Samichlaus Classic

I bought it and began aging it w/o even tasting it. I heard that it is simply awful (harsh, boozy, sweet) unless it has at least 8 years on it. What year was your bottle?

 

Knowing it was 14%, I enjoyed picking up the dark flavors under the boozy cloak, but would go down much easier with more age.

 

I bought a 4-pack of 2011 a while ago. It was tasty but hard to drink. It tasted more like a hard liquor than beer to me. I'll probably wait at least 4 years to try the other 3 bottles.

 

For some reason, everything about this post makes me want to try the beer.

 

2012 means it was brewed 12/6/2011, then aged 10 months before bottling. Make your own opinions, but I'm one of those who believe that beer will not get any better than when it comes out of the barrel (for barrel aged beers) or however they age this one. I have not had the 2012 but recently had 2011 and 2010. Both tasted exactly the same. This is the first extreme beer I had, the one that for me started it all Christmas 2009. I have no idea what year I had then. I do know it was much harder to drink in 2009 but I still thought fantastic, and now years later I breeze through this. Has the beer changed? Unlikely. Have I changed? Definitely. Now I think the beer tastes like apples and pears dipped in alcohol but no alcohol is present, with a nutty flavor and minty aroma that just kills. You're not doing anything wrong, what will change is not the beer, but you.

 

I paid twenty bucks for a bottle when I first got into craft beer because I thought "wow, it must be good for twenty bucks a bottle and it's only brewed once a year!" I was also intrigued it was vintage 2009 and it was 2011. I could have never been so wrong. It was an overly sweet boozy mess. However, for twenty dollars a bottle I choked the whole thing down.

 

It's usually a love/hate beer. Aging does wonders for it, but it's never going to be mellow or dry. The helles version isn't quite as potent, but I doubt it'll win anyone over that didn't like the original.
I enjoy it in very tiny doses. Splitting a 12oz among 4 people is about right. Any more than 3-4oz of that one is just too much, though.

 

That seems really expensive. Was that at a bar or something? It is ~ $18/4 pack around here.

 

I've never had it. It might have been a superior beer when it was made by Hurlimann in Switzerland. Today it is made by Schloss Eggenberg in Austria.

I have 4 bottles of the Austrian variety I have been sitting on for 2 years (and they were 2 years old when I found them). I'm not even entertaining the possibility of opening them yet. I'm thinking another 1-2 years minimum.

 

I had a 5 year old bottle, and that was about right. Falls right in line with where WWS hits its mark.

 

I guess everyone has their own taste preferance, but I personally put this beer in any conversation about best all around beers.

 

ive had it "fresh" and with 4 years on it and man does time make a big difference. but like others have said.. this beer is just not for everyone.

 

How cold did you pour it? I imagine too cold could have really mucked up the flavor.

 

He's probably referring to a 750mL bottle, which it also is available in.

 

I like it!!

 

My only drainpour.
My bad.

 

It was a 750ml bottle.