Kulmbacher Eisbock

[bottle] Pours dark brown in color with a bubbling, tan head. Aroma is sweet, with elements of rapsberry fruit and alcohol. Flavors are pretty straight-up, malty and sweet, with some deep almost smokey complexity. Alcohol is warming, but not too intense. Great stuff, overall.

11.2 oz. bottle. Very sweet aroma. Typical dark German malt scent as well as lemon sourness. Nice, clean yeast smell that becomes very strong as one continues to sip. <P>Pours a translucent dark brown with a red hue and a moderate amount of short-lasting tan head. <P>The flavor, like the aroma, is quite sweet. Licorice and roasted nut notes. Some alcohol taste. Tastes somewhat like a barley wine. The roastedness is too subtle and the sweetness is too dominant for my tastes. Reminiscent of a malt liquor, but not nearly as gross as most examples of that style. <P>Little aftertaste. Heavy body. Lively, clean, and crisp in the palate. Thick enough that it makes it a bit difficult to finish. Borderline cloying. <P>Kulmbacher Eisbock is an interesting beer, but I don’t think that the icing process really tends to improve bocks. Rather, it tends to make them more extreme and thus less well balanced. I’d be interested to try a traditional, standard bock version of this same beer. I bet I would rate it more highly.

Bottle - appears to be dated 12/31/03. Dark brown, almost mahogany with a fairly large creamy head. Sweet, potent aroma of smoky-roasted malts, cane sugar, and apples. Taste is heavy with strong malts, very chewy. Elements of caramel and very bold roasted grains. Very nice brew!

Weaker than I expected, though very satisfying. Roasted malt, caramel, molasses on the tongue. Dark brown appearance. Great for a cold night.

12-oz. bottle received via trade with fordest. Pours sparkling dark brown with a small fizzy light brown head, mostly diminishing, spare lacing. Aroma is average malt (molasses, caramel, nutty), light hops (grass), average yeast (dough) with notes of date and maple syrup. Medium bodied, gritty texture, lively carbonation and a bitter finish. Average duration, moderate sweetness and acidity, light bitterness. Sort of bland flavor; alcohol is well hidden.

12 oz. bottle. Pours a redish-brown cola color. Smells of sweet malt, toffee and some funk. Heavy mouthfeel with a smoked molasses and chocolate taste. Light carbonation and an aftertaste of alcohol, though not much considering the 9.2%. Interesting brew.

33 cL bottle, fancy laser label. Something that looks this fancy goes into my snifter, I guess. Kicks up a great barley smell, like your favorite brewpub on brewing day. Thin barleywine type head, deep brown body with red where the light can get through. Taste is big, bold, grainy and very sweet, just a teensy bit of sourness to suggest a smoke Affy Tapple. If they made wort into candies, this is what it would taste like. Lots of heady brandy-ish crystal malts. Still has some yeasty esters that might improve with aging, but I don’t know how long I can hold on to this. Some general bitterness that becomes German hops largely by the power of suggestion. I found this at Binny’s in Willowbrook, though they are clearly making a push into the US market. Let ’em come, I say!

12oz bottle. Toffee, dried fruits. Dark reddish brown color. fulll head. Sweet malts nicely balanced with mild bitterness. Heavy mouthfeel. Beer’s version of a nice heavy cab or zin. Beautiful beer.