I received my Beer of the Month selections yesterday, and I was pleased to find a beer inside that goes perfectly with Spring Beer Week: Eisenbahn Vigorosa, an “Unfiltered Wheat Doublebock” (really a Weizenbock) from Cervejaria SudBrack which is located in Brazil.

I hadn’t yet heard of this brewery; according to Shelton Brothers (who are importing Vigorosa), they have become the largest craft brewery in Brazil in only three years. So far, I’m impressed: of the only two other Brazilian beers I’ve had, I really disliked one of them.

This Vigorosa seems to be the USA-exported version of their main Weizenbock here; they’re 8% alcohol by volume and brewed to the fruity, estery style of German wheat beers—only in Bock format!

Appearance: Cloudy and brown, with a finely-bubbled cappuccino head.

Smell: Bubblegum, banana, very pleasantly sweet. Not much else.

Taste: Sweet and ripe banana up front, reminds me of banana bread. Prickly sweet character of something I can’t quite put my finger on… dates, maybe. A touch of molasses. A sour-ish note that seems to be typical of the style (that of dark weizens).

Mouthfeel: Lively in the mouth from being unfiltered, and medium-bodied.

Overall: Technically well brewed, tasty and unusual (for what I normally drink).

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.54 out of 5 and is in their 86th percentile.