May 17, 2000 -- It took a while to get around to it this year, but a few weeks back my wife, Christine, and I were joined by our friends Alastair and Laura Hood for what has become a World of Beer annual event: the vertical tasting of the seasonal Eisbock from Ontario's Niagara Falls Brewing. As ever, there were some surprises along with a disappointment or two.

The Niagara Falls Eisbock is a true eisbock, fully brewed and fermented before being concentrated via a process that involves the beer being chilled until its water content begins to form into ice. When the ice is removed, the beer gains in both flavour concentration and alcohol content. The strength is kept relatively modest for the eisbock style, which can reach highs of 12-20%, and its 8% alcohol by volume means that the Niagara Eisbock has some but not unlimited aging potential.

The vintages tasted this year were as follows: 1993, Eisbock Gold (the 1994 vintage conditioned in the tank for an extra year and further concentrated to 8.6% alcohol by volume prior to release in 1995), 1996, 1997 and Eisbock 2000, this past winter's millennium edition.

The most recent Eisbock was the first sampled during our tasting, and it brought both good news and bad. On the plus side, this is one of the most purely drinkable Eisbocks ever, with a relatively dry character and little evidence of its significant alcohol. The bad news is that due to this same lack of sweetness, I suspect that it will not age very well at all. (Residual sweetness is a must for a filtered beer to develop over time.) Also disappointing is the minimal complexity of the millennium edition.

Going backwards in time, the next up was the 1997 version. This vintage offered a slightly more complex character, with a toasty, toffee-ish nose carrying hints of licorice, and slightly roasty, nutty body. Much enjoyed by all, my take was that while it had matured and dried noticeably over its two-and-a-half years of life -- the beer is traditionally released in the fall of the vintage year -- the basic flavours had remained largely unchanged.

Still impressively sweet after more than three years in the cellar, the 1996 demonstrated very good structure and body with just an ever-so-faint hint of oxidization. The peachiness of the aroma contrasted well with the raisin and date notes of the finish, inspiring me to note that the beer demonstrated very good progress from aroma to body to finish.

Oddly for the beer with the greatest alcohol, the Gold was the most oxidized. (Although perhaps this had to do with a loss of sugars during its extra year of conditioning.) Some chocolate notes were in evidence, as well as hints of orange peel, but overall the beer was not pleasant to drink. Everybody dumped their glass.

The most delightful surprise of the night came in the form of the 1993 Eisbock, which was not only in excellent condition after six-and-a-half years in the cellar, but had also developed extremely well. The nose was soft, dry and faintly fruity, with just a hint of fragrant blueberry, while the body began with a light, still fruity sweetness and progressed into an off-dry character holding notes of spice, tanned leather and dark chocolate. The short but tasty finish carried dry, whisky-ish notes.

Following this tasting, I am prompted to re-evaluate my earlier position that Eisbock will age for a maximum of five or so years. In fact, I am looking forward to next year and tasting how the 1993 handles a full seven years.

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