Vancouver Island Hermannator Ice Bock

Brewed by Vancouver Island Brewery
Style: Eisbock
Victoria, Canada

Bottled. Clear dark brown, no head. Limp malt aroma. Medium sweet with clean mouthfeel. Crystalized sugar adds a dimension to an otherwise, by Eisbock-standards, underdeveloped malt profile. Notes of grassy hops and raisin. Some alcohol shining through in the finish.

Bottle, 9.5%. Vinous aroma, sweet dark malts. Very dark brown colour. Good vinous flavour, sherryish and nice. Fades away in the finish, a bit boring there.

Date: 05/03/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Ale Atlanta

clear dark brown, headless, sweet chocolate and dark caramel aroma, thick and sweet body, lots of sweet dark caramel and chocolate flavor,

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 8/10; Overall: 15/20
Rating: 3.7/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **4

Very dark brown. Not much head in my ceramic Hacker mug but there never is with this beer. Aroma is light molasses with an earth accent and a hint of alcohol. Rich, with a thick syrupy toffee/earth character, a hint of chocolate and a boozy, woody finish. Nice balance. The biggest difference this year is the significant decrease in carbonation...that was a major peeve in recent years and they’ve worked it out. Now the malts show through much better and quite frankly it really comes across as the most eisbocky Hermannator I can remember. Past editions hovered around the 3.5 range.

Clear dulled brown, fading off-white cover. Dried nuts and oily toffee pair along with molasses to create a lightly sweet, earthy, syrupy malt profile. Feeling quite contentrated in mouth, but with a bit too much grain flavour for my liking. Nutty sweet and not evolving much. Has that brown ale roastiness that tries to balance the sweetness, but it’s nothing too natural. Interesting dark fruit suggestions. Light-medium body, mild syrupiness, low carbonation. Very honest.

Pours a clear copper with a thin tan head. Aroma of dark earthy malt with some dark fruits and toasty caramel. Body starts sweet and earthy with some dark caramel flavor and bocky lager character. A nice eisbock.

Yellow-brown head, alive for 30 secs, over deeper-intensity-of-cola beer. Dark, bitter chocolate almighty in a nose with some serious aromatic hop & alcohol-backing. Later fuselalcohols come streaming from the glass, sweet and powerful. Impressive nose, but warming up, it gets a slightly lesser molasses streak. Sweet, alcohol, fusels, dark chocolate with a rather outspoken liquorice finish. Some vanilla-wood. Definitely some brandy- or rumlike characteristics, but it just isn’t viscous enough for being called brandy-like. Absolutely surprisingly "light" MF for such a beer, in the sense that it is neither oily, viscous or syrupy, but still carbonated-beery. If the idea was making an easy-drinking Eisbock (isn’t that a contradictio-in-terminis?), this deserves 19/20 at least. If not, it’s difficultly assessable, but it’s certainly remarkable. Thanks, joss, again I don’t know how you managed this one, but all the better!

Any first impressions?
-A darkened mauve lifts a weary ring of foam.
-Prune alcohol, and spicy, clove-y black grapiness form a simple, sweet perfume.
-Detached roastiness watches on as caramel malts and candied fruitiness build a distinct bock personality.
-The low carbonation doesn’t serve the relative thinness of the body.

What if you dig deeper?
-It finishes quickly with a filet of residual sweetness.
-The puréed dates are quite pleasant.
-The mouthfeel gets complacent after a few sips.
-All in all, this is a little too simple for its own good; a decent attempt but a little flaccid for the long run.

Bottle; no date.