Full Sail Session Fest Red Lager
Session Fest is a Czech-style strong lager (gotta love the Czechs!) called polotmavé or literally "light dark or semi-dark." Brewed with 2 Row Pale malt, Munich malt, Caramel malt and Wheat malt, and hopped with a blend of Glaciers and Cascades, Session Fest has a medium-to-full body balancing candy caramel and full malt flavors that are underscored by a spicy hoppiness that provides a nice perfume with citrus and pine overtones and a long clean finish.
3.2
228 reviews
Hood River, United States
Community reviews
Aroma of grain and lager yeast. Pretty clear copper color with a tiny head. Light and crisp. Malty with a dry finish and slight harshness. Very drinkable.
This is a good easy drinking session beer good price okay flavor but nothing to exciting here.
Allspice, caramel, and resin i smell. Yellow amber. Feels fragrant in the mouth, a little sparkle. Orange lemon flavor, maple syrup, sawdust. Sweet finish.
Bottle from Bethesda Food and Beverage. Nice amber body with thin head. Nose is malty, weak, watery, some spices. Taste is malts, caramel, brown sugar, faint. Creamy texture. Gets sweeter in the finish. Decent enough.
Dark honey brown. Aroma is of non-skunky Pils. Tastes like a dark amber. A bit malty, but good.
Old rating. Copper color. Caramel malty with aluminum, spice, and earthiness. Have to question old tasting notes once in a while.
Draught at the brewery in Hood River
beautiful amber color, bright. Gentle malt character, lightly sweet, also more evident because of the low bitterness; it has some fruity esters.
Clean, correctly brewed.
Bottle poured from the uniformed session shorty. Much thanks to Matt for helping me track this down. Pours a penny copper with a fading foam head. Subtle bready malt aroma. Flavor matches with a light spiciness to it. Not a whole lot to say about this one. Not offended by any flavor here, but I don’t love it either.
12-oz stubby. Thanks, M! Really appreciate the tick. Pours a crystal clear and very dark amber with almost no head or lace. Stale aluminum, caramel, toast, and artichoke nose. Creamy light body with very little carb. Toast, caramel, artichokes, and sesame oil on the mid palate. Long earthy, slightly acrid finish.
Bottle from Super Saver. Hazy copper pour with nose of caramel malt, hops, florals. Tastes caramel malty, with vinous fruit, hops, and bready finish.
Bottle gift from SJ. Aroma was a nice candy sugar. The rest fell a little short for me. Body seemed thin, but some nice notes of citrus, caramel malt and honey. Finish was citrus, spice and Earth.
Bottle. Thank god I finally found this so that I can mark it off my list. Pours a clear amber color with a moderate off-white head on there. Nose has some grains in there as well as a bit of bread, but doesn’t seem all that inviting. Taste is much the same, as it seems like a spice lager with few desirable qualities. Meh. Totally forgettable.
11 fl oz bottle from Total Wine, Chesapeake, VA compliments of Zizzybalubba. Dark orange/red hue, good clarity with almost fully diminishing fizzy white head. No lacing. Super sweet light fruit (white grape), dark malt, underlying aroma of cherry. Sweet cranapple fruit taste up front with a sweet grape finish. Slick mouthfeel.
Bottle. Ok, i finally got this style. Found it at Hop City Craft Beer and Wine in Atlanta. Unfortunately, I had to buy a whole 12 pack to get it. I just have one comment. This style is nothing but an Amber Lager or a Marzen beer. Amber in color with hardly any head. Taste is a malty tastes beer. Aroma is malts with very light hints of caramel.
Honey-colored; looks smooth and oily. The head turns into a thin film atop the oily liquid.
Aroma is sweet, sugary and with a very minor balancing, bittering hop.
The flavor is very sweet caramel malts. not quite cloying, but very sugary. There is a touch of earth.
Feels very slick and oily. Slides right down the gullet. It’s fine for $7 for a 12-pack.
On tap at Tin Bucket - Pours copper / orange with an off-white head. The aroma has full butterscotch richness (not a flaw), toast, caramel and toffee. It has a medium smooth velvety body with soft carbonation. The flavor has rich malt, toast, lager smoothness, bread and light spicy hops. The finish has more hops, but is still more of a malt forward type of beer. This is quite nice and glad I finally got to try the elusive polotmavy style.
Appearance: deep reddish amber; clear, with a frothy, creamy light tan head and good lacing. Aroma: caramel and toast, with surprisingly fragrant floral hops that bring just a bit of spice on board. Taste: toasty and slightly sweet, with bready caramel; the hops come in a bit snappish, with a nice grassy, herbal, floral, spicy zing. Finish: lingering toast, caramel, and light hops. Notes: Looks like a marzen, and smells and tastes like a marzen-pilsner hybrid. This is probably my favorite style of lager, which is a shame since it’s so hard to find in the US. This is clearly going to be my go to if I can ever find it again. Top notch. Bottle from Total Wine in McLean, VA.
On tap at Tin Bucket. I thought I had missed this one, but lo and behold!
A: Amber color, white head.
N: Toffee, earth, some smoke, toast, nuts, including almonds, and maybe some rounded edges of caramel.
T: Solidly sweet, not appreciably bitter.
M: Light body, somewhat slick.
O: A really nice session ale with good working sweetness. I really like this series, too, so it’s probably not surprise that I would enjoy more of this next year.
Bottle from Fred Meyer. Brownish/red in color. Flavor is malty up front. Some breadiness and sweetness follow. Quite easy drinking.
Pours clear amber with a large beige head. Smells of caramel and hints of pine. Taste is sweet, caramel, balanced with pine and subtle hop spiciness. Medium-bodied with a smooth texture and average mouth-carbonation, Full Sail Session Fest Red Lager finishes with crisp.
Bottle: Poured a amber color with a off white head. Aroma is sweet malts. Taste is sweet malts, edgy hops, and perfume finish. I know this is the easy way out to get a polomavý rate, but I will take it.
Pour is medium brown to dark amber with a tall tan head. Aroma is ls sweet and malty. A medium body beer with malts,lite hops and touch of bitterness. A good plate that is silky and creamy.
Shaker pint draft at the Post Street Ale House in Spokane, Washington. The pour is clear copper ruby with a small off white head. Faint lacing left on the glass. The aroma is cereal malt, caramel and some sweet honey. The taste is an easy drinking mix of the nose, caramel light sweet malt along with honey and some earth. The palate is light to medium bodied, active carbonation and a bit of lingering sweetness. Solid, like all Session beers.
11 oz. bottle from Total Wine, Chesapeake, VA. Brownish-orange pour with a short khaki head. Aroma of light pine and damp pale malt. Taste blends sweet caramel, light floral hops, and mild spices. Body is heftier than most lagers. This is my only experience with this style so I have no reference but I would prefer this over most standard lagers. Nicely done.
11 oz. bottle. Finally get this style tick! It pours an amber color with a small, disappearing off white head. The aroma is toasted. Lightly caramel and nutty. The flavor is a bit sweeter with more dense toasted bread, caramel, background notes of spicy, earthy hops. The finish is bready and lightly sweet. Not a bad beer, kind of like a fuller, sweeter amber ale, only a lager… if that makes sense. Pretty sessionable despite the high ABV. Decent stuff.
Pours hazy red orange with a white head. Aroma is sweet malt and earthy. Taste follows nose.
Fairly good hoppy and malty blend. Caramel, roastiness. A little bit, dry.finish. decent beer, but just that.
Clear amber with a frothy off-white head. Malty aroma. Caramel. Light bread. Earth. Flavor follows. Bigger light body. Good balance. Mild earthy spicy bitterness. Good ’anytime ’ beer and a GREAT price.
Rating beers is getting boring. This is a typical ’fest’bier, dark amber, off-white head, spotty lace, malty, almost nutty, aroma. Malty and nutty flavor, and a light body. There you have it. I hope someone reads this review, lest I wonder why I wrote it. The key takeaway with this one is the light body, and to enjoy the company of friends with beer instead of being caught up in the ratings.
Aromas are malty sweetness, some caramel, bready, with maybe just a hint of earthy hops. Appearance is clear copper with an off-white, rocky unbalanced head. Flavors are better but still not too exciting malty but with a clean dryish finish.