Eisbock talk

050912 usually translates to Sept. 5, 2012 when using the European date format (DD/MM/YYYY) vs. the typical American format (MM/DD/YYY). I could be wrong, but that's what make the most sense to me.

 

I don't have an answer for you, OP. But, I'm with you. Preach on!

 

If eisbocks take off we're going to see some ridiculous stuff. I'd put a potential barrel-aged eisbock at no less than 20% ABV. May the beer gods have mercy on our livers.

They are truly delicious, though. I'm not sure why they aren't made more or buzzed over more (aside from Kuhnhenn's productions).

 

No idea. Aventinus Eisbock really is heavenly.

 

Time = Money.
Eisbock is a lager and to do it justice needs to be treated as such, not just faux lager with a low temp ale fermentation. so you tie up a conical for a month or more. Then you have to freeze the beer and thus decreasing yield on an already expensive beer.
A brewery could pretty much knock out a few DIPA's in the time to produce 1 Eisbock, or produce a RIS and know it will move.
Don't get me wrong i love me some Bock and wish i saw more but its the same reason why we have so few craft lagers out besides the lovely pilsners.

 

Technically, Eisbocks are illegal for US brewers to register and market as "malt beverages". From the TTB:

Beer blogger "Joe Sixpack" had a good column on it a few years back Ice bock: Frozen out in the U.S.A., including mention on how some smaller breweries and brewpubs get around the TTB's rules -which is often looking the other way with a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude.

Notice that on the mentioned Tactical Nuclear Penguin's COLA it was listed as being the class/type "699 - OTHER SPECIALTIES & PROPRIETARIES" which is a "DISTILLED SPIRITS" class (and is charged a much higher Federal excise tax).

 

@ONovoMexicano You should check out these Aventinus Eisbock blends:

Eisbock Barrique:

Cuvee Barrique:

I think the relative lack of hype for eisbocks, is because they are quite rare outside of Aventinus and Kuhnhenn. Aventinus Eisbock is pretty much the be all end all of eisbocks. It is quite readily available and they even do vintage releases of it, cellaring it themselves. I know I always am on the lookout for a new eisbock, especially at Max's German Fest.

There are only 5 eisbocks on BA that have over 100 reviews. It drops off quite quickly after that. A lot of the eisbocks don't seem to be bottled or have a lot of information associated with them. I mean the Southampton Double Ice Bock only has ~100 bottles on the years that it is released, which is about every 3 years.

So, does that mean that Kuhnhenn's eisbock follows those rules or is it another case of the TTB looking the other way?

 

I am actually a bit baffled that more American breweries haven't offered Americanized (and likely bourbon-barrel aged) eisbocks. Seems like it could work pretty well. But then again, there are comparatively few doppelbocks brewed in the US as well, and despite how well it should work there are almost zero BA doppelbocks.



What's interesting to me is that the most well-known eisbock is basically a freeze distilled doppelweizen/weizenbock. I assume most of these beers have a doppelbock (strong, bottom-fermented barley lager) as their base rather than a weizen (top-fermented wheat beer).

 

You're essentially going to be dumping half of your work when you go and drain out the concentrate. If you leave the iced beer to separate naturally as it comes back up to temperature, it's several hours. And I couldn't imagine the effort nor time involved with a five barrel block, or whatever the size that has been frozen, and brought up to thaw and separate. I've only done it with howler sized servings and even at that puny size. It's a chunk of the day you're dedicating to watching the color of a drip while doing the thaw and separation well. If you decide to be physical with some kind of ice pick or pitchfork to create a slushy, you're only cutting your time back by a bit, but then I can imagine that at a production scale that it's going to be up their with grain out for how physically demanding getting feral with an ice pick on a several barrel large chunk of frozen beer.

 

Love Aventinus Eisbock

Try Kulmbacher Eisbock if you see it, that one is decent, too.

 

Faust in Germany does a whiskey barrel aged Eisbock that's pretty delicious. Faust's website lists it at 11,5% ABV (look for the "Holzgereifeter Eisbock"). It comes in 750 ml bottles, so definitely a beer meant for sharing. It has won back-to-back gold medals in the German-Style Dopplebock/Eisbock category of the World Beer Cup.

 

If you like sweeter beers, eisbocks are definitely up your alley, but the catch is that other than Schneider and Kulmbacher...there really aren't many. Yes, Kuhnhenn has a few (rare) ones, but looking at the BA style page you see a massive dropoff after the the those.

 

We're not going to see more doppelbocks any time soon. See the time=money post by Relik, and then factor in that the average American craft beer customer has an automatic and reflexive dislike of the term "lager" (courtesy of BMC) and tends to be a hophead. Look at the amount of posts just in discussions on this website about not liking beer sweet rather than bitter, and then extrapolate out to the rest of the craft beer population.

That being said, sours take a long time to brew as well, and those are catching on and being produced more. They aren't competing with the "lager = BMC = bad" mentality, however.

 

Sour = Belgian
Belgian = Good
Therefore: Sour = Good

 

It's the yeast sediment that's in German Hefeweizen beers as this is a Weizen Eisbock and weather you get it fresh at the brewery or in the U.S it's gonna have that sediment.

 

FYI, Kuhnhenn is releasing a batch of raspberry eisbock on Black Friday.

 

$30 for a 12.7oz.