Beer Prancing Pony Festbiers 2022: Helles, Hefeweizen & Dunkel

Of all the breweries in Australia putting on Oktoberfest celebrations each year, few can claim to do it with more justification than Prancing Pony in the Adelaide Hills. While they've built their reputation upon modern craft beer styles – often with their own unique twist – the founders are German and love to bring all the trimmings when they host their annual Oktoberfest bash. For 2022, they've also come out with a trio of German beer styles too in their Festbier series.

Their take on the classic Munich Helles opens with a pretty potent floral hop aroma before the style's rounded, almost honey like malts waste no time appearing on the palate. Light carbonation, the faintest glimmer of acidity, and a gentle floral bitterness help those malts maintain centre stage too.

With Hefeweizen – the style some like to refer to as the OG hazy – Prancing Pony's offering lives up to such a reputation appearance-wise, topped off with a meringue-like head. It strikes a nice balance between the spicier side of the yeast-derived phenolics on the nose and the candied bananas that meld with bready malts to taste.

Which leaves Dunkel, which pours like an English ruby ale or an altbier with an appealingly ruddy glow. Here, the experience is all about an upfront nutty, toasted bread crust sweetness and a drying finish.

Prost!

James Smith