EKU 28

Brewed by Kulmbacher Brauerei (Schörghuber)
Style: Eisbock
Kulmbach, Germany

Served in a proper EKU Snifter at Academie de la Biere in Paris. Aroma is sweet of dry fruits and maybe some raspberries with alcohol. Clear amber body with a small head that disappears soon after pouring. Tastes a lot like the Samichlaus I had recently. Drinks a bit like a liquor with a kind of syrupy feel and noticeable alcohol in the taste and stomach, but it is pretty good overall. Not something that you could or would want to drink a lot of.

3-2-08 bottle shared at tasting
Thin amber orange in color. Smell is very subtle and muted caramel. Flavor is quite caramel-like too. Heavy and sweet and a bit "hot" too. Lots of honey and sweetness. Interesting, but not very easy to sit back and drink and enjoy. Really boozy overall.

33cl bottle. Pours a copper with a thick but short-lived, yellowish-off-white head. The aroma is intense with sweet malts. It almost smells like malt extract: sugary sweet with some interesting touches of fruit, like dates and raisins. There is some measure of bitterness in the aroma, too, from alcohol. The flavor starts strong and very sweet. There are lots of sweet malt flavors in there: dark corn syrup, caramel, toffee, and perhaps a hint of honey. Towards the middle of the tongue there is a bready/biscuity malt character that, combined with the residual sweetness, tastes cake-like. A slight, fruity bitterness enters around mid-palate, too. The finish is full and sweet with a small hop bitterness that doesn’t quite balance it out. There is also a note of alcohol in the finish and on the back of the throat, but it is mild. The mouthfeel is medium to medium-full in body - which is surprisingly light considering the strength and intense, almost cloying, sweetness. The level of carbonation is crisp and provides some zing around mid-palate - a slight acidity that helps balance out the big, sweet malts. Overall, this was an interesting beer but too close to cloyingly sweet and not complex enough.

bottle courtesy of JohnathanL. Thanks!
Pours a bright clear copper color. Smell is clean, with alcohol and caramel. Fairly delicate aroma. Taste is creamier caramel and fairly sweet and buttery. Butterscotch like sweetness about it, and a touch cloying in more than small amounts, yet not bad. More dessert beer like than casual drinker.

Bottle. Pours ruby-orange with a foamy and quickly disappearing off-white head. Aroma is sweet malt, orange, biscuit, nuts, and a bit of alcohol. Flavor is sweet, with toffee, raisins, bread, and a bit of alcohol. Fairly vigorous carbonation. Pretty good, but not one of the better eisbocks out there, and definitely not for people who don’t like very sweet beers.

Sweet caramelized soft fruity nose. Rich amber and reddish hue. Poured a big head but dissipated quickly. Sweet, thick, honey quality to it. Nice carbonation, and a huge warm alcohol finish. An excellent after dinner beer...warms the soul.

33cl Bottle. Quiet salted apple flesh aroma. Malty and plain. A bit of oat bread. Yeast tang. Kind of bland. Pours a crystal clear henna with a fading bubbles in savanna. Flavor is dominated by sweet french toast, reduced lemon sugars and alcohol. A bit tart. Brandy-like fruits and raisins. The spritzy carbonation keeps this one lively and palatable, otherwise it might be unbearably sweet. Light age fatigue. Really, the malt character isn’t that deep and the alcohol pervasive. A coarse, grainy hop smack shows up the back flow. Clean and refined tasting, but I just want more from my eisbock in terms of nuance, characterful flavor. I would have expected more depth in alcohol as well, for a beer frozen out. Always interesting to try an eisbock. Thanks Sean!

In bottle. Aroma is very malty, but for such a strong brew, you can’t smell the alcohol. I found the sweetness a little cloying at first. I didn’t like the finish at first, it had a little cough syrup flavor. However, as it warmed, the finish became more oak like and enjoyable.