Zuper Eisbock
Watch City Brewing Co.

On tap, Extreme Beer Fest 2004...

Walnut brown and clearish. Minimal head leaves threads on the beer's surface and the glass margins. Sherry-like aromas, mulled cider and apple tones. Taste is solid and immutable, malt-dominated but well-matched by bittering early, middle, and late. If anything is a main theme here its candied fruit with a rummy fruitcake starchiness and an almost Sake-like quality of rice fermentables. Deceptively drinkable, power is unleased in measured quantities rather than in a wallop. Great, great beer. Thanks to VENOM (via Longstaff) for the late recommendation.

The beer pours a muddy caramel brown, eerily viscous looking, supporting a thin, weak froth of off-white head. The head keeps fairly steady, settling into a thin collar. Not much in the way of lace.
The aroma is monstrously malty, with a munich malt caramel quality dominating. Not too much in the way of breadiness, mostly a sugary caramel sweetness. Despite it's fearsome alcohol content, I'm only getting a faint whiff, mostly a slight thinner-like feel in the sunuses. The weight of the malt easily supresses anything else, but somehow stays in check. Not cloying at all.
The flavor starts with a burst of caramel, distinctly munich malt, paving over every tastebud in your mouth with a syrupy, sugary sweetness. Thick and bulky, the body is displaced with smooth, bouyant carbonation. A light, indistinct fruitiness creeps in, adding some depth as the malt progresses into the finish. A bit of toastiness, meeting a much more pronounced hopping in the long finish. A suicide squad of tangy, herbal german hops attempt to counter the malty juggernaut, and amazingly succeed in breaking through. Alcohol recieves billing on the marquee of the finish, leaving a bit of heat in the throat. Surprisingly well hidden, given it's respectable strength. A drunken caramel maltiness staggers through the aftertaste, passing out in a heap as I take a few large gulps of water to try and minimize the effects.
This beer is unlike anything I've had before. Incredibly massive, I was told that this is their octoberfest beer, but an "eis-ed" version with most of the water removed. It's only vaguely reminiscent of a marzen, mostly in the malt profile. At this point it's closer to a lumbering frankenstein of malty goodness, or maybe this is what happens when you expose an octoberfest to gamma rays and it becomes the incredible hulk.