Kulmbacher Eisbock

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

My top beer for 2004. Best before 12/31/03. 9.2%. Almost no head. Dark brown but light passes through. Exquisite aroma. Smokey chocolate flavour. Delicious flavour of smoke, cholocate and dark malt.

My first experience with this yummiest and most perfect of beers was purchasing a six pack right before a big snow storm hit a couple of Decembers ago. Talk about your perfect beer moments! If I could afford to buy cases and cases of this stuff to have around all the time, do you think I would? You bet your bottom dollar, I would.

My Gawd! What heaven is this! Upon pouring you first notice the body as it flows thickly into the glass with a nice luxuriant creamy tan head. The aroma of caramel and fragrant perfumy hops scent the air around. The flavor is intensely the same. Nice dusky reddish brown or brownish red. Whatever. Who cares, since this beer is so loaded with sensual qualities. Mine was a little too cold right out of the fridge. I know much more will come out of this as I let it warm. The carbonation is just right and balances the extra malty body of the beer. A long finish with no untoward aftertastes. This one came from a beer of the month, but they have it at the Bodega downtown La Crosse, too.

It is amazing how good a beer can be if you just get that damn water out of the way. This eisbock is pure nectar from the gods. A dark, deep "ruby-berry" color and a puffy white head. The taste is clean, smooth and as complex as the ecological and autecological interactions of our once prevelent now depauperate midwestern ecoregions. In spite of the high alcohol content there is not a trace of acridity or offense. Rather, raisins, berries and yeasty earth tones coalesce in this heavenly beverage of the gods. This could possibly be the worlds most well balanced beer. In fact, if beer was served at "the last supper", I’m willing to waiger my soul that it was Kulmbacher Eisbock.

Color is a solid shiny tary black, a medium tannish head appears from a vigorous pour only to dissolve quickly away to a thin collar, globby lace in blotches that don't last. Hell...O... there, wow, what a smell! Yummy, thick, rich, lush dark fruit heaven of a nose! Load of malty sweetness, nice dark caramel and toffee with all sorts of little dark fruitened things in there with prune and dates mostly with some fig and raisin hints. Smokey molasses and banana too. What a fantastic nose!! Yum, yum, yum! This stuff rocks!! It takes over where the smell leaves off with the wanting of more! Huge amounts of malty richness, thick and chewy, not overbearingly so, but plentiful in its presense with great dark caramel mixing with toffee. The dark fruits are unimaginably yummy! Plum, prune, fig, and raisin, touches of banana tangyness; then there's some molasses spicyness with some nice little tid bits of smokened earth, brown sugar, chocolate, and black cherry. The sweetness is so rich and deeply dark its wonderful! Has a thinnish start and a bit thin in the finish and is over a little to quick, but overall this sucker is full and thick with a incredibly creamyness and nice chewyness, some stickyness with great lingering malty chewy sweetness leaving notes of dark toffee and tangy dark fruits on the palate. Just a nudge of alcoholic warmth but barely noticeable. One awesome brew thats super yummy, creamy smooth and full of flavor! Strongly Recommended. Easily one of the best beers ever, so unique and very yummy!

One of my absolute favorites and one of the very few things that makes me look forward to the colder months (I enjoy Franziskaner Hefeweiss during warmer times) ! My first taste of Eisbock was via an accomplished Pennsylvanian homebrewer. I’d never tasted anything like it before and it was years before I found a retailer that didn’t look at me like I had three heads when I inquired about this style. If you enjoy this I also recommend Kasteel Bruin (Donkel?) and Samichlaus. Other similar style recommendations welcome!

Poured a ruby-black with what was an initially huge head, looking like the matrix scrolling data down the side of the glass ... but it quickly settled. Robust whiskey aroma rolls to the nose. Solidly delicious flavors here ... molasses, dark fruit, roast malt. Despite the strength, this is exceptionally easy to drink. Bravo.

Really thought this was an excellent beer. A thick flavor, without any straininess of some many bocks. Flavor was very sweet and tasty. Just great. Had one from 1996. malt malt malt malt malt, but in a great way Scored it 4.4. More coating and just malty.