Beer – #760 – Schloss Eggenberg – Samichlaus Classic
It has been a while since I had this, which was in July 2014 and reading back on that post I’ve now correct a few typos, it clearly had an effect, This is the BeerJerk Beer Club beer of the week, I’m stoked.
The beer in your hand was bottled in 2014… it is now 2 years, 3 months old
A well presented 330ml bottle of beer that is a massive 14% ABV, making it 420 calories in the bottle, and the bottle contains 3.65 standard drink units..
Brewed by Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg in the style that we know as: Doppelbock and they are in Vorchdorf, Austria
The once strongest beer in the world is back !
Brewed only once a year on December 6. Samichlaus is aged for 10 months before bottling.
Former Champions
This beer is perhaps the rarest in the world.
Samichlaus may be aged for many years to come. Older vintages become more complex with a creamy warming finish.
Serve with hardy robust dishes and desserts, particulary with chocolates, or as an after dinner drink by itself.
Brewed under the exclusive licence of Feldschlösschen-Hürlimann-Holding, Switzerland.
So, what could possibly go wrong?
That’s a deep bready fruity aroma on opening.
Pour is an almost dissapointly flat affair, a thin whisper of film as head, It’s not as rich an aroma and there might be a whiff of alcohol tang in there too. It’s a deep aroma, perhaps also of blackcurrants.
It’s a real punch in the palate beer is this, almost frowny intense, a lot of a lot of things all at once, richness of sugars, syrupy and almost thick, and that underlying alcohol astringent.
It would probably be better as the last beer, or a beer with dessert, or with something, but this means an effort on my part, so I’m having this as is, as it were.
One sip at a time.
Whilst not impossible to drink it all without a food I did crumble and had to stop for something, which has allowed the beer to warm a bit in the glass.
The aroma has lowered somewhat to a dull rich thing that has notes that are just out of reach of description. The taste hasn’t changed though, it is still that rich syrupy fruity thing, with that background tang lurking.
A brilliant experience beer that you need to embrace if in anyway you think you’re ‘into’ beers.
The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 8 of its things from the thing. For all the love and the great story that this has there are some edges in this that make it both an experience and a challenge. It is big brash and doesn’t hold back.
The double dip review
- Where did I get it? It’s a BeerJerkNZ beer club beer
- Am I enjoying it? Yes, if you like ‘beer’ then you should enjoy it, even if you don’t love it.
- Would I have another? I may just well become a fan and look out some other years.
- Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? I would, at the end of the night because this is an awkward and difficult beer to start an evening with.
Music for this: ” Jeff Buckley” ” You and I ” on the Spotify
Doppel means double and while these are stronger brews than the traditional German bocks, they are typically not twice the strength. Color is light amber to dark brown. Very full body with a high alcoholic flavor. Low hop flavor and aroma.
A life just as ordinary 
That’s one for people who think they don’t like lagers!
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I hadn’t thought of it like that but that’s on the money
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