I've just started working my way through this year's crop. Fest beers aren't one of my favorite styles, but I usually find the German versions to be much better than the US micro-attempts at it. So far I've tried:
Spaten - very nice Victory - very nice Penn - disappointing (usually it's better) Brooklyn - disappointing
Three or four more to be sampled this coming Thursday.
Garry
That's because many US breweries use an overabundance of caramel malt, which is wholly out of place in a festbier. Munich malt, preferably decocted (or a good dose of melanoidin malt if no decoction) is the proper way to get the maltiness a good festbier should have.
-Steve
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