EKU 28

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

Serve in Dimpled mug, Snifter, Stein

Bottle. Pours apple juice colored w/ a thin white head. Aroma is, oddly, scotch whisky. Taste is all kinds of malty, toffee, raisin, caramel, et cetera, et cetera. No hops to speak of. A little on the overly sweet side, but still good.

Wrap-around-the face Madeira cake-drenched-in whiskey snout. Not as revolting as it sounds. Overripe plummy headiness. Muffling cotton wool dabbed in TCP. Nobody can hear you scream. Utterly headless after 2 swigs. Transparent amber stillness. Velvet caramel tangerine sweetness compensates. Nuts and wood. No syrup or burn whatsoever. Cakey but not at all cloying. Beers this potent are often numbingly dull and sugary, but this is a very pleasant exception. One of the best (non-Belgian) big-hitters I’ve encountered.

UPDATED: SEP 2, 2004 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.

Bottle shared by joebrew, pours a clear amber brew with a fast dissolving white head that leaves behind a swirling film top and some bottles on side. Aroma of sweet caramel malt, some toffee, plums and plenty of alcohol. Taste is slick/oily, medium to full bodied, with lots of sugary character of molasses, caramel syrup and corn syrup. Finish is very alcoholic strong and over the top sweet. I remember trying this back when I was 18 and was told this was the strongest beer ever made. Being nieve at the time thinking Pabst Blue Ribbon was what beer was supposed to taste like, I did not think much of EKU 28. Happy to say I know better today.

11.2oz bottle poured a clear copper with off white head that vanished in seconds. Nice strong malty and dark fruit aroma. I get semi sweet caramel, dates, plums, alcohol and a slight hint of olives. This has a nice rich mouth feel. At the start I get a slight hint of olive, some tasty caramel and solid dark fruitiness. By midway the caramel sweetens and builds. Beyond midway the fruitiness takes over somewhat with growing alcohol warmth in the background. All of the flavor notes listed on the label really came true for me. This beer just reached out and gave me a warm hug.

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.

Bottle at Kulminator, Antwerp. Pours clear amber with at frothy white head. Heavy malty aroma with some caramel. Great sweet malty flavour with lots of caramel and rye bread. Strong alcoholic finish.

bottle, thanks to bu11zeye, almond color with small foam, sweet caramel aromas, flavors of sweet banana, caramel and chocolate, lasting finish