5D - Eisbock

Eisbock is one of the world's strongest beers. It is a doppelbock that has been concentrated by freezing the water and removing the concentrated liquid that remains. During the making of this potent beer, it loses about 7 to 10% of its water volume and the alcohol increases to about 10% ABV.

To brew a good eisbockbier, you can't just brew a strong doppelbock and then concentrate it by freezing. The resulting beer would be way too sweet and cloying with super strong caramel and bready malt flavors. When you brew a doppelbock that is on the upper end of the style in alcohol content, the resulting Eisbock may turn out to taste like sweet cleaning fluid. According to Jamil in Brewing Classic Styles 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew, you must reduce the caramel and Munich malts and use a yeast which attenuates well for the beer to come out balanced. It's best to keep the water loss around 10% and never more than 25% to keep the alcohol smooth and not harsh or burning.

• Aroma: The aroma is a balance of strong alcohol and extremely strong malt. There should be no hop aroma, no diacetyl, and no harsh or solventy alcohol notes. There may, however, be a lot of fruity esters which are concentrated in the freezing process. These are the typical aromas and flavors in a doppelbock, plum, prune or grapes.
• Appearance: The colors range from deep copper to a dark brown and may exhibit ruby highlights around the edges. The lagering process produces a clear beer with an off-white head. The alcohol content sometimes affects the head retention negatively. You should notice legs on the glass, just as in a glass of wine.
• Flavor: The beer is a balance of big alcohol and extremey sweet malt. Basically take a doppelbock and exaggerate everything. The melanoidins, toasty notes, caramel and slight chocolate flavors of the base doppelbock really come through after the freezing process. No hop flavors should be present but the bitterness should be just enough to keep the beer from being cloyingly sweet. Since the base beer is a lager, it should not display any diacetyl. Any fruitiness from the Munich malt may be strong in the Eisbock, especially the plum, prune or grape flavors. If done right, the alcohol should be smooth and warming not harsh and hot. The alcohol may lend a sense of dryness to the finish. The trick is ending up sweet without being candy-like and cloying. A well done base doppelbock will yield a clean lager character to the finished Eisbock.
• Mouthfeel: The mouthfeel will be full or very full bodied with low carbonation. The huge alcohol load should be smooth and warming without being hot. The concentrated flavors should be smooth, rich, and nice.
• Overall Impression: This is an extremely big, full-bodied malty dark lager.
• Comments: You may find that after the freezing process, the resulting eisbock needs a long lagering period to bring everything into balance and mellow the alcohol flavors. Keep in mind that the original doppelbock you brew for this beer will have all the subtle flavors spread out over a thinner beer. Once a big portion of water is removed, any flaws or parts that are on the high end of the style, such as caramel notes, will become ridiculously evident in the Eisbock. So, Keep all the flavors in the doppelbock subdued and in balance and you should be able to produce a really nice Ice Bock.
• History: Some good stories about how the first Eisbock was made can be found on the internet. One is that a lowly brewery worker was told to roll all the doppelbock barrels to another building before he knocked off for the day. Instead, he simply rolled them outside intending to finish in the morning. After a bitter cold night, all the barrels froze solid and burst open. The brewmaster made the boy drink the thick dark liquid in the middle of the ice as punishment. Well, the rest is history, or not.
• Ingredients: The ingredients are the same as for a doppelbock. Pils and/or Vienna malt for pale versions (with some Munich), Munich and Vienna malts for darker ones and occasionally a tiny bit of darker color malts (such as Carafa). Noble hops. Water hardness varies from soft to moderately carbonate. Clean lager yeast. Decoction mashing is traditional.
• Vital Statistics: OG: 1.078 - 1.120 FG: 1.020 - 1.035 IBUs: 25 - 35 SRM: 18 - 30 ABV: 9 - 14%.
• Commercial Examples: Kulmbacher Reichelbräu Eisbock, Eggenberg Urbock Dunkel Eisbock, Niagara Eisbock, Capital Eisphyre, Southampton Eisbock

p>References: Information for this page was adapted from the 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines, the page on Bockbier from The German Beer Institute, The German Beer Portal for North America, and Brewing Classic Styles, 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew, by Jamil Zainasheff and John J. Palmer.

Go From Eisbock Back to Bock Styles

Beer labels from Bottle Your Brand. Create cool full color beer labels online! Choose pre-designed beer label templates or personalize your own beer label. Great selection and lowest prices for custom beer labels.