The beers of Iwakuni: Eggenberg Castle brewery's Samichlaus classic, and the Space Force!

This is from one of Hilgar's poarchbomb. It is Samichlaus classic by the Eggenberg Castle brewery of Vorchdorf, Austria. I'm going to break down this timeline Barney style because we have some of the longest history and the most aggressively Austrian names that have been on this blog (though I feel like we've been through this before). Sometime in pre-recorded history a settlement began in what is now upper Austria and would eventually become the town of Vorchdorf (which today has a population of about 7k). Fast forward about 3000 years to the year 971 where Schloss Eggenberg (not to be confused with the Schloss Eggenberg of Graz) was built to protect it. Two hundred years later brewing operations began at the castle (likely by local monks), and about 380 years later in 1681 Micheal Weizmann purchased the brewing operation from the monastery at Kremsmünster and went commercial with it. The town would change hands several times over the centuries, particularly during the Napoleonic wars which started around the time the family Forstinger-Stöhr purchased the brewery in 1803. While Napoleon ceased to own anything after his imprisonment on the island of St.Helena off the coast of Africa in 1815 and eventual death in 1821, the family Forstinger-Stöhr owns and operates the Schloss Eggenberg Brauerei to this day. While they make a number of beers, their most famous is tonight's Sanichlaus (Santa clause). Named so because it is only produced on December 6th (the feast of Saint Nicholas), it is Lagered for a full ten months before bottling. Needles to say being brewed only one day a year and being nearly a year old by the time it hits shelves makes this a very difficult beer to get a hold of and I cannot thank Chris enough for having sent it to the other side of the Earth for me. Anyways, this beer has it's own story and it all starts with Hürlmann brauerie. Albert Hürlmann started his brewery in 1836 and had a keen interest in yeast, which lead to him becoming a world renowned expert in the subject and his business being at the forefront of yeast technology. The brewery became know for making beer with extremely high alcohol content and on December 6th 1979 they made an unprecedented strong brew that would be ready for sale the next Christmas season. When it was finished in October of 1980 it came in at a whopping 14% Alcohol by volume, making it the strongest beer in the world. Samichlaus would maintain that title until 1992 when the Boston Beer Company (Sam Addams) would usurp it with their Tripple Bock which came in at 17.1%. Hürlmann brauerie would continue to brew Samichlaus until they merged with Feldschlösschen brauerie in 1996. In 2000 after Feldschlösschen was acquired by Carlsburg group, the production of the beer was licensed to Scloss Eggenberg Brauerei and is currently brewed with the original recipe in collaboration with the original Hürlmann brewers. While it's worlds strongest beer crown was taken long ago, it is still considered a world class beer. In fact, the 2004 vintage won the gold for aged beer in the 2012 world beer cup. At about 8 years, this beer peaks at about the end of most similar beers shelf lives (most strong beer peaks at about 5). Tonight's is a 2014, which means it would hit it's peak in 2022. As much as I would love to let it sit for another five years, my time here in Japan is rapidly coming to an end and I would not want to subject it to the stress of unrefrigerated international shipping again. At 3 years, 6 months, and 19 days old this should be just fine though. Man do I love exact production dates.

This beer came to me in a 11.2 FL.OZ longneck bottle with crimpcap. The silver trimmed black neck label is collared to cover part of the cap and features the name of the brewery "Schloss Eggenberg". The front label art is a similar silver on black and features a small picture of Saint Nicholas with the vintage year and declares it's self "Samichlaus classic" "The world's most extraordinary beverage" "Product of Austria" "Malt Liquor". You don't usually associate quality beer with the term "malt liquor", but legally that is what this is. In the United States malt liquor is any Lager beer with an ABV above 5.5-6%, so long as it is made with ingredients that legally make it beer and the alcohol is derived by brewing and isn't added separately, which would make it fortified beer. On the shoulder is the name of the brewery "Schloß Eggenberg" (yes with an eszett) embossed. On the rear of the label the brewery describes their beer "Brewed only once a year on December 6. Samiclaus is aged for 10 months before bottling. This speciallty is perhaps the rarest in the world. Samiclaus may be aged for many years to come. Older vintages become more complex with a creamy warming finish. Brewed and bottled by Castle Brewery Eggenberg, Vorchdorf - Austria". I will be using one of my Delerium tulip glasses for this beer.

Nose from the bottle is a pungent molasses cookie, banana bread, figgy, pickled cherry nose with alcohol esters. Head is creamy but quickly dissipating, agitation is low, color is a stained cherry wood. Nose from the glass is similar to the bottle but more fruity, the alcohol very much makes it's presence known now that it's been released from it's three and a half year prison. On first sip, It starts as fruity molasses bread, then goes to a thick applejack and then ends with a boozy sweet fruit cake finish and boozy cherry and date aftertaste. It's flavor is very much sherry like. It has a medium body with medium acidity and one hell of a warming feeling. Happy feast of St. Nicolas indeed!

Listening to the Rocky IV soundtrack in honor of the decade where this beer reigned supreme. So anyway, congress wants a space force. I'm not going to comment on the politics of it (this is an officially apolitical blog), but the militarization of space is something that has fascinated me since I was a child. A space force could be not only focused on outer space, but cyberspace as well, which would certainly ease the burden for both of those things for the other services. The creation of a new specific force for those things would also allow you to have a different rank structure and recruitment process that would stomp out this notion of having civilians enter services like the Marine Corps or the Navy as E-6's without going through the same boot camp as everyone else. I know it's hard to understand from the outside, but it would be extremely problematic for good order and discipline to have someone in charge of you that did not go through the indoctrination of boot camp, whether officer or enlisted. Now, the reason I say the Space Force should take care of both is because cyber security and near space are tethered together like twins on the same umbilical cord, compromising one would horribly compromise the other. If we lost communication satellites or if they were destroyed or the facilities that made contact with them were compromised we would have one hell of a problem, so having a military command that defends that infrastructure specifically would be fantastic. Hell, depending on how it goes we could get rid of the NSA and maybe good chunk of the Air force, Army, and Navy. And on top of all that we could put them to work solving some of our near space problems, like the growing problem with space junk or how to defend a satellite from attack. You could have them operate attack satellites and other near space defensive infrastructure that could also generate part of their budget by repairing private satellites or destroying outdated ones (hopefully by pushing them into the earth). The space junk problem is really big right now and we need to do something about it sooner rather than later, it's becoming a tragedy of the commons situation.

Final thoughts. What an exultant beer! Seek this one out, let it sit for a couple of years, and then have it on a special occasion! I'm not saying get shmamered in front of your family at a holiday gathering, but that's exactly what I'm saying. You should get swifty in front of your siblings kids and rant about the militarization of space and killer robots like me! I very much give this beer my blurry seal of approval.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggenberg_Castle,_Vorchdorf
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorchdorf
 http://www.realbeer.com/library/beerbreak/archives/beerbreak20020214.php
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCrlimann_Brewery