Kulmbacher Brauerei -- Eisbock

Kulmbacher Brauerei's Eisbock claims to be the original eisbock.

 This is a very deceptive 9.2% ABV

Review:
The story goes that an apprentice at Kulmbacher Brewery left some casks of beer out in a snowstorm, and when finally discovered, a portion of water in the beer was frozen leaving the unfrozen alcohol (alcohol has a much lower freezing point than water) in a concentrated condition. Personally, I doubt that they were the first to accidentally freeze beer. I've accidentally frozen beer a half a dozen times, and I have the sticky dregs in my freezer to prove it! Nonetheless, they probably were the first to decide to market frozen beer from a blown-out keg.
--Yeah, yeah, I can hear you all saying, "But, the beer! The beer!"
Ok, so, the aroma is heavy on the dark cherries and has a light chocolate roasty aspect. If you swirl the glass, you get some serious whipping cream notes. The color is of a dark Koa wood (the picture above is misleading. It needed some back-lighting.) The initial taste is dominated by an apple cider flavor, but there is some butterscotch/toffee flavor in the background. The aftertaste has an, ahem, interesting medicinal quality similar to cough syrup mixed with coriander. Other tasters noted equal sweet and burnt notes in the aftertaste with a hint of anise.

(Side note: The process of freezing beer to concentrate the alcohol is what BrewDog used in their Tactical Nuclear Penguin that was the world's strongest "beer" for a short time -- 32% ABV.)

Overall Impression:
I've liked all the Eisbocks I've had... until I had this bottle. Because I've had this specific brand before, I have to say that it was probably an old bottle and that it may not be representative of the brewing skills of this company. Still, while the blame may be more on the distributors or the retailers for not rotating their stock, I've got to, "play it as it lies." Sorry, Kulmbacher.

Grade: C

(This beer purchased at Whole Foods)