The comment I posted this morning on my FB page about B:CRYO, the new product of Budějovický Budvar came out a bit negative, and perhaps not very fair.
B:CRYO is, basically, an Eisbock. According to the video you can see in the above linked website, it was created by an accident (where have I heard that one before?) that resulted in one of Budvar's regular beers being cryoconcentrated (I like that much better than “cold-distilled”, it's a lot more accurate) to 21% ABV (which makes it hard alcohol, legally speaking)
The product, which took two years to develop, will be of very limited availability—only at a few selected pubs—and is served in a rather strange fashion (you have to look at the video to understand it, and yes, that bottle is plastic).
As a consumer, this is not the kind of thing I can find interesting. Firstly because of the price—Pivní.info mentions 300-400CZK for 0.3l, which is a lot more than I'm willing to pay for, basically, a glass of booze at the moment, octanes notwithstanding. Secondly because of its limited availability—I don't want to go to a specific pub just for a novelty product. And thirdly, because they way it's served is way too gimmicky for my taste (I wonder how much of the price goes into that “ritual”), and I don't like attracting that sort of attention at a pub.
As a keen observer of the local beer market, on the other hand, B:CRYO is pretty interesting. It's the first beer of its kind in this country, and it's not the product of one of the progressive micro-breweries that have appeared in recent years, but it comes from one of the biggest, and perhaps most conservative, breweries in the country, that also happens to be state owned.
Whether this Eisbock turns out to be a good thing or not, I leave others to decide. I can't evaluate it one way or another until I've drunk it, and chances are that I won't. But if you happen to come across it, with a few hundred Crowns to spare, let me know it went.
Na Zdraví!
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