Eibauer Schwarzbier
 

Review Date 10/6/2025  By John Staradumsky

  Style: Schwarzbier   Brewery: Eibauer   Country: Germany   State: N/A   $ Per OZ: $.15 (B)   ABV: 4.5%

They’re back! That is, the Biergarten Collection gift boxes from Webster Barnes are back for 2025. You can get them at Costco stores in many states, and I have been haunting my local Costco in Woodstock, Georgia every weekend in September looking for them. Finally, I saw them September 19^th and one went straight into my cart.

Now, I had been buying a Kalea Beer Advent calendar every year, filled as they are with wonderful German brews. The 2023 calendar was the last sold in US Costco stores as far as I know. I picked up the 2024 Biergarten Collection the following year, and got one again this year. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get both? I would be in Himmel, I can tell you.

I did purchase a 2024 Biergarten collection, and you can rest assured that the 2025 box has many new beers plus a few returning favorites. I was so happy to see Georg Rittmayer Rauchbier once again this year.

Twofer! Today’s my lucky day because I get a twofer! That’s because I just drank my can of Eibauer Schwarzbier that I got in the 2024 Biergarten Collection. I know, I know I was late drinking it, but not that late. My can says P 07/05 2024 E 07/11/2025, so yes it is a little over a year old, but I only drank it a few months past the date the brewery suggests it be consumed by. Schwarzbiers usually hold up well, too, so there is that. It’s a Twofer, though, because this beer is also included in the 2025 Biergarten Collection, so this review covers both calendars.

Webster Barnes says this about the brewery:

Even today, the St. Marienthaler Klosterbräu is a very special monastery beer. On behalf of the St. Marienthal Monastery, it is brewed according to the old, traditional monastery recipe of the Cistercian monastery by the private brewery Eibau i. Sa. And even with the first sip, you can feel: This is a beer that brings old times back to life.

Eibauer Schwarzbier has an alcohol content of 4.5% by volume and I paid $59.99 for the 24-pack box, so $2.50 per half liter can. That is not a bad deal at all. I was expecting these to cost more this year, but happily that was not the case.

Eibauer Schwarzbier pours to a dark brownish black but not opaque color with a thick creamy tan head and a nose of deep roasted malts. Taking a sip, the beer is medium in body I might like a little more of that, but only just a little more. The beer is roasty, clean dry malty and ends bitter roasty with a gentle hop bitterness as well.

Other beers in this collection:

Georg Rittmayer Rauchbier

Eibauer ST. M Hefeweizen