On a recent family trip to Monteral, I brought back a few bottles of interesting things, as I am wont to do. Over the weekend I opened up an Eisbock made by L’Alchimiste in Joliette, Quebec. I don’t know much about this small brewery/brewpub, but eisbocks are rare enough that it caught my attention.

There is a clear challenge to brewing an eisbock. Due to the concentration process (dropping the beer below zero and pulling the concentrated alcohol off of the slushy ice-water) the base beer needs to be very clean with no errors, flaws or off-tastes. This is harder than it looks because all of that becomes concentrated alongside the alcohol.

This particular eisbock pours dark ruby red and builds a thin tan head that fades into a thin ring rather quickly. I note low carbonation levels. The aroma is rich bread, raisin, brown sugar and sweet honey. I quite like the mixture of sweetness in the aroma.

In the flavour, I pick up toffee and a strong bready sweetness first. The malt is possibly too bold, verging on cloying. However, the middle surprisingly thins out a bit, leaving behind some raisin and dark fruit. The beer picks backup again at the end, offering some generic sweetness, a melanoidin linger and hint of sharpness. The linger has a light alcohol evaporation on the roof of the mouth. It has a warming effect, which at 9.5% is no surprise.

I can’t in all honesty say this is the best eisbock I have ever tried, but it is not without its merits. The aroma is quite wonderful, and while the sweetness is verging on too much it does have good bready qualities I expect in an eisbock. As noted above, the base beer seems solid, as nothing off-putting rises to the surface for me. I might have liked a bit more complexity in the malt profile, but this is a decently made example of what is a challenging style to make.

I hope to see more Canadian brewers try their hand at this style.