Review #15: Purgeist Bavarian Hop
Background: We bought this bottle a few years ago, when were just getting into spirits at the Craft Spirits Carnival in San Francisco. It was the waning minutes of the festival and by that time, we had tried almost everything. Which is in hindsight amateurish. But dang it, we had a good time. This was the bottle we picked out at the end of the fair and I’m not very surprised.
It has a very strong flavor that if you’re palate-fatigued from all the alcohol, is striking. Problem is that alcohol made me forget that I am not a huge beer drinker.
Purgeist Bavarian Hop Whisky Review
- Score - 4/104/10
Overall
Tasting Notes
Nose: Salt and brine immediately hit the nose. There’s a bit of a wet soil and hay quality to it upon deeper inhalation.
Palate: Takes like a nice, high ABV beer to be quite honest. There’s a hint of sweet grapefruit and a long dry chocolate bitter finish with more grapefruit pucker at the end. No heat. But yes, it’s beer alright.
If you like Bavarian light beers, I think you’d enjoy this immensely – even if you might turn up your nose at a “flavored whisky”. It’s not the most complex dram, but it’s true to what it wanted to accomplish.
Overview:
TLDR Tasting Note: “Beer”. Overview: If you like hoppy beer, this is for you.
Bought for: $45/bottle
Quick overview of our scoring system
Additional Information
- Distilled from beer (to be specific: bock-style Bavarian beer) and then flavored with Hallertauer and Spalter Select hops
- 2 years
- Aged in ex-Bourbon and ex-grappa chestnut wood casks
- ABV 42%
About Pur Spirits:
- Focuses on distilling liqueurs
- Their Pur Geist (Purgeist) line aims to revive the older tradition of German distillation of beer into whisky
- Only a few hundred bottles per batch are distilled
- Founded by Kiki Braverman from Bavaria (now located in Berkeley, CA) and headed by master distiller Franz Xaver Salzgeber