Recently, I traveled to Fort Mill, South Carolina (right outside Charlotte) on business. In the course of my travels I stopped in Greeneville and hit the local Total Wine. With all the wonderful craft brewers in North and South Carolina these days, you’d think I would have headed straight for the local craft beers, but I didn’t. No, this being the year of the 500^th Anniversary of the German Reinheitsgebot beer purity law, I went to the German beer section instead.

Don’t worry, I did pick up plenty of local craft beers, but I was very excited indeed to spy gleaming half liter bottles of Reutberger Kloster-Beer Josefi Bock. I had never tried this beer before and I of course love bocks and German beer in general more than any other beers in the world.

The label of my bottle is proudly adorned with the year 1677, the date when the nuns (yes nuns) of Kloster Reutberg in Sachsenkam, Oberbayern (Bavaria) got the right to brew beer for their personal consumption. In 1924, a partnership with a local brewing outfit allowed greater production, and since then and today, their beer is available for all of us to enjoy, or at least those of us lucky enough to find it. You can get the full story at the brewery website from which I translate here.

Reutberger Kloster-Beer Josefi Bock is a Maibock made with half pale and half dark malt according to the brewery. It is named for St. Joseph, patron saint of the Reutberg Kloster nuns. The brewery claim this is one of the longest lagered beers in the world at 12 to 16 weeks of cold aging. I paid $5.99 for a half-liter bottle. The label says “Kuhl und dunkel lagern”; they’re telling you to store in a cool and dark place. There is a section of the label where a best by date belongs but my bottle has none stamped.

Reutberger Kloster-Beer Josefi Bock pours to a pale amber color with a thick creamy head of foam and a sweet toasted malt and herbal hop nose. Taking a sip, the beer has sweet toasty malt up front from the dark malts, is slightly candyish, with a hint of cooked corn I find common to the style. The rich smooth maltiness permeates the beer and is balanced in the finish with a balancing kiss of grassy herbal hop bitterness.

Yes, this is a pricey beer, but that price would not stop me from buying it again. This beer is a malty delight and a pure pleasure to sip, but the hops are not lost here either. A fantastic example of the style from the land that birthed it, Reutberger Kloster-Beer Josefi Bock should not be missed.



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