Monday, November 09, 2009

Kulmbacher Eisbock

Its always nice to try new beers and living in Texas of late we are getting more opportunity than ever before to try new beers. Most of these beers are from American craft brewers but every once in a while we get a new import beer, this is one of those cases. However before getting into my review let's do an introduction to what is an Eisbock?
Beer Style: An Eisbock is one of the more unusual style of beers that Germany makes, and it has an interesting story to its discovery. Back in the 1800's a Bavarian barkeep (or some stories put it as his young assistant) left a keg of bock beer outside. It being a cold winter night, the beer was partially frozen. Depending on what story you hear, it was the last keg that the barkeep had and it was reluctantly used or the barkeep forced his young apprentice to drink what he thought was spoiled beer. Luckily for all of us it wasn't. What it was, was a syrupy concentrated beer, the water frozen, the alcohol remained concentrated throughout the rest of the beer. The German's named this new beer eisbock, more than likely a play on the other German speciality eiswine.
According to the BJCP the beer should have an aroma of rich intense malt and some alcohol presence. Its usually a deep rich copper to dark brown, very low carbonation and a full bodied mouthfeel. The flavor is of dark fruits, plums, prunes and grapes. There will be some alcohol presence in the flavor that should help balance the over all sweetness of the beer. Recognized to be a great digestif beer.
The Beer: The beer weighs in at a potent 9.2% and pours a very dark brown almost black with ruby highlights. Good sized tan colored head. The nose is malty, malty, malty, figs, plums, and just a mild bit of alcohol. The mouthfeel is thick, tongue coating, silky, no carbonation. Notes of figs and dried dark fruit. Coffee flavors, but not the burnt beans of a stout. Smooth and sweet, but not cloyingly so. Balanced by a mild burn of alcohol. A sipper for sure, a bit syrupy, but a wonderful dessert beer or just an after dinner drink with maybe a cigar. This I like, and must search out more of the style. This one gets an A- from me. Here's what the folks at BA had to say.

1 comment:

Mike Netzer said...

I stumbled on this blog when i googled Kulmbacher Eisbock. I live in Plano. Where do you get it in Dallas area?