EKU 28

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

Dark, golden brown. Personally I thought even the aroma was cloying: sweet and honeyed. The taste was similar: sweet, sticky, oily, smoky, malty, with a lot of alcohol and a little dryness. Irritatingly fizzy. Pleased I tried it once, but it’s just not my cuppa..

Bright coppery colored with little vanishing yellow head. Raisinny and nutty aroma with some bourbon port vinous notes, still rather thin one, mild alcohol comes up. Medium to full bodied. Flavor has sweet caramel and raisins in start, aftertaste dries with mild alcohol and port, dryness here too. Alcohol lasts rather obviously.

Bottle. Sweet plum, brown sugar aroma initially that changes to a sour peach as it warms. Brown-orange-red color with small disappearing head. Sweet plum flavor initially again in the flavor that turn sour for a moment before fading into an astringent alcohol flavor in the finish. The astringency is more typical of the bock style - probably one of the most representative of this style.

Certainly not Kulmbacher. Attractive clear amber-copper. No head. Strong singed caramel flavour. Very present alcohol feeling. Too sweet for me but not cloying, like a liquor. Some interesting flavours. Hard to pin down. Sherry substitute may be best description.

ar:whiskey or cognac, alc, caramel, quite strong and ’’raw’’ app: amber, small yellow head that quickly goes away. fl:sweet, malty, carmel, syrup, honey, alc. pal:nice mouthfeel. overall:too much alc. with not that much to show from it, except sweetness and maltiness.

In the bottle at Huber Haus. Pours amber with a quickly diminishing head. Has a peculiar apple aroma, if you can get past the alcohol burn. Crystal clear in its transluscence. Sweet and syrupy without any hop balance. Sorry, but just about any American Barleywine can kick its ass. Someday, maybe, the Germans will discover the hop when they play with the high gravity stuff. UPDATE 6/25/6: On tap at the Huber Haus. Amber beer with a thick rich cascading head. A very chewey beer vom foss, but I find it to still be out of balance with the strong alcohol not masked by malt or hops sufficiently.

Bottled. Copper bronze, low head and condition. Starts with a nutty almond aroma like marzipan, then becomes like smelling a handfull of raw malt, then Drambuie and finally alcohol. Chewy mouthfull of malt with more alcohol obvious and a hint of strawberries. Finish is like alcoholic cough syrup. Messes your head up.

Largish finely laced head. Amber, whisky-like colour. Aroma is dense caramelly malts with notes of dried fruit and straw, with some alcohol. Powerful malty caramelly strawberry taste with and alcohol and straw notes. Clean and harmonic, with considerable alcohol heat. Dry straw and caramel aftertaste. Smooth and quite balanced. Very good for such a strong beer. (0.33l bottle at Hagleite, Kulmbach, originally. Rerated from 0.1l taster from bottle at EBF ’08.)