Surprising though it may be, I wasn’t born a Brigadier of Bock. No, I became one. It wasn’t easy, friends, but here I am wearing epaulets and a foolish, jaunty hat and drinking a bock. And not just any bock… an eisbock. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Bock is a strong lager originally from the Hanseatic town of Einbeck, Germany, long brewed and drunk by Catholic monks. Although there are a number of different types of bock (as we shall see, friends), they tend to be malty, dark of color, and high in ABV, especially as compared to other lagers. As a result, some bocks are considered a meal unto themselves, a.k.a. beer for breakfast, or as an alcohol counselor once told me “an eye opener.” They tend to have a low hop character, making them sweet on the finish.

To kick things off on Hall of Beers, I had to go with an old favorite brewery of mine, G. Schneider and Sohn, the Bavarian wheat brewery responsible for the best wheats on the planet for my Deutschmark. Today, their Weizen Eisbock proves to be the fire of my loins and other parts of myself, as eisbocks are made by freeze distilling doppelbock and removing the ice to increase the alcohol content. Consequently, the Aventinus Eisbock comes in at an ass-kicking 12% ABV. Awesome!

The Appearance and Smell:
An ample, tan head, murky caramel brown color, and healthy carbonation. An aroma so robust, you can smell this beer from across the room: fruits, malts, wheat, and enough alcohol to knock out a small animal.

The Taste:
Sometimes (see Brooklyn’s Monster Ale), a really high gravity beer can bitchslap the other flavors right out of the bottle and taste like you’re drinking a pint of shots. Not so here. The alcohol is noticeable, but not overwhelming–it lends a spice and a warmth, but the malt, the cloves, the subtle raisins shine through like the heart of gold in a hooker with a heart of gold.

Overall:
This is the kind of beer that manages to walk that fine line between power and subtlety– the kind that gets me excited. If Otto von Bismarck were liquified, fermented and turned into a beer, it might be something like the Aventinus Eisbock. But also possibly not. It did make me unify Germany, though.

A definite buy.