I love to come across a new Oktoberfest or Festbier or Märzen, and when there is the promise of some sensible Sierra Nevada old-school, no nonsense brewing associated with, it it all bodes well. The Sierra series of collaborations for these beers has generally been a good thing.

However, I am confused a bit by the name. Is this going to be an American styled Octoberfest in the malty, caramel colored manner, or a more traditional, lighter colored (still malty) Festbier? Only one way to find out.

12oz can cracked to produce more of a golden Festbier with a high, rocky head and some great looking lace. In fact, very golden. Pretty! Clear as a bell, this looks wonderful. It’s a little more golden than some of the paler Festbiers, but it still looks lovely.

Nose is clean grain, but lacks much sweetness or caramel notes.

Initial tastes are once more clean, light grainy malt, and a hint of things to come with a decent splash of bitterness on the back-end. Oddly, at first this makes the beer drink a little like a Pils with a Saaz-like bite in the finish. Wasn’t expecting that at all. What I was expecting was that it would even out a bit, but it never really, completely does.

The beer is fantastically clean, not incredibly bitter overall, but perhaps a touch to too bitter for the style. Truthfully it doesn’t detract a lot from the drinking experience for me, but it does offer a small distraction if one fully considers the style. A little more malt might be a truer reflection.

I think this is a lovely beer, clean lines, highly drinkable and refreshingly simple both in appearance, it’s ability to retain head and leave lace, its bracing tastes, and its satisfaction levels, but it does feel a touch bitter when considers the outside of the can. In years past that would have upset me more than it does now, but given the state of a lot of contemporary American brewing these days, I’m just delighted to have something this tasty and this good.