EKU 28

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

sickly-sweet. fairy floss. cotton candy.

Rich aroma of dark fruit - raisins, plums. Dark sherry color (and I thought that before reading the description). The white head flattened immediately. Medium bodied. Creamy carbonation. A bit of heat. Lots of darkish fruits. Indeed it is in the fortified wine range for flavor, though not for alcohol. Consider that this has the alcohol of those high gravity lagers, but notice the quality of the flavors - relatively speaking. The finish is smooth, neither sweet nor dry. Ends with caramel. Very impressive. It could pass for a Belgian ale, with the right presentation. It took some effort: "Malt concentration was doubled or tripled (the exact formula still remains secret), giving the yeasts more fuel for conversion to alcohol. Above all, since stunned yeast can only work very slowly in the presence of high alcohol levels, this beer would have to be given a lot of time. In fact, it had to be fermented in cold storage for an unheard of nine months! " A work of the brewer’s art.

Has a nice darker amber hue and a very small head that disspates quicky. The aroma is warming with apples and some brandy. Not nearly as sweet as some other eisbocks. Has some bready notes with vanilla, oak and some brown sugar. The alcoholic finish is a little strong for my tastes. This would make a perfect winter warmer. I am still not a big fan of the style.

Strong alcohol, cherries, marzipan and berries in the aroma. Clear, burnished copper coloured body with a low, off white head that recedes to ring. Alcohol and vinous dark fruits in the flavour. Very hot. Medium body with prickly, intense carbonation. Bottle sampled at D.B.A. in NYC with Olivier_MTL and Rastacouere.

Wow, what an oversite...I have not rated the first beer I legally drank, well time to fix this, served in my Expedition Snifter:

Takes on a rich amber cider hue with a fading head and little lace, oily film does appear and coat the glassware. The aroma has notes of granny smith apples, overripened fig, heavy caramel and crystal malt, butterscotch (but in a good way) and twinge of alcohol vapors. The taste starts with a massive dose of sweetness, malty and sugary. Supported by rich fruits and some pepper upon the finish. There is a hint of bitterness but it is far to subdued to do much good. I don’t think it is a sweet has other raters but still a bit over the top. The feel is warming for sure and does display a medical dryness after awhile. Good brew but not something i wish to have very often, which is better than the shocking first impression I had those twenty three years ago.

A nice deep brown,deep caramel malt, with spirit tones, deep caramalised malt with long deep malt fruit linger.

Bottle. Small and quickly disappearing off-white head. Clear amber body. Dry honey aroma. Sweet and sugary honey hops flavor with just a hint of alcohol.

The SilkTork lunch is normally taken either at the pub with a pint of cask-conditioned Bitter, or at home with a lager from the fridge. SilkTork is not a lover of lager, for him it is just something to wash down food or refresh a thirst. On this day he took a bottle out of the fridge to drink in the bath he was running. He noticed the name Eku and dimly perceived through the brown glass that it was a dark lager like a Vienna. He paused for a moment. SilkTork liked beers with character and body. Lager, for him, did not have character or body. The first dark lagers he had tried had impressed him with their tangy malt - they were more in the style of the type of beer he enjoyed. But after trying a few he had grown weary of them. He disliked the uncomfortable contrast between the malt flavours he enjoyed and the thin body he detested. A straight forward Pilsner, or one from that extended family, might be more suited to his needs right now than a beer which would confuse and disorientate him with that strange hybrid of a small man in a big suit. He considered putting it back and getting a light lager, but thought, "What the hell!" and popped off the cap. The malt and alcohol aroma flew up at him as he raised the glass, but the beer was already in his mouth. This was just a lager after all - he wasn't going to spend time appreciating the damn thing. The liquid flowed into his mouth and down his throat. By God! What was that! A thick, syrupy body and a powerful hit of alcohol. "This is the sort of super-strength lager drunk by those strange talking gentlemen down at Concrete & Cardboard," he thought as he made his way up to the bathroom. He was not impressed. When he got to the bathroom he looked at the bottle - 11% alcohol. "Boy, that's going to a killer for a lunch time drink," he remarked to himself. He finished pouring the contents into his glass, and then took another look at the bottle. There was a picture on the back of one of the incoherent gentlemen from Concrete & Cardboard. "This must be an Eisbock," he thought as he lowered himself into the hot water. He had heard how Eisbocks were made by freezing the brew and then removing the ice so that both the flavour and the alcohol were intensified. He took another cautious sip. He was impressed by the thick creamy texture and firm mouthfeel. This was no ordinary wimpy lager, this was a beer with balls. There was a cascade, a cornucopia, a devil's horn of fruity flavours pregnant with ripeness. He tasted plums, raisins, bananas and apples. Yes, there was a little sharpness in there, and a hint of something hot and sour. He sipped again. Could it just be the alcohol? The alcohol certainly came through strongly, but that was well balanced by the overall softness of the malt, and when the alcohol did come through it was always allied to the malt and to the sweetness. This was not a bludgening mindless alcohol, this was strength married to sweetness. This was a cultured, well educated, intelligent alcohol. The sort of alcohol that becomes a chess grandmaster and formulates theories of relativity. SilkTork was becoming intriqued and impressed. He could pick up bitterness, dead leaves and twigs, and a fragile memory of a hop aroma. The warmth of the bath and the warmth of the water were lulling SilkTork into a doze. His thoughts expanded and the beer began to fill his dreams. He dreamt of monsters from myth and fable. Huge beasts gorging themselves at long wooden table filled with the finest fruits and nuts from every corner of the planet. He dreamt of a Chimera licking oil from a vine leaf. Charybdis was there chewing on a fresh stick of licorice. Ladon spat out flame scorched apples. Typhon stuffed each of his hundred heads with dripping malt. And Medusa smeared raw meat over her lips. It was a frightening, overwhelming feast. But above all else, it was magnificent. When SilkTork woke the bath water was cold and the empty glass of Eku 28 on the floor told its own tale.