
How long has this beer been about? Answers in an email…
Baeren Fest Bier Aroma and Taste
I think Japan is perhaps the only place in the world where Oktoberfests are celebrated outside of October – it seems like there is one every month in some part of Japan and I’m surprised Baeren Fest Bier isn’t advertised at each and every one of them. If other breweries in Japan can get in on the Oktoberfest PR sales, then why aren’t Baeren doing it with this German-Japanese beer?!
Baeren Fest Bier poured out a slightly hazy copper colour with a thin layer of frothy white head on top. This is a sweet beer and it’s unashamedly proud of it. If you’re coming off of an IPA before drinking this, it would be like sniffing a cup full of vinegar, followed by a sickly sweet aroma of sugar. It’s potent, but it’s supposed to be, yet the kick of spices of cinnamon and pepper produce a weird disjointed, yet nice, aroma to it.
The sweetness continues through into the body, with Baeren Fest Bier producing a caramel malt forward base with some sticky raisins going on. Hop heads needn’t drink this beer nor even attempt it as there was no hint of hops at all in Baeren Fest Bier. The most surprising thing about the beer? It’s crisp and refreshing, regardless of all the sweetness going on in it.
Baeren Fest Bier The Bottom Line
Gimme a nice outside drinking area and a fresh bottle of Baeren Fest Bier and I’d be happy. Old bottle of Baeren Fest Bier? No thanks.
Where to Baeren Fest Bier
Baeren Fest Bier can be bought online at the following places:
2 comments
This is an excellent festbier, and as mentioned quite sweet. But I think it is very well done. Unfortunately, it has not been on sale in 2017. For the last couple of years I had always ordered two boxes from them, but when it still had not appeared on their site in mid-September this year, I contacted them and they wrote back that no bottles were made this year (implying that they have brewed it but put all in kegs).
The festbier has now disappeared from the list of beers on the Baerenbier website, so obviously it will not be made anymore.