Altbier

Altbier (German: old beer) is a style of beer brewed in the historical region of Westphalia and around the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Its name comes from it being top-fermented, an older method than the bottom fermentation of other lager beers.

A Diebels Alt

Characteristics

Altbier is usually a dark copper colour. It is fermented at a moderate temperature using a top-fermenting yeast which gives its flavour some fruitiness, but matured at a cooler temperature, which gives it a cleaner and crisper taste more akin to lager beer styles than is the norm for top-fermented beers, such as British pale ale.[1][2]

Altbier in Germany
Schumacher Alt

Altbier is a beer variety strongly associated with the Lower Rhine region and especially in the towns of Düsseldorf, Krefeld and Mönchengladbach Although it remains popular in those towns, its market share elsewhere has been falling and across the North Rhine Westphalia region has dropped below 5%. Elsewhere in Germany very little Alt is sold. The first producer to use the name Alt to contrast its top-fermenting beer with the bottom-fermenting kinds was the Schumacher brewery of Düsseldorf, which opened in 1838.[3]

The market leader in terms of volume sold is Diebels, a brand within the AB InBev brewing empire. Other mass-market brewers of Altbier include the Radeberger Gruppe under the brands Schlösser Alt and Hansa Alt. These are complemented by small breweries, predominantly based in Düsseldorf.

Some Altbier breweries have a tradition of producing a stronger version, Sticke Alt, coming from a local dialect word meaning "secret". Originally a special reserve beer intended for the brewers' own consumption, it is generally a seasonal or special occasion brew and is stronger in taste and alcohol as well as darker than the brewery's standard output.

Producers in Düsseldorf

There are eight bars in Düsseldorf which brew Altbier on the premises:

  • Füchschen[4]
  • Kürzer[5]
  • Schumacher[6]
  • Schlüssel[7]
  • Uerige[8]
  • Alter Bahnhof (Gulasch Alt)[9]
  • Brauhaus Joh Albrecht (Johann Albrecht Alt)[10]

Füchschen, Uerige, Schlüssel and Kürzer are all brewed and sold in the Altstadt (Old Town). Schumacher is between the Altstadt and the main train station (Hauptbahnhof), although it also has a pub in the Altstadt, Im Goldenen Kessel, across the street from Schlüssel.

Each brewpub produces a seasonal "Sticke" variant in small quantities, though the names vary: Schlüssel spells it "Stike", without the "c", while Schumacher calls its special beer "Latzenbier", meaning "slat beer", possibly because the kegs from which it was poured had been stored on raised shelves.[11] Füchschen's seasonal is its Weihnachtsbier (Christmas beer), available in bottles starting mid-November, and served in the brewpub on Christmas Eve.[12]

Producers outside Düsseldorf

Altbier brewed outside Düsseldorf includes that produced by the Diebels brewery in Issum, the Gleumes brewery in Krefeld, the Bolten brewery in Korschenbroich and the Warsteiner brewery in Warstein, which owns the brand "Frankenheim Alt", which was originally brewed in Düsseldorf. The biggest Altbier brewery is located in Krefeld: Former Rhenania brewery, now called Königshofer brewery produces besides their self-labelled Königshofer Alt a variety of different brands including the Carlsberg owned Hannen Alt and Gatzweiler Alt. Altbier is somewhat similar to Cologne's native beer style Kölsch, being warm-fermented at a lower temperature than British ales, and Altbier proper is also brewed in Cologne's smallest brewery "Braustelle" as "Ehrenfelder Alt".[13]

Pinkus Müller brewery in Münster produces an Altbier which is quite different to the Düsseldorf style, being pale and slightly tart.

Outside Germany

Altbier has been produced in the city of Venlo in the Netherlands since at least 1753. Venlo is on the border to Germany approximately 50 km (30 miles) from Düsseldorf. The beer was produced up until the Second World War but then had a hiatus until its revival in 1983. It is produced by the Lindeboom brewery, who bought the recipe in 2001.

Altbier is also brewed in small quantities in Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Liechtenstein, the UK, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa and Brazil.[14]

In 2003, Drayman's Brewery in Pretoria produced what was probably the first commercially available Altbier in South Africa, Düssel Altbier.[15]

Versions of Altbier are brewed in the United States, though not always to traditional recipes.[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]

Kilannan Brewing Company near Owen Sound, Ontario has been brewing an Altbier since 2012. Kilannan also produces a traditional Kölsch. The Creemore Springs brewery in Ontario, Canada celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2012 by producing an Altbier in collaboration with the Schlüssel brewery of Düsseldorf.[25][26]

Dovetail Brewery in Chicago makes a classic version of Alt seasonally to complement their range of German and Continental beers. [27]

Occidental Brewing in Portland, Oregon has been brewing Altbier since 2011.[28]

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See also
  • German beer

References
  1. "Michael Jackson's Beer Hunter - Copper-bottom ales halt lager tide in Germany". Beerhunter.com. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  2. "Düsseldorf Pub Guide: the best beer bars, pubs and brewpubs". Europeanbeerguide.net. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  3. "Düsseldorf Breweries". Europeanbeerguide.net. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  4. Füchschen
  5. Langenfelder sagt (14 January 2011). "Brauerei Kürzer (Altstadt) | My DuesselDorf – Typisch Düsseldorf!". My-duesseldorf.info. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  6. Schumacher
  7. Schlüssel
  8. Uerige
  9. "Home". Brauhaus-alterbahnhof.de. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  10. "Brauhaus Joh. Albrecht". Brauhaus-joh-albrecht.de. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  11. Horst Dornbusch, Altbier. Boulder, CO: Brewers Publications
  12. Fuchschen web page on Weihnachtsbier Archived 2008-01-27 at the Wayback Machine, visited 2007.04.26
  13. "Brauerei/Biere - Helios". Braustelle. Archived from the original on 22 August 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  14. "Azumino Roman Beer Rindou". Archived from the original on 11 January 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2019.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  15. Düssel Altbier Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
  16. "Wild Horse Ale – Bottled, Not Broken". Craft Beer. 7 December 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
  17. "Our Beers". Black Mesa Brewing. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  18. "Our Beers > Alt-eration". Hops and Grain Brewery. Hops Grain LLC. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  19. "Doppel Alt > Our beers". Kansas City Bier Co. KCBC LLC. Archived from the original on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  20. "8th Wonder Brews > Alternate Universe". 8th Wonder Brewery. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  21. "Union Craft Brewing » Balt". unioncraftbrewing.com. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  22. "Beers ⋆ Grimm Brothers Brewhouse".
  23. http://martinhousebrewing.com/the-beer/turtle-power/
  24. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 March 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  25. St. John, Jordan. "Creemore Springs fetes 25 years with new Altbier". QMI Agency. Archived from the original on 10 September 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
  26. https://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/the-competition/winners/
  27. http://dovetailbrewery.com
  28. Andre Meunier | The Oregonian/OregonLive (16 October 2019). "Occidental's bet on German styles pays off as lagers surge: Portland Breweries Series". oregonlive. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
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