From synchro!judge-request at uu6.psi.com Sun Feb 13 06:44:54 1994 Received: from uu6.psi.com by goodman.itn.med.umich.edu with SMTP id AA03098 (5.65b/IDA-1.4.3 for spencer at hendrix.itn.med.umich.edu); Sun, 13 Feb 94 06:44:49 -0500 Received: from synchro.UUCP by uu6.psi.com (5.65b/4.0.071791-PSI/PSINet) via UUCP; id AA01830 for ; Sun, 13 Feb 94 06:14:54 -0500 Received: by synchro.com (smail2.5) id AA01232; 13 Feb 94 05:11:39 EST (Sun) Reply-To: judge at synchro.com (JudgeNet) Errors-To: judge-request at synchro.com Precedence: bulk Message-Id: <9402130511.AA01232 at synchro.com> From: judge-request at synchro.com (JudgeNet Administrator) To: judge-recipients at synchro.com (JudgeNet Recipients) Subject: JudgeNet Digest #690 (Feb 13, 1994) Date: 13 Feb 94 05:11:39 EST (Sun) JudgeNet Digest #690 Sun 13 Feb 1994 THE BEER JUDGE DIGEST Chuck Cox , digest administrator Michael Hall , archive administrator digest submissions ONLY to judge at synchro.com ALL administrative requests to judge-request at synchro.com FTP archive information in /pub/judge/README on cygnus.ta52.lanl.gov Sponsored by SynchroSystems and the Riverside Garage & Brewery Contents: Alt tasting session in Denver ("Roger Deschner ") Re: Al's Alt Post (Rick Garvin (703-761-6630)) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 09:17:44 CST From: "Roger Deschner " Subject: Alt tasting session in Denver Now here's an idea I can begin to get behind. But *ONLY* if we could somehow get a keg of actual Zum Ueriege flown over, because this is clearly the most outstanding example of the style - the only Altbier which Michael Jackson gives "****" to. This would be difficult, though, because Zum Ueriege puts its beer up in wooden kegs, and a full, wooden keg of beer would probably give an airline the willies - although it would REALLY be something special to have it at this proposed tasting. So let's say our agents in Dusseldorf transfer it into something made of stainless for shipping. Yeah, you could MAYBE also bring in your St. Stan's, Widmer, and whatnot, but remember that "broadly in the style" means that it hits the target like hitting the broad side of a barn. If you can get the real thing, these others will be obvious for what they are: weak, sweet, WIMPY. It would be interesting for some of us who have had the real thing to try to brew a proper Altbier and bring it. Despite the obvious difficulty and cost, it would be worth it: 1) It would introduce a major group of judges and homebrewers to the magic of this great style. I've complained, "nobody has tasted it!" OK, now they could. 2) (selfish) I'd get to have some. I haven't had a good Altbier since those early batches of Widmer, when they actually were trying to make a faithful copy of Zum Ueriege. 3) Perhaps, when enough people taste Alt as it was meant to be, they'll imitate it here in the U.S., and we'll finally have some decent domestic Altbiers to enjoy. I'll get to drink more of it without buying airline tickets. We could also cover Kolsch, although it is less of a problem. I've had good American-made Kolsches, including some excellent homebrewed ones. Odd, that Kolsch is becoming properly understood and made, while Alt remains an enigma to most Americans. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 13:20:25 -0500 (EST) From: btg!rgarvin at uunet.UU.NET (Rick Garvin (703-761-6630)) Subject: Re: Al's Alt Post I hesitated to jump into the Alt thread. I too have been to Dusseldorf (twice) and have partaken of this splendid beverage. The interesting thing is that each homebrew house AND each large brewer brew a distinctly different beer. Contrary to the oft repeated AHA description, the classic Zum Uerige version is dry and bitter with a spicy hop flavor. The malt comes through, I beleive, because of the low ester content and the cold aging. If I were to come up with a spec for this beer I would approximate: 1.048-1.056, 40-55 IBUs and 12-17 SRM. The color is more brown than red. What examples for a tasting? Well, both Zum Uerige and Im Fuchen have off sale in pretty swing top bottles. I was at a meeting with Phil Seitz this week to plan the DC "Spirit of Free Beer" competition where we teased him about all of the people that he knows that have been to Dusseldorf and know the style. Maybe in Chicago or San Francisco there are not too many. But in Washington, DC it is easy to scare up three people to judge Alts that have "been there, done that." And that is just what we have done for HWBTA and SoFB. > Furthermore, I think this should be an annual event. A different style > each year. If we start filling 250seat banquet rooms, we can start shipping > in Real Ale from Burton-on-Trent and casks of Faro from Lembeek!!! Hear, hear. Sounds like Al is volunteering to be our import/export agent! Cheers, Rick ------------------------------ End of JudgeNet Digest ************************