New Glarus Unplugged Eisbock
This Eisbock was lagered a full year and then frozen to incomparable smoothness. This is a big and complex beer, suitable for laying down or consuming immediately, serve at 55 degrees Fahrenheit. A few times a year, we will cut Dan Carey loose to brew whatever he chooses, uncensored, uncut, UNPLUGGED. Always handcrafted, the bottle you hold is brewed for the adventurous soul. This is a very limited edition and we make no promises to ever brew this style again. Eisbock is the first of our Unplugged series of beers.
3.8
225 reviews
New Glarus, United States
Community reviews
Bottle thanks to Mr. Facto. Chestnut color pour and very clear. Cola aromas with malt, booze and dates. The flavor has started to oxidize fairly badly at this point despite being kept in the fridge all this time. A Boozy cardboard like mess at this point. There is a bit of earth, spice and on the front side of the taste there is some malty sweetness, but it fades quickly to the earthy/spice semi-dryness. Medium body and somewhat dry (which I thought was surprising). I fear I waited too long on this one and was somewhat disappointed.
Bottle pours deep brown-copper with an off-white head. Aroma shows notes of brown sugar, molasses, and dried figs. Flavor shows the same with an additional booziness. Almost like brandy soaked fruit. Overall body is moderate to full and finishes with nice warming alc.
Deep red-brown pour with a small tan head. Aroma of brown sugar, dried dark fruit, roasted malt and a touch of alcohol. Flavor follows the same line. Very good brew!
Brown pour. No head. Malty aroma of raisins, booze, brown sugar, dates, figs. Flavor is sweet and malty, booze, raisins, figs, dates and brown sugar.
Bottle from JCapriotti...thanks Jason! - Pours murky cola with a small off white head. Aroma is toffee, laced with nuttiness, white grape, prune, raisin, oak and not much heat at all. Way smooth, decadent, and something I could smell all day. Surprising in its watery body. Taste is really nutty with caramel notes, dark roast, and a bitter roast finish with dark chocolate. Everything is muted on this one. Might be a little past its prime. The nose is ridiculous, but the taste just doesn’t follow suit. Still, really glad to have tried this one.
12oz bottle pours a translucent, deep amber with a thin, beige head. Aroma is very fruity, apples, apple juice, pineapple. Flavor is sweet, caramel, malty, apples, pears, slightly boozy. Finish is full bodied and stick. Aged perfect right now.
Bottle most likely from Bockyhorsey, one of my best beer buds and a considerate guy overall. Glass raised in honor of his wife a month later (but I’m behind on my ratings). Pour was murky reddish-brown, weak head, nil lacing. The aroma was fruity, vinous raisin notes, wood, chocolate. The flavor followed, molasses, faint maple, faint chocolate and oxidization (but in an ok way). Alcohol was smooth as all get out, very nicely done. The mouthfeel was still, but it was thick, smooth, wonderful. A nice touch to the Divisional NFL playoff round, except the Cards and Ravens (Flacco, baby!) both didn’t pull it off. Thanks, Bill!
Thanks to eaglefan538 for sharing. Pour was reddish brown with a deliciously sweet aroma. Flavor was sweet, doppelbockesque with hints of cherry. The only slight was the maple/soy like flavor which I’m not fond of...but thankfully, it had enough else going on that I enjoyed this one.
Bottle from cletus...Pours a muddy brown color, small head that faded quickly. Aroma of sweet apple and sugar. Taste is sweet malt, some raisons, apple and a little wood. Nice smooth texture, easy to drink. Hard to tell there is any alcohol in here at all. Overall.....good beer
Bonus bottle from Cletus, Thanks John..
Pours dark brown with a thin off white head.. Aroma is cherries, raisins and twizzlers.. Flavor is dark fruits, raisins, toffee and burnt wood with a dark chocolate bitterness.. Medium body with medium carbonation.. When I took the first sip this one made me say wow.. Super easy to drink. Good Brew!
Seems aroma is the same as the Uff-da bock. Sweet and malty some burnt and nutty aromas come out when swirled. Mouthfeel is watery and lacks carbonation. Flavor is a little watery but makes this eisbock very drinkable. The alcohol is almost non-existant. There is caramel, wood, toffee, and sweet malt in the flavor. This one is good, hopefully they brew it again since I have no more.
12oz nice bonus from my pal Jason, thank ughmash. Pours brownish black with a tan ring. Nose is sweet rich and thick smelling. Lost of molasses and big old richness. Taste is sweet and a bit cloying, but good overall, not the best eisbock or the best unplugged but its tasty.
From JPDIPSO. I was hesitant to even open this, l have been very averse to big beers recently, barleywines and impy stouts have not been my thing recently. But I need to drink something (well i don’t "need to" but I want to) and the only new thing in my fridge that came in a 12oz bottle is this (again thanks John). So I pour this and it looks like a strong beer, almost no head with a dark copper thick body; so far everything is coming out formulaic. If I agitate it a bit some head forms. Then I sniff the damn thing and my attitude changes completely. Its the aromas I want, which when improperly handled come off crappy (basically bad brewers can’t do this well, oh and apparently calling someone a bad brewer is a bad thing to do, ok then, less good brewers can’t do this). It is burnt, thick, alcoholic malt blast. But not in a bad way or over the top, just strong and awesome. This is the kind of aromas I fell in love with when it came to barleywines/strong ales and the kind of aromas that "less than good" breweries just screw up and make me hate them. There is some oxidation in there, which you cannot fight when you ice a beer, but it works beautifully in the profile of the beer. Ok, now lets move to the flavor (of love). It’s actually not as stong as the aroma indicates. Still that burnt German lager-ness that comes off almost ale-like because of the icing. Lagered and well attenuated yet sweet caramel, now that is a conundrum if I ever wrote one. And its actually rather easy drinking, that’s what you get with an iced lager. I mean all the flavor, the light oxidation, with the alcohol and lagered sweetness is there, yet I can easily put it down. No burn from the alcohol. Fun stuff, like it a lot.
12oz bottle, Regenboog tall, tuliped, chalice glass.
Bought 6-pk in Wi. Wished I would have gotten more.
Appearance - dark red/orange
Nose - Dark fruit, toffee, roasted nuts.
Flavor - small cherry-pie notes with roated grain. Soft hops ending
Great beer!
The first of New Glarus’ Unplugged brews.
Pours a dark midnight red color with an off white head that quickly disappeared but left a ring around the glass. Others noticed a lack of carbonation, but is bubbling up like a fountain, never seen this before. Smell is of burnt molasses, brown sugar, cherries, and currants. Very sweet, caramel greets me first, with a little bit of toffee, and even some bitterness comes into play. Dry finish, but has a nice lingering taste of plum and cherry. Nice mouthfeel, it was medium-high carbonation, medium to full bodied, but I expected it to be thicker. Very drinkable, I wish they would make this more often, or even just one more time I suppose would be great.
12oz Bottle. 2002. Lightly funky chewy smoke, salted caramel, and sugar. A bit of age. Pours a mature raisin-colored brown, with light golden. Flavor shows
age immediately. Light raisins, port, and old brown sugar. A bit of alcohol, dust and nuts. Lager yeast. Residual malt build. Salty. Still some good carbonation. Interesting, but past its prime. I sense that this possible could have been expose to heat. Thanks Steve!
Pours a very dark brown in color with a nice quarter inch mocha head.
Smell is subtle dark fruits and lots of yeast.
Taste is huge. Big and creamy on the mouthfeel. Taste is darkness. Both in fruit and toffee. This is a good Eisbock and has held up well with time.
Date: 02/13/2008
Mode: Bottle
Source: Trade
Appearance: muddy dark brown, wispy beige head,
Aroma: rich fruity fig aroma with brown sugar sweetness and a touch of chocolate,
Body: body is a bit thin at first but turns creamy upon warming,
Flavor: rich malt flavor, lots of ripe figgy fruit character, touch of chocolate, oxidized, lots of gritty brown sugar but not a lot of resulting sweetness, light bitterness,
Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 8/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 15/20
Rating: 3.7/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: ***/4
Bottle Pours out a dark brownish red topped with a small head. A GREAT aroma of pit fruit and thick malts. Tast more of the pit fruit/raisins. Nice sweet and thick. Very tasty thanks Footbalm for the love
Bottle. Thanks to Eric for sharing this retired beer. Pours a deep brown with a nice beige head; I guess this beer is still kicking! The aroma was fairly woody, with some some bourbon and oxidized notes. The taste is mostly raisin, wood, and a sweetness that eludes description. Not much of an alcohol warmth left, in fact it was pretty smooth. Really, there is no reason that they retired this beer. It has become full of so many flavors that makes it quite interesting and good.
Bottle: Dark mahogany color, thick color throughout, light head. Nose of light sherry, fruity malts; cherry, light wood and fig. Nice sweetness to compliment the well-aged taste to the beer. The flavor is balanced, very little alcohol presence and a mellow sweet flavor that kicks with a little hop bitterness towards the end. Brown sugar and raisin with a little berry sweetness. Very good! Thanks a ton to footbalm for bringing this one up to Boise for me to try! You rock!
Dark burguny pour, small faint white head. Aroma is straight brandy very liquor, brown sugar, caramel. Flavor is caramel, more brandy like flavors, not hot but boozy almost barrel-aged tasting. Some vanilla, lots of oak, a bit of chocolate and roastiness with some slight fruity esters, raisens, figs. Cloying sweetness but low on carbonation and medium bodied. Let this baby warm some toasted notes come out and more of that sweet brandy. What a different but damn good beer. Not sure where this came from but thank you for this very rare brew.
Pours a nice brown color with a little bit of carbonation and has a good little head on it A little bit of a lacing, but not much. Flavor is a little sweet with some good biscuity dark malt flavors. Sweet medium-full bodied mouthfeel. Overall I think this beer is getting better.
Approximately 5 years old. Pours out soft and thick and forms a surprising tan head with hues leaning toward gray. The head is instantly diminishing but never fully so. A very dark, translucent tarnished bronze body lies under deep amber, with mahogany hues. The aroma lets off minor oxidation notes(sherry, prune). Rusty metallic scents aren’t discouraging but seem like a rustic countryside nuance that enhances the nose. Orange pith scents are minor, caramel malt is moderate and lightly burned, certainly due to an exceedingly long boil. Raisins, aged hops, breadiness and a god amount of black pepper round out the aromatic entourage. This has held up very well. Alcohol is a non-factor. The flavor has plenty of cereal and toasted grain. Caramel is full and nicely mellowed and seemlessly integrated. Bitterness is mild to medium, sweetness is high but never cloying or bothersome. The alcohol presence is so low its only real feat is in the warmth emanating from each gleeful swallow. Plenty of dark fruits with a nice tang, slightly puckering and certainly mouthwatering, such as blackberry and plum, flow over the tastebuds and add great complexity. Light yeast and ample spice are both surprising at this stage in this beer’s development. The mouthfeel is vibrantly carbonated, very silky, medium to full bodied. The finish is rustic, lightly metallic and loaded with sweet caramel. Wonderful and well-crafted.
Courtesy boboski. Pours a cloudy, slightly bubbly, dark caramel brown, with a small light brown head. Glad to see its got some carbonation left after 5 years. The smell was big and bold, huge malts and dark fruits combine with some caramel and syrup to clog my nostrils with different aromas. The flavor was just as bountiful. Huge malt and dark fruits, berries, raisins, molasses, brown sugar, and the kitchen sink all were detectable and potent on my palate. Has seemingly smoothed out some from age, but the carbonation was still lively and the mouthfeel was full. Sweet, fruity aftertaste with some cinnamon flavors too. Has aged quite nicely. A good experience.
12oz bottle, thanks to jcapriotti for this one. Pours a deep brown with reddish highlights and a 1/2 finger fizzy head that diminishes to a thin spotty film rather quickly. The aroma is fairly syrupy sweet with brown sugar, scorched caramel, and light molasses, but is cut with a bit of smoke and a tinge of alcohol. I’m also picking up on some raisins. Flavor is much the same with some sweet pipe tobacco towards the semidry finish. Alcohol has mellowed very nicely with this. Medium to full creamy body with some light carbonation. Glad I got to try it. Rating 900
Bottle. Cloudy reddish brown colour with a nearly no head at all. Very malty aroma with notes of caramel and little alcohol. Very malty flavour with hints of caramel and ends up with a warm feeling from the noteable alcohol.
(Bottle 35,5 cl) Courtesy of JCapriotti. Hazy, orangey brown with a tiny, beige head. Sweet, fat aroma of lightly burned caramel. Quite full in body with sweetish, roasted accents, some caramel and overripe fruit. Subdued bitterness. Smooth and delicious. 090407
12 oz bottle sampled with big thanks to drewbeerme. Pours an deep brown red with a thin head. The nose at first seems a little bit past its prime but that seems to break down to rich dark fruits, cherries, carmel, and a hint of chocolate. More red fruits, carmel, toffee, toasted and chocolate in the flavor. A little sweet but still balanced out for an eisbock. A tasty beer.
12oz bottle, aged 4 years. pours mahogony with small white head around the rim. nose has some mild oxidation creating a sherry and tobacco, caramel, toffee, and raspberries. flavor lots of tobacco, dulled caramel, and subtle red fruits. alcohol very well hidden. body is a little thin. carbination is very low. this beer has lost it’s edge as an eisbock and although still tasty, it seems to be passed it’s prime.