Beer Man: 18 weizenbock is rich, savory delight

Beer Man is a weekly profile of beers from across the country and around the world.

This week: Eighteen Weizenbock

Weyerbacher Brewing Co., Easton, Pa.

http://weyerbacher.com/

I can't think of many better ways for a brewery to celebrate its 18th anniversary than to produce a stunningly strong 11.1% weizenbock beer.

Weizenbock is one of those styles that seems to have a lot of leeway, at least in practice. Essentially strong German-style weiss (wheat) beers, they can simply be a stronger weiss or a strong weiss with some dark malts added, which would differentiate it from a weaker-strength dunkel weiss.

Weyerbacher states that the best classification for Eighteen would be a weizendoppelbock. Whew — that is almost like the numerous words the Eskimos use for different types of snow.

Eighteen makes bold use of its bock addition, as its brown color indicates upon pouring. The familiar weiss aromas of banana and cloves were immediately apparent. It didn't have the huge head associated with the weiss style, but this attribute is common to most high-alcohol beers.

The flavor is delicious with a lot going on. It does taste like a doppelbock, with caramel and chocolate notes, and some date flavor. But then you also get the character of the banana-fruity weiss with some vanilla and honey character.

As flavorful as Eighteen was, however, what really stood out was the richness of its body. It's like the difference between super-fine chocolates such as Lindt or Scharffen Berger and mass-produced chocolates with their cardboard-flavored background. Another bonus is the creamy mouthfeel.

Sitting next to Eighteen on the store shelf was Weyerbacher's Quad Belgian-style quadruple ale, which turned out to be a nice tasting companion. This poured with a small head and the body was a light brown with orange hues. Like the Eighteen, the aroma was strong with banana, but also freshly baked bread and bubblegum.

The flavor and body also were rich, with more of a ! toffee taste to the malts, and cherries, dates, raisins, pears, vanilla and honey. It has a bit lower carbonation, which is typical for the style, and more of that good Weyerbacher creamy mouthfeel. Its 11.8% ABV was more noticeable at the finish than the Eighteen; again, common with the style.

Weyerbacher is available in Washington, D.C., and 18 states, mostly east of the Mississippi River. A distributor list is available here.

Many beers are available only regionally. Check the brewer's website, which often contains information on product availability. Contact Todd Haefer at beerman@postcrescent.com. To read previous Beer Man columns Click here.