Eisbock

Aventinus, the Wheat Doppelbock of Bavaria, has always been known to be the most intense and complex wheat beer in the world. This was the case for the past sixty years, but not anymore... Up until the 1940’s, Aventinus was shipped all over Bavaria in containers lacking temperature control. Consequently, the precious drink partially froze during transportation. Unaware that the brew was concentrated by the separation of water from the liquid. People were baffled by this unique version of Aventinus. By chance, the first Aventinus Eisbock was created. Well aware of this story, Hans Peter Drexler, brewmaster of the Schneider brewery, decided to recreate this classic "mistake" in a modern controlled facility. Thus, the Aventinus Eisbock is reborn sixty years later ... Prost!

Brewing in the land of fire & ice (the Eastern Sierra) since 1995 has brought us to this style of beer, where we use a long intense boil to concentrate color, flavor, and natural sugars. Then, after fermentation, we freeze no more than 2% of the water content out of the beer. This concentrates the alcohol and smooths out the flavor for a true winter seasonal. Like the bliss of a “one swing stick” into ice, this beer will distill your attention down to the single focus of the bend of your elbow. Fire & Eisbock will age well, but do drink one now to compare with our barrel-aged eisbock.

Eis is the German word for Ice. A former distillation process in making Eis Beer would be to freeze it, remove the ice, and collect what remained. While today’s beer, like Eis Maker, is no longer produced this way, it is used as a connotation that the beer is very strong. You will find this Eis Bock to be sweet, malty and boozy with notes of raisin, dark fruit and similar profile of a barley wine.

This is a Trippelbock from the Mikkeller folks, with a hearty helping of raspberries at its core. A perfect pudding beer.

Pours a very dark reddish brown, nearly opaque with absolutely no carbonation, totally flat. Aroma of red wine, tannins, dark dried fruit, darkly sour. Flavor of dark fruit, cherries, red wine tannins, wood, finishing with sour cherry, wine vinegar and a long unidentifiable bitterness.