Bottle 30 cl at rickgordon at home tasting, on October 13, 2017.Thanks to Nisse666!Hazy brown color, tan head. Malty, alcohol, mellow, ripe banana scent. Berries, cognac, raisin taste. Raisin, alcohol, grainy aftertaste. Medium full mouthfeel, medium bitterness.6/4/7/4/14=3.5

Bottle many thx CH-303 cons 2017-10-11 Göteborg AR: British fruit cake, marzipan, dark berries AP: amber, cream beige foam F: British fruit cake, caramel, sour, warming feeling

Sweet, malty and boozy. Everything as expected, and nicely made.

Pours hazish chestnut brown, topped with medium small frothy offwhite head. Woody nose, some biscuits and dried fruits. Sharp boozy start, malty sweet and quite vinous. Yeasty end and lasting dry fruit sweet aftertaste. Lighter body with lots of warmth. Initial boozy shock that you get used to soon. Not bad.

Appearance: Medium brown, hazy. Slight off-white head.
Aroma: Light wheat, banana.
Taste: Light wheat, banana, light fruits. Slight sweetness, warming. Nice.
Bought: Ekoplaza (The Hague), 300 ml, €1.99
Info: 11/7-2017, BB: ??/??-????

Now that this classic (Dutch) Limburg brewery has just joined the ranks of the Netherlands craft breweries, the time is probably right to taste one of their more recent creations: this all-German style, more or less traditionally conceived (Weizen-)Eisbock. Thickly ’paper’ and cobweb-lacing, egg-white, bubbly head swiftly settling into a steady moussy rim over a hazy deep amber-hued bronze beer. Aroma of whisky, candied figs, melting brown sugar, cream cheese, wet white paper, ripe plums, caramel, brown soap, cloves, banana bread, cooked sweet potatoes, soapy wheat, dry earth, old dry brownies, cooked salsify, wet dog, nutmeg, still rainwater, brown rum. Sweet, quad-like onset, lots of candied fig, yellow raisin and ripe banana with a very softly sourish undertone, fizzy carbo with minerally accents, ’full’ fluffy mouthfeel, soft and gentle. Caramelly-bready malt sweetish body with notably soapy wheat edges making up the middle, while the banana and fig sweetish esters linger, phenolic clove-like impressions joining in, something wet dog-like retronasally, leading to a malt sweet, caramelly finish dried by an earthy, mildly spicy hop bitter touch, more phenolic spiciness and, above all, a heating, if not ’burning’ and even ethereal whisky-ish alcohol factor, which eventually numbs the root of the tongue and blots out other flavours but nevertheless somehow manages to avoid bothersome astringency. Feels like a top-fermented Doppelbock (’traditionally’ a Dutch concept by nature) with actual whisky added - the alcohol being a bit too obvious and even chillingly vaporizing from the tongue’s surface before it should fulfil any role at all. Lacks a bit in refinement and elegance, but I do appreciate the fact that a Dutch brewery embarks on a thoroughly German adventure like this - yet, if you want to experience ’true’ historical Eisbock before the Americans, Brewdog, Schorsbräu and others made a joke out of it by freezing out a beer till liquor strength, take Schneider’s Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock or - specifically - Kulmbacher Eisbock, the direct descendant of the world’s first Eisbock - instead. Tribute alright, but the Germans still do this kind of things much better.

33cl bottle from Gall & Gall Delft. medium beige head. Murky dark amber pour. Pretty good for the abv.

Bottle from Mitra Bunnik, BB March 2018, 30 cl sample. Slight hazy amber color, big frothy head. Aroma of a regular autumn bock with toast, caramel and slight autumn spices, but then a bit pumped up and stronger. Quite a lot of toast and caramelly sweetness, slight alcohol and spices. A dunkler bock on steroids.