Farmtoberfest Gets Measured Against the Lager Sitting Next to It

Willibald's new festbier arrives with an unusual piece of homework attached: the brewery lines it up against Astoria, its own similar-looking lager, and spells out exactly where the two part ways. Clean and bready on one side, sweet and toffee-ish on the other.

• Style: Festbier
• Release Date: 2026-09-15
• ABV: 5.8%
• Willibald Farm (Ayr, ON)

Willibald Farm has released a festbier that is named after its own party.

Farmtoberfest Lager was canned on September 15 and runs 5.8 percent ABV in 473ml cans. It is the brewery's take on the German festbier - the style, as Willibald notes, created specifically for and poured at Oktoberfest celebrations in Germany. The brewery's own Farmtoberfest event returns to the Ayr farm for two nights this October, a night of Bavarian-inspired food, beer, cocktails and music, which makes the beer and the occasion a matched set rather than a coincidence.

Festbier is worth a moment of context because the name gets used loosely. It is the pale, golden Oktoberfest pour - lighter in colour and body than the amber Marzen that many North American drinkers still picture when they hear "Oktoberfest beer." Willibald describes the style by its soft orange colour, subtle sweetness, and a balanced drinkability that leaves you wanting more, and says the beer was designed to hit all of those marks.

The more useful part of the release notes is the comparison the brewery volunteers. Willibald points out that Farmtoberfest looks a lot like Astoria, another lager already in its lineup, and then draws the line between them itself:

If Astoria is sweet, full-bodied, with notes of toffee, then Farmtoberfest is clean, refreshing, and bready.

That is a more informative piece of writing than most tasting notes, because it tells a reader what the beer is not. Two lagers can sit side by side in the same fridge at the same pale gold and land in entirely different places. Willibald is pre-empting the question rather than waiting for someone to ask it at the market booth.

The bready end of that description is characteristic of the style. A festbier leans on continental pilsner and Munich malts for a soft, grainy sweetness, with the hopping kept low enough that the malt does the talking and the finish stays dry enough to keep the glass moving. Willibald says it loves this season, which is about as much editorializing as a lager of this type needs.

Farmtoberfest Lager is made on the farm in Ayr, Ontario. It is available at the Farm Retail Shop, the St. Jacobs Farmers' Market, the Kitchener Farmers' Market, and through Ontario-wide direct delivery and local delivery.