Subject: Digest for the period 10/29/2003 - 10/30/2003 Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 01:01:52 -0500 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Altbier ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: George de Piro Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 23:40:23 -0500 Subject: Altbier Hi all, I recently visited Düsseldorf and sampled the local beers, and toured one of the breweries. The flavor of Altbier was quite different from what I expected, since I was looking for what the BJCP style guidelines dictate: strong Munich malt flavor. First, there was an obvious quality difference between the four Düsseldorf brewpubs. In my opinion, Schumacher und Schlüssel were inferior to Uerige and Fuecshen (I liked Im Fuecshen best). The first two were not as cleanly brewed as the latter ones. The beer at Zum Uerige is intensely bitter, with a clean aroma and not a whole lot of malt character to back up that bitterness. In fact, I doubt if any Munich malt is in that beer. As a professional brewer that uses a *lot* of Munich malt, I'm certain that I know its flavor. The bottles from Zum Uerige list only barley malt, caramel malt, and roasted malt on their label.. Its color and flavor are consistent with the malts listed. The beer at Im Fücshen is more balanced: a light hop aroma, otherwise clean, with a soft malt palate leading into a mildly bitter finish; a quite drinkable beer suitable for long sessions. Since I toured the brewery, I know for a fact that there is *no* Munich malt at all in this beer, just pilsner (Durst) and Weyermann cara, sauer, and roast malts. It gets only one hop charge, which is first wort. I was impressed by the amount of hop aroma that survived. I noted the hop aroma prior to the informative tour. This was the first time in my beery existence that I got to taste a first wort hop beer completely blind to the fact that it was first wort hopped. Quite educational! (Of course, the Koelsch I just made at work displays no hop aroma despite the fact that I only first wort hopped it. Hmmm.) Bottles, obtained at Im Fuecschen and Zum Uerige, were not indicative of the flavor of the draft beer available on premises. Im Fuecschen, in particular, suffered in the bottle, with heavy oxidative flavors like honey and tofee (not diacetyl, though). Uerige is better from the bottle, but even when kept cold, bottles nearing the one month expiration are quite a bit more estery than the Bier vom Fass. In conclusion: Munich malt character is absent, and indeed, malt character in general, is secondary to the hop bitterness in this style. Only Uerige is intensely bitter, the other 3 breweries producing more balanced products.. Bottles from any of the breweries are not quite like drinking at the source.. In the case of Im Fuecschen, this is easily explained by the brewing and packaging procedures: the beer is served VERY young on premises (2 weeks old on average) and the bottled product is put into a truck and sent to a bottling plant. The amount of beer transfers seems to encourage air pick-up, and there is substantial hot side aeration in the brewhouse. I propose that the BJCP guidelines be changed to omit the line amount Munich malt being a must in this style, seeing as it just isn't true. As a brewer, I think that any of these beers would become more interesting by including a generous amount of Munich malt, but since the Düsseldorfers don't do it, the guidelines should reflect reality. Have fun! George de Piro Head Brewer, C.H. Evans Brewing Company at the Albany Pump Station 19 Quackenbush Square Albany, NY, USA 12207 (518)447-9000 www.EvansAle.com Brewers of Kick-Ass Brown: Twice declared the Best American Brown Ale in the USA at the Great American Beer Festival (2000 & 2002)! ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** Subject: Digest for the period 10/29/2003 - 10/30/2003 Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 01:01:52 -0500 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Altbier ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: George de Piro Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 23:40:23 -0500 Subject: Altbier Hi all, I recently visited Düsseldorf and sampled the local beers, and toured one of the breweries. The flavor of Altbier was quite different from what I expected, since I was looking for what the BJCP style guidelines dictate: strong Munich malt flavor. First, there was an obvious quality difference between the four Düsseldorf brewpubs. In my opinion, Schumacher und Schlüssel were inferior to Uerige and Fuecshen (I liked Im Fuecshen best). The first two were not as cleanly brewed as the latter ones. The beer at Zum Uerige is intensely bitter, with a clean aroma and not a whole lot of malt character to back up that bitterness. In fact, I doubt if any Munich malt is in that beer. As a professional brewer that uses a *lot* of Munich malt, I'm certain that I know its flavor. The bottles from Zum Uerige list only barley malt, caramel malt, and roasted malt on their label.. Its color and flavor are consistent with the malts listed. The beer at Im Fücshen is more balanced: a light hop aroma, otherwise clean, with a soft malt palate leading into a mildly bitter finish; a quite drinkable beer suitable for long sessions. Since I toured the brewery, I know for a fact that there is *no* Munich malt at all in this beer, just pilsner (Durst) and Weyermann cara, sauer, and roast malts. It gets only one hop charge, which is first wort. I was impressed by the amount of hop aroma that survived. I noted the hop aroma prior to the informative tour. This was the first time in my beery existence that I got to taste a first wort hop beer completely blind to the fact that it was first wort hopped. Quite educational! (Of course, the Koelsch I just made at work displays no hop aroma despite the fact that I only first wort hopped it. Hmmm.) Bottles, obtained at Im Fuecschen and Zum Uerige, were not indicative of the flavor of the draft beer available on premises. Im Fuecschen, in particular, suffered in the bottle, with heavy oxidative flavors like honey and tofee (not diacetyl, though). Uerige is better from the bottle, but even when kept cold, bottles nearing the one month expiration are quite a bit more estery than the Bier vom Fass. In conclusion: Munich malt character is absent, and indeed, malt character in general, is secondary to the hop bitterness in this style. Only Uerige is intensely bitter, the other 3 breweries producing more balanced products.. Bottles from any of the breweries are not quite like drinking at the source.. In the case of Im Fuecschen, this is easily explained by the brewing and packaging procedures: the beer is served VERY young on premises (2 weeks old on average) and the bottled product is put into a truck and sent to a bottling plant. The amount of beer transfers seems to encourage air pick-up, and there is substantial hot side aeration in the brewhouse. I propose that the BJCP guidelines be changed to omit the line amount Munich malt being a must in this style, seeing as it just isn't true. As a brewer, I think that any of these beers would become more interesting by including a generous amount of Munich malt, but since the Düsseldorfers don't do it, the guidelines should reflect reality. Have fun! George de Piro Head Brewer, C.H. Evans Brewing Company at the Albany Pump Station 19 Quackenbush Square Albany, NY, USA 12207 (518)447-9000 www.EvansAle.com Brewers of Kick-Ass Brown: Twice declared the Best American Brown Ale in the USA at the Great American Beer Festival (2000 & 2002)! ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * **********************************************************************