Schloss Eggenberg Samichlaus Classic
The once strongest beer in the world is back !
Brewed only once a year on December 6. Samichlaus is aged for 10 months before bottling. This beer is perhaps the rarest in the world. Samichlaus may be aged for many years to come. Older vintages become more complex with a creamy warming finish. Serve with hardy robust dishes and desserts, particulary with chocolates, or as an after dinner drink by itself.
Brewed under the exclusive licence of Feldschlösschen-Hürlimann-Holding, Switzerland.
Brewed only once a year on December 6. Samichlaus is aged for 10 months before bottling. This beer is perhaps the rarest in the world. Samichlaus may be aged for many years to come. Older vintages become more complex with a creamy warming finish. Serve with hardy robust dishes and desserts, particulary with chocolates, or as an after dinner drink by itself.
Brewed under the exclusive licence of Feldschlösschen-Hürlimann-Holding, Switzerland.
3.6
2138 reviews
Vorchdorf, Austria
Community reviews
Nøddebrun og klar med meget lidt skum. Duft af røg og nødder. Let bitter, lidt sød og lidt sprittet. God fylde og lang eftersmag.
1 finger beige head, red-amber body. Nose: Alcohol, raisins, prunes, figs, brown sugar and dark bread.Taste: Raisins, figs, oranges, prunes, alcohol-sting, pumpernickel-bread, brown sugar, dark bread and molasses. Long semi-bitter ending.
330ml bottle brewed in Austria at 14%. 2021 edition. Clear ruby-brown with a small, shortish-duration head. Boozy aroma, with nutty and vinous tones - pungent spirit-soaked fruit - raisins, cherries - meets tannic grapeskin red wine with dense nutty cake malts and some darker suggestions of fig and date beneath. Low carbonation, heavy texture without much thickness, slight menthol, aged tobacco and alcohol evaporation in the finish. Date-rich sweetness of dark fruits, bordering on plummy, and golden syrup sweetness, not sufficiently tempered by some dark grapeskin tannins. Sticky boozy fruitcake aftertaste, spirit-soaked glacé cherries and thick cake malts with a touch of almond. A luxurious bit of fun, worth trying if you can find a bottle, but overly sweet and boozy to be a good drinking (i.e. not one-off or celebration) beer for those without a specific penchant for boozy, sweet aged ales - or lagers, in this case. The complexity here is fine, but both the alcohol and the sweetness near gimmick levels. Could possibly reveal its true colours with age; if so I'd suspect at least 8-10 years to be necessary, if not 12+.
Ist Samichlaus nicht der Weihnachtsmann? Passt auf jeden Fall gut in die stade Zeit. Optisch Cognac. In der Nase sehr würzig, malzig, Trauben. Im Trunk unfassbar blumig, sehr sehr süß, fast schon Likör, sehr cremig. Muss man nippen. Keine Spur alkoholisch. Passt zum Dessert, eine Flasche ist eigentlich zu viel, sollte man sich teilen.
Aged 4 years.
No head.
Beautiful caramel-amber coloured beer.
Aroma of toasted rustic rye bread, butterscotch, sweet rum, hint of coconut, oak barrel and caramelized orange peels.
Divine.
Taste of very sweet sugared dates, (lots of) coconut, tonka, thin rum and hints of barrel.
Mouthfeel is oily with a semi-thin body.
Lightly sticky. Low bitterness. Medium-low carbonation. Warms you up but no real alcohol burn.
Overall: Couldn't be more dissappointed with the aging. I remember the fresh one being pleasant but just too undeveloped in terms of actual notes. This is round and mellow but with an overly sweet, pastry-like profile of mainly syrupy coconut and sugar. Don't know what happened but I don't particularly like it.
Shame with a godlike aroma.
(330ml 2012 bottle from the LCBO, consumed ~9 years after bottling) Pours basically clear deep copper to mahogany with a tiny rapidly dissipating whitish head. Aroma of rye bread soaked in treacle, golden raisins, some dried red berries, subtle nutty roasty. Flavour of layered fortified sugars, again bread or sweet bun dough with some cereals, raisins and figs, touches of sweet sherry oxidation, cola undertones from middle to finish, a bit of cacao and toasty notes, mineral dark lager crispness, long lingering tones of lightly terrified sugars, tawny port and toasty lightly bitter earthy grains. Warming alcohol but not hot by this date. Medium-bodied, oily towards syrupy, very low carbonation. Surprisingly solid for the age and relatively poor storage conditions it was held in (abandoned somewhere in my parents' furnace room), this has smoothed out all the booze and while it's too sweet by the end of a half-bottle it makes a nice replacement for port/sherry.
Fles 33cl thuis. Zoet, boozy, maltig, caramel, cola, molasse, syrupy, bokzoeten, fruitig, hout, brandy, toffee, honing, krachtig. (7-1-2021).
Slim can, murky cola color with no foam, stewed fruits nose, chocolate caramel flavor, nice winter sipper without the boozy notes
Darkish creme soda pour, no head to speck of. Nose is more malt, malt, and malt. Middle is potent malt, currants, sherry, wood cask. Finish is warming, malty, somewhat alcoholic.
Pours clear dark red with no foam whatsoever. Aroma and taste are sweet, strong beer. (Velp 2112)
Bottle from Drankenhandel Leiden. Boozy and quite sweet with a sweet malty aroma. Caramel, alcohol, sugary dried fruits. Long sweet boozy aftertaste, sticky mouthfeel. Medium to full body. I can sip on this but it's way, way too sweet.
A few nice whiskey like dopplebock. No head and lowish mouthfeel. Masses of flavour. One to savour.
Old Untappd check-in. February 6, 2017. Tasted in Beers of the World class at RIT.
This thing will make you jolly and fat like samichlaus himself. Feels like drinking liqueur. Very strong. Sweet and sticky. Beautiful transparent brown colour. I will have to buy this again.
Rica de sabor pero al final del trago se nota el alcohol y sabor a whisky.
330ml bottle from an Auchan store drinking 22/09/2021 made same year, on a cold day BB 04.2026 Pours a mostly clear slightly opaque chestnut brown with a very thin fast dissipating off-white head and no lacing. Aroma is quite round, warm and pleasant with light roasted malt, nuts and woody, caramel, liqueur, dried fruits raisins and candi sugar.. very nice and quite boozy. Taste is very warm and also sweet, notes of roast, nuts, caramel, raisins and berries, plums, bit sugary and also syrupy, slightly winey.. very boozy but also fruited and pleasantly sweet warms you up also providing great flavour, found it somehow well balanced and terribly easy to drink for the strength, alcohol really well hidden for the 14% abv yet you notice how different and strong it is after some sips, makes you think a bit of liqueur. Full body and syrupy oily texture, slick and sticky with medium carbonation. Boozy sweet finish and very pleasant malt caramel and fruit/raisins aftertaste that lasts long enough. Very good and strong austrian doppelbock, bit pricey but was quite something nice warm and really easy to drink, just on the sweet side but really great i must say.
Bottle via an online peddler. Can’t recall which one. So this is the OG? Could definitely warrant a 500ml can I’d say, for the full effect. Spidery and gluey. Proper bad breath gear. Absolutely no idea what I’m on about. So there’s that.
08.09.2021 - 0.33l bottle in vienna. pours a clear deep golden. aroma of sweet malts, chocolate, toffee. flavour of chocolate, raisins, caramel. dessert beer, very sweet.
Bottle 0,33 ltr: Clear brown orange coloured brew with an sweet taste with an gentle warm burn of alcohol. Hints of toffee, raisin, plum and figs.
Translucent sherry coloured body.
Boozy, malt & caramel aroma.
Chocolate, caramel, toffee, sherry & stewed fruit tastes.
Outstanding!
cheers .
Dark cola brown colour. Very small ring of off-white head. Aroma is caramel, toast, and a little bit of liquorice. Taste is a lot of toffee, some plum. Feels almost syrupy and thick. Boozy finish.
Probably my first Doppelbock ever. Had it in late 2011, most likely bought from Systembolaget. Malty and boozy.
Bevuta in bottiglia. Birra molto alcolica e corposa. Forse un po' troppo liquorosa e dolce finale.
33 cl bottle poured into a Snifter. Vintage 2020. Clear, dark copper colour with a fast fading off-white head. Sweet aroma with caramel malts, blue cheese, a hint of liqourice, overripe red berries, bread and alcohol dense notes. Taste is sweet. Full body with an oily texture. Lasting sweet finish with lingering overripe fruits and blue cheese. Very strong and intense Bock. A good experience
12 oz bottle shared by a friend. Pours golden amber with little to no head. Very strong nose of dark fruit, caramel, toffee, raisins, esters (alcohol) candied sugar... just a divine aroma. Incredibly sweet and alcoholic in taste... this is definitely a desert beer. But, what a mammoth beer! In fact, it seems like another kind of beverage than beer, reminding me of port or sherry, or cognac. Must be sipped to be enjoyed. Good mouthfeel, medium carbonation. Heavy, sticky and a bit cloying are the only detractors. However, a world class event is in this bottle. YUM!
Bottle from Geers. Clear deep amber colour, thin layer of white foam. Nose of raisins, caramel, toffee, dried fruit. Taste is very sweet, candied fruit, vanilla. Alcoholic finish.
2016 vintage 330ml bottle brought in a Dornbirn supermarket in June 2017 on my multi country road trip, cellared since in Jersey. Pours a clear brown with a small white head. Aromas & tastes of caramel, brown sugar, raisins, toffee, dark fruits, bread, nuts, hints of syrup & hints of alcohol. Medium body. Well balanced throughout. Long lingering sweet mildly alcohol finish. Very enjoyable & far better than I expected with the high alcohol reasonably well hidden
330 ml bottle. Pours clear deep amber with no head. Aroma of yeast bread and raisins. Sweet molasses flavors and slight boozy burn.
An aged bottle of a legendary Christmas beer. Chestnut peel color, with a very very thin ivory head. The aroma is strong, complex and pleasant, characterized by scents of molasses, ripe plums, liquor, nuts, balsamic vinegar and vague notes of bitter cocoa, mixed spices, wet topsoil and flowers. The taste is full of molasses/toffee, plums, fortified wine, walnuts, bitter cocoa, pepper, cinnamon and cloves. The body is full and rather oily, the carbonation is poor and the alcohol is present but not disturbing. Summing up, this beer is a very good product, surely not easy to drink and, possibly, characterized by some really minimal defect in the balance of flavors and body, but also very challenging, interesting and capable of giving great satisfactions, especially if left to mature in the bottle.