My Lenten Exception
Written: Apr 19 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Immense and authentic German malt character.
Cons: Importer needs to push it into the market more.
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| beerfly's Full Review: Weltenburger Kloster Asam-Bock |
Take your shoes off when you drink this beer; you're walking on holy ground. Weltenburger Kloster is the oldest monastic brewery in the world. There are records of brewing at the monastery going back to 1050 AD. With the exception of the Napoleonic-enforced secularization of the monastery (1803-1846), this has been a monastic brewery for 950 years. Those slackers in Belgium have only been at it for around 150 years!
I was introduced to Weltenburger by a friend who lives in LA, which happens to be where the beer's U.S. importer, Morandell, is located. Rick's been drinking Weltenburger's great beers for years now, the lucky sap. But now I've found a source: Beers of the World, near Rochester, NY, sells them (BOTW is also near my brother-in-law, which works out well for me!).
On to the review! The Asam-Bock (named for the builder who did major restoration work on the monastery in 1716) is called a doppelbock by Morandell, but at 6.5% ABV it's on the low end of that scale. It would make a ripping good bock, so that's how I see it, and I suspect, with that name, the monks do too. It pours into the glass with a color like highly polished cherrywood, a color that says to me, "malt, nice, juicy, German malt."
I love it when I'm right! Mmmm, sweet, mmmmm, chewy, mmmmmmmmalt! This big bad boy has got the classic German malt character (which very few American brewers have mastered), a sweet-yet-dry sensation that never is cloying, yet manages to fill the mouth. Oh, yeah. There's a lot going on in this glass.
People say lager beers are boring, one-dimensional, pure in essence and single-minded. Fools. This stuff is turning somersaults in my mouth, going from cookie-sweet to a cut of anise to a hint of dark, sticky, overripe plum or date. I've come to expect this kind of 'overdrive' malt character from bocks and doppelbocks, an effect of intense malt character that shifts the malt into high and produces weirdly ale-like esters. I call it 'curdled' malt, though that gives an impression of something gone wrong. It ain't wrong, it's very right.
I want goulash with this, hearty sausages (not garlic, though, that would not be good unless it were in a soup), even game. Big food, but not spicy food. A weeping radish would be good, the big German white radishes sliced spiral-cut with salt on it. And of course, now, during Lent, I'm looking at my supply of Asam-Bock (ever-dwindling!) and thinking, hmmmm, fast day coming up, I can make it through the day with some of this 'liquid bread...'
Mmmmm, Lord, this is good. If people can find the grace and presence of God in a soaring cathedral or a Mozart requiem, I can find it here. Truly, this is inspired beer.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
beerfly
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Member: Lew Bryson
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Reviews written: 88
Trusted by: 79 members
About Me:
One bourbon, one Scotch, one beer, eh? I'll take Kentucky Spirit, Scapa, and HopDevil.
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