Strongest Brews Possible

[Muggus]

I think that style is an aquired taste for even the experienced among us, like a barley wine on 'roids.

I reckon alot of the barley wines out there are a bit more intense than an eisbock.
Eisbocks start off as quite smooth, lightly bittered beers and its all concertrated in the eising process, whereas a BW has all of its intensity in flavour, bitterness, and alcohol from the get go.
From the eisbocks i've been lucky enough to try, though strong alcohol-wise, they reminded me more of a muscat or tawny port, rich and thick with concertrated fruitiness and malt character.
With BW, the malt body isn't as concertrated and viscous (to put a word to it) as an Eis, so theres not as much richness/sweetness to soak up the intensity of the hops and malt.
I guess if an Eisbock is the tawny port of the beer world, the Barley wine would be the big, gutsy, dry Aussie Shiraz or Cab Sav. Bit rough when young, but bloody beautiful.


Always makes me wonder what an Eis-Barley Wine would be like... :blink: