Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Day 5, Jan 5 / Red Hook Eisbock 28 (Limited Release)


Day 5, Jan 5

Where:         At Home

A
NG
P
G
VG
O

Beer Advocate rates it a B.  Ratebeer.com gives it an 86.  I give it a… blecchh.  I definitely did not like this one.  And I thought I would.

The 'Eisbock' means that it’s ice processed – aged for months at temperatures well below freezing.  The '28' commemorates 28 years (so far) of the Red Hook Brewing Company (which I have had the pleasure of visiting the Portsmouth NH location).  I generally like Red Hook brews, but this one did not match my palette.  The taste was very strong, with too many conflicting tastes.  And after I drank a glass, I realized it was also 11% alcohol.

To quote Dennis Miller, “Of course, that’s just my opinion.  I could be wrong.”

Case in point, check out this dude’s review of the same beer from Beer Advocate:

“pours out a burnt amber colour with a thin fizzy head supported by some light carbonation. little to sparse lace. coffee cake aroma...a lot of cherry and raspberry coated chocolate candies mixed in with other assorted valentines day boxed chocolates...yeast, nougat and coconut mixed with rum and brandy come to mind. the taste is a warm boozy smoothie of figs and nuts and caramel and nougat. quite the stiff drink. i sense some hints of fruitcake and cocoa along with banana bread and coffee. strong, stiff and sturdy body with an exceptionally smooth and silky mouthfeel. drinkability is quite good considering the the high ABV never stings.”

Really?  “Assorted valentines day boxed chocolates?”  Dude also needs to buy a couple capital letters.

Now to be fair, generally breweries that produce Limited Release type beers generally brew very specialized recipes in relatively small batches.  This gives the brewers a chance to experiment with new styles, recipes and flavor combinations, and they generally won’t appeal to all beer drinkers.

But I still didn’t like it.  I actually bought 2 22 oz. bottles at Total Beverage.  Anybody want the second bottle?

1 comment:

  1. Nice try-I know that "pawn the bad liquor off on somebody else" trick....next time try something like: "this is really interesting"-then when they try it and ask "why did you give me this nasty stuff?" you can stand by the interesting description- you never said it was good or bad....
    But I am also surprised that Red Hook turned out an "interesting" beer.

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