Eisbock is a subcategory of the classic bock beer and, if you believe the legend that is common in Franconia, goes back to a coincidence. There is a popular tale that says an apprentice brewer was tasked with tidying up some casks. It was supposed to be a particularly cold night, so the trainee was asked to clear the bock beer from the courtyard and into the warm cellar. Beer kegs are big and heavy, so the young man decided to postpone the task to the next day and call it a day. The next morning, the master brewer was horrified to discover that the beer in the kegs had frozen overnight. To teach the lazy apprentice a lesson and prevent future missteps, the brewer decided that the careless lout should take a few hearty sips of the supposedly tainted beer. The student did as he was told. However, the beer hadn’t gone bad: the freezing process had reduced the water content in the beer and created a higher-proof essence of the bock.
To this day, beer is deliberately frozen to achieve this exact effect.
For this purpose, the Rittmayer brewery uses its wonderfully well-balanced Aischbüffel to further refine it by means of cold. At the end there is an exquisite beer for special moments.
Brauerei Rittmayer
