Gordon Biersch has always been one of my favorite craft brewers. Their beer styles have always appealed to me, and the garlic fries at their restaurants? Well, let’s just say that because of their garlic fries, I’ve spent a few nights sleeping on the couch. But I digress; this rant is about beer, not garlic fries. I’m well-versed on beer, but I’d never heard of Weizeneisbock nor had I ever seen a beer in a 750 milliliter bottle. So while I had to pack for a flight to France, I just couldn’t keep myself from trying this before I left. It was too intriguing.

Weizeneisbock has an interesting backstory. As the story goes, a lazy brewer at the Kulmbach Brewery in Germany forgot some kegs of bock beer outside during the coldest days of winter. The cold temperatures froze the water out of the beer, concentrating and intensifying both the flavor and the alcohol in the beer. Now, don’t try this at home. I had some college experiments with forgotten and ultimately frozen cheap beers, and the results are terrible. Understand that these are brewers who actually know what they are doing, so while the story sounds simple, it’s probably much more complex than they let on.

Anyway, Gordon Biersch is recreating this style of beer in the United States, using state of the art technology to freeze molecules of water out of the beer during the brewing process. The result is a beer that is 10 percent ABV, unfiltered, carbonated, and delicious.

I’m not going to give a full review here; instead, I’m going to suggest that you make an effort to find this strong, dark wheat beer if you love good beer. It’s well-worth the search, and they are only releasing 3500 cases at an MSRP of $8.99. Gordon Biersch even had to go to Germany to import the bottles for this beer; no one makes 750 milliliter beer bottles here in the States. To make things even harder, only nine states will get any of this beer, including California, Florida, and Nevada. So, call a friend there, or look online. Buy a few bottles as collector’s items. This is a beer you won’t want to miss when it releases in October.

Disclosure: I received a sample of this product from Gordon Biersch for review. No other compensation from Gordon Biersch was received.