Vancouver Island Hermannator Ice Bock

Brewed by Vancouver Island Brewery
Style: Eisbock
Victoria, Canada

I am fortunate to work across the street from the brewery. This is my personal favorite bock. If you ever get a chance you MUST try this world class beer.

Bottle @ OMH-tasting
Very nice dry malty aroma. Nice and clean taste and appearance. Plenty of malts and instant coffe/chocolate in taste. Some caramell too. A pretty beer, and alcohol cannot be detected at all. Very well made...

Bloody wonderful is this stuff! If only we could get the price down a bit (thanks, tax-man). Only downside is the short season for this, i.e., available only around Christmas but well worth the wait. Buy a few extras and keep them in the fridge.

Back again for another year, this all new 2002 Ice Bock is brewed to commemorate their 15th Anniversary, and as such, was limited to a run of merely 10,000 bottles. Its more than worth the search as it hits the Ice Bock concept straight on the head. This sweet and full bodied beer is highlighted by exceptional blend of malts and carbination resulting in a true warming beer that has an interesting punch. Pours very clean and perky with a decent sized head full of large bubbles which give way to a strong collar and minimal lacing on the glass. Aroma wise the sweet malty smells come through as does a certain amount of bitterness, but the sweetness is what really sets this one apart. A great drinking beer, that would definitely fall into a warming ale more so than Young’s Winter Warmer, (but that’s another story). This one is sold exclusively in 650ml bottles with a foil based labels which have a tendency to peel back while still on store shelves. It’s a great little beer that won’t last long. Get it while you can.

Pours a deep, dark brown with a brief tan head. Wonderful aroma, sweet molasses and light diacetyl. Tastes lovely - rich and malty, buttered toast, strong alcohol and faint hops in the finish, liquor-like and mellow. Light cola aftertaste. Good carbonation, thick body, shame about the head as cream would really help. This beer packs a real punch, and I look forward to next year’s batch!

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.

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!

(Bottle) Purchased at the BC Liquor Store at Fort Street. Very exciting... the chance to try Vancouver Island’s seasonal. I have really been looking forward to this. Pours a thin, dissipating tan head with a deep ruby body. Nose of strong malt, bourbon, burnt brown sugar, wet tobacco, prunes and iodine. The tongue is tingly with mild carbonation, roasted caramel, oily texture and a good cover of the high ABV. I really appreciate this beer...