Alt Bier

We’ve brewed our way through many of the beer styles in Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer over the years but one we have not tried until recently is Alt Bier. This is a bit strange because alt bier is an old German style (hence the name, “old beer”) which is a rich and malty ale with low hopping and fermented at ale temperatures (ie warm). You would think we’d have done that long ago – right up Andy’s street (apart from perhaps some of “those nasty continental malts”!). I think the reason is probably down to the effort involved in getting the correct yeast.

For our English ales at Cheshire Peaks we rarely use anything other than Safale S-04. It’s dried, so easy to use and store; it is easy to buy (in all the local homebrew stores); it “drops like a stone” (ie does not leave a very dusty sediment that kicks up into the beer very easily) and of course it tastes good too. Just the right level of English ale fruitiness and sweetness without overpowering anything.

But you can’t brew an alt bier using English ale yeast, or it will just be an English ale with some German malts in it. So I mail ordered some White Labs WLP036 Dusseldorf Alt Ale Yeast as required by the recipe and kicked it off with a starter.

What was the beer like?

Mr Zainasheff’s book describes alt bier as “a well-balanced, bitter and yet malty, clean, smooth, well-attenuated, copper coloured German ale”. This sums up what we got very well. The only thing I would add is that the final gravity was on the high end of what the book said (book said 1.010 to 1.015 and we got 1.015) and there was certainly a sweetness to it as well.

In general it has gone down very well with everyone that has tried it. Opinions are divided as to the serving temperature. Served from the fridge (6C - my preference) it is a cleaner flavour. Served at English ale temperatures (12C - Andy’s preference) gives a fuller flavour and greater mouth feel. I doubt if it is served through a beer engine in Germany, but we found that worked a treat.

Recipe

Grain bill
Pilsner malt        3630g  68.6%
Munich malt        900g   17%
Aromatic malt     450g    8.5%
Caramunich        227g   4.3%
Carafa Special I  85g     1.6%

Hop schedule
Magnum     17.3%AA  22g  60 min  43 IBU
Tetnang      5.1%AA   14g  15 min  3 IBU

Water treatment: None
Yeast: White Labs WLP036 Dusseldorf Alt
Batch size: 23l
Mash temp: 65C
Mash time: 90 min
Boil time: 90 min
OG: 1.058
IBU: 46 (Rager)
FG: 1.015
Fermentation Temp: Initially 16C, slowly ramped to 19C after 6 days
Fining: Kwik Clear on racking to keg
Lagering: At 6C for 4 weeks

With apologies to Jamil, because what we brewed is exactly what is in the book. (Buy a copy).