Fest Of Both Worlds - Festbier Lager Collaboration
6% ABV - Decoction Mashed & 34/70 Yeast
Pilsner & Munich Malt, Sterling & Adeena Hops
Weihenstephaner Brewery, Freising, Bavaria since 1040
Jack's Abby, Framingham, MA
From The Brewers: What happens when the oldest brewery in the world and a modern American lager brewery collaborate on an Festbier lager? You get The Fest Of Both Worlds. This fest lager taps the technical, historical and perfected brewing prowess of Weihenstephan and blends it with our boundary pushing techniques. Old world meets the new in every sip. Prost!
At nearly 1,000 years old Weihenstephan is a brewery of legend around the world and through a commitment to technical brewing and education has helped countless brewers and drinkers better understand beer. This collaboration with Jack’s Abby is only the third time Weihenstephan has collaborated with an American brewer.
The goal for this project was to brew a beer that honored historical brewing methods while infusing it with modern innovations to create a delicious fest beer. The Research Center Weihenstephan BLQ of the Technical University of Munich shared the TUM 34/70 yeast strain with Jack’s Abby as part of this collaboration. This yeast is famously known as the original Bavarian lager strain and brings true brewing heritage to this beer. Jack’s Abby also employed a decoction mashing technique and lagered the beer in horizontal tanks furthering the traditional methods of brewing for this beer.
To bring some modern innovation Jack’s Abby Brewing used some modern hopping methods and some atypical hops – Sterling and Adeena. These hops, along with Pilsner and Munich malts create an assertive hop profile on a balanced malt backbone. The beer is easy to drink with subtle herbal and spicy notes.
This release was a pretty big deal and there is even an interesting podcast with both breweries discussing this beer:
This beer pours as a lighter Festbier with wonderful bready aromatics and a decent noble hop aroma as well. Very inviting! When I tasted this one, I did it side-by-side with the Weihenstephaner Festbier for a reference point. As a side note, that is likely my absolute favorite Festbier release year after year. The malt bill really shines with a fresh baked bread character and balanced sweetness / dryness. This is the type of beer that could easily be consumed in 1L steins as intended. It is very similar to the original Festbier side by side, other than the hop character. There is a spicy herbal hop bite that shines and brings an interesting component but unlike the Von Trapp version, this one still stays perfectly balanced. It doesn't take the hops as far as an American release, keeping this beer still firmly European rather than American. Well done! This beer was absolutely one of the best Festbier lagers I have ever tried!! wow...
About the hops...
Sterling: Sterling hop's parentage is readily apparent in this dual purpose hop variety. Sterling is the daughter of Saaz and Cascade with some open pollination of German varieties. The spicy characteristics of the Saaz play well with the bright citrus from the Cascade. While it is primarily used as an aroma hop, it is versatile enough to work in a wide range of styles and uses.
Adeena: Meaning noble, gentle, and delicate, AdeenaTM is a cross between SummitTM and an English male, has been used as a replacement for Hallertau Mittelfrüh and Styrian Golding. Aroma: herbal, spicy, light floral, lemon, pine notes
Would love to try that one...maybe next year if they do it again or something similar!