Schloss Eggenberg Urbock 23°

I do not like this.Much to much alcohol. All alcohol junkies will like this. I bought it last summre at our vacation in Austria.

An exceptional beer. Pours an rich amber color with little head. This beer has a malty sweetness with undertones of bread and caramel. The high alcohol content is not obvious in the flavor.

Pours a light orange color with no head. Aroma is malty, fruity apple. Flavor is malty, apple and a slight spice.

Bottle. Nose is estery sour and spicy. Some dark malt sweetness, sticky caramel and a bit of alcohol. Clear yellow with some lively carbonation but not much head. Overall not that attractive. Alcohol is very prevalent and accented by some sweet undertones and the slightest presence of hops near the middle. Finish is clean with a bit of lingering alcohol. Palate is pretty solid.

Not much going on with the aroma, the usual figgy thang. Appearance is of a nice color but the beer is quite flat due to the booze I guess. The palate is where this thing turns around though. Sweet. Sticky. Warm and rich. Caramel. Nice doppelbock, but not top class.

I think the low rating on this belies its goodness on draft. I have not had it in bottle so I am not sure about this, but I think this is a very solid beer. Caramel malts predominate this creamy, syrupy beer. Solid.

Bottle. Golden pour, no head. Aroma of smokey malt, booze and candied fruit. Flavors of light smoke and sweet malt. Thick mouthfeel...syrupy thoughout with a sweet finish.

A prime example of how over the course of many years your tastes can change considerably. Hated this the first round of times I tried it. Today, perhaps, my palate has arrived. Medium clear gold, slight head. Aroma was sweet honey malts, a touch of molasses, bread, fruits, yeast, and alcohol. Flavor matched, with honey sweet malt giving way to a lightly floral hop bitter finish. Sophisticated and complex, this was great. NOTE: sampled again on 10/14/07 as part of a BJCP training session. I couldn’t remember if I had liked this previously or not when I re-rated it, but my notes were virtually identical, except I did not note any fruitiness this time and did detect some booziness. I’ll leave up my initial rating, the rating from today would have been only a couple of points lower though. Final comment from today’s notes was "actually quite good." I need to remember that I enjoy this beer now.