Brewery: Schloss Eggenberg
Location: Vorchdorf, Austria
ABV: 14.0%
Version: Bottled
Source: Joshua Brooks, Manchester

After a top-notch curry with a few friends (at Manchester’s EastZEast) on Saturday night, we opted for a quick schlepp across the road to the Joshua Brooks rather than the longer trek up the road and around the corner to The Bull’s Head. We nearly paid the price with our hearing: the place was playing music at ear-bleed levels. But there was a drop of consolation to be had behind the bar in the form of bottles of Samichlaus (“Santa Claus”) Bier.

This Austrian brew declares itself to be “one of the rarest beer specialities in the world” and at 14% abv, one of the strongest of its kind. It’s only brewed once per year, on December 6th, and is matured for 10 months before bottling. Apparently you can store and mature this stuff for ages, but the one I sampled was the 2008 bottling, which means it was brewed on Dec 6th 2007, so mine was a relatively young version.

I have to admit that the initial blast of alcohol and sugar was almost overpowering (a couple of the other guys in our party took a sip and could take no more) but once you let your palate adjust and the beer breathe a little, it calms down to something that’s much easier to get along with. There’s still a huge hit of strident caramel and toffee, certainly, but what struck me after the third or fourth swallow was a distinct apple-tartness and a faint acidity that balanced out some of the sweetness.

All in all I’m definitely glad I experienced it and whilst it isn’t something I’d necessarily want to drink more than one measure of at a time, I might be tempted to get a bottle in for next Xmas. And I’d definitely like to try one that’s been maturing for a while. Maybe the 2003 vintage (pictured) might be a good bet. Six years’ worth of flavour development ought to make things interesting.