Dogfish Head Festina Pêche
June 24, 2011
Festina Pêche from Dogfish Head is a beer I’ve been hearing about and wanting to try for The Brew Club for some time now. For whatever reason, I never saw it in the store until this year! So when I did, I grabbed a 4-pack for myself to check out.
Now, I’m typically not a fan of fruit-flavored beers, but when I stop to think about it, my favorite fruit-flavored beers are from DFH! (I’m looking at you Aprihop and Punkin!)
So, I had high-hopes for Festina Peche!
Blatantly lifted from the Dogfish Head website, Festina Pêche is …a refreshing neo-BerlinerWeisse fermented with honest-to-goodness peaches to (get this!) 4.5% abv! How cool is that? Fermented with real peaches!
It goes on to describe the “neo-Berliner-Weisse” beer style as “…characterized by its intense tartness (some say sour). In addition to fermentation with an ale yeast, Berliner Weisse is traditionally fermented with lactic cultures to produce its acidic or green apple-like character.”
I didn’t know that! Unfortunately, it seems, this style of beer is not made that much anymore, and that’s too bad because I really liked it!
The beer poured an almost-clear straw-like color which makes sense considering its a wheat beer I guess. It had a decent little head accompanying lacing as well.
The aroma was different for me in that in addition to grainy and wheaty aromas, there was a nice tart peachness or apricot thing going as well. No alcohol in the nose really.
The taste really won me over. Let me put it in the context that when I first tried this beer, we were going through an early heat-wave here in New Jersey. With temperatures very close to 100 degrees and high humidity, this beer completely hit the spot!
Festina Pêche’s strongest character is a tart, almost sour fruit (peachy) flavor that was very nice. It wasn’t over the top, and didn’t pucker my lips like a lemon wedge might, but it was enough for me to take notice! The sourness was well-balanced by the fruit sweetness. The best part for me was the sour aftertaste that literally has my mouth watering as I think about it!
Its a light-feeling beer, and with a relatively low 4.5% ABV, it won’t leave your mouth feeling heavy or sticky during the summer months.
I really enjoyed it, and I think I’m going to pick up another pack or two while I can. The only downside is that it’s not cheap at almost $9 for four bottles, but I think its worth the treat.
One of my new favorite seasonal beers that I’ll look for each year. Nice job Dogfish Head!
Rating: 
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Posted in 4 Star Reviews, Ales, American Beers, Wheat Beers
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June 24th, 2011 at 11:43 am
I appreciate the fact that you really enjoyed this beer, however I tried it a couple of months back and struggled with it just a bit. I guess it has to do with the fact that I don’t particulary favor the fruitiness and sourness in many of these “summer” beers. Although, I did enjoy the Aprihop very much too. I also must say that I did find it to be rather refreshing on the warm day that I sampled it. You know, one of the greatest things about craft beer is that everyone has different preferences and likes and we can all find something that suits our needs.
June 24th, 2011 at 12:44 pm
@Scott (great name BTW!) thanks for sharing! I agree, there are as many opinions on craft beer as there are craft beers! I think its great too, and it makes for some good discussion.
I’m typically not big on fruity or sour either, but this one really hit the spot at the time I tried it.