Read Alt about it (Altbiers)
Altbiers are the dark, top-fermented ales popular in Düsseldorf and the Rhineland, as Adrian Tierney-Jones
reports
Several brewers will tell you that yeast is the unsung hero of the brew-house. Malt is the soul of beer, hops the grapes, while even the liquor, especially in the old Burton breweries, has its halo. Poor old yeast is the workhorse, though without it what would tease out alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation and add fruity and warming flavours and aromas, especially in the stronger beers? (There’s probably a team of chemists out there trying to invent that process as I write).
Furthermore, as if to pin down the importance of yeast, it’s this single-cell fungus that was at the heart of that great 19th century schism in the family of beer — as cold or bottom-fermented yeast became irrevocably linked to Pilsner styles and its warm or top-fermenting cousin continued to do the business with ale.
Travel to the German Rhineland and some of the local beer styles are remnants of a pre-lager time.
Düsseldorf and its environs have Alt (though examples can also be found in Hanover, Munster, Holland and the United States), while Köln has Kölsch, which has its own appellation.
Even though the latter’s top-fermentation produces enough fruitiness (hints of wild strawberries on the palate with one of the Kölsch I have tasted) to set it apart from other German beers, it still has the golden aura of a Pilsener — and we all know that many beer lovers drink with their eyes.
Witness the massive success of golden lagers across the globe in the 19th century and closer to our time the ra.....
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By Adrian Tierney-Jones
Section : International Focus
Page number : 24
