It would have been really neat had Madison's favorite purveyor of pantagruelian brews, Giant Jones, labeled this a mere Sticke Altbier and let a whisper campaign form amongst drinkers that brewmaster Jessica Jones had been extra generous and that it was, in fact, a Doppelsticke. On the other hand, Giant Jones only brews their Doppelsticke Altbier infrequently – a September-only release – so at least it has that element of tradition going for it.
I am struggling remember to the history of the altbier. It's an Obergäriges Lagerbier or top fermenting lager beer auf Englisch. It has this hybrid ale-lager persona because…because…something about northern German ales running into new laws imposed by lager-loving Bavarians after Germany became a country in the late 19th century and the brewers of Düsseldorf splitting the difference. They weren't quite ready to give up on the old ale styles but had to tweak things to conform to new laws. Maybe? Ron Pattison noted that Cologne once had laws that banned the production of bottom-fermenting beer and I wonder if altbier brewers labored under the same or similar laws. Or am I conflating the two styles?
Being from Wisconsin, laws dictating the production of beer are almost incomprehensible to me. Brewers can brew ales or lagers; they can sell it on Sundays; they can put in their brews whatever additive or adjunct they care to; they can brew a beer with whatever A.B.V. they like; and the beer tax hasn't been raised in my lifetime. So, when I read that it was illegal to brew bottom-fermented beer or that beer taxes were based on the original gravity of the wort, well, my mind reels. It seems that not only did a lot of beer history transpire the way it did because of the ingredients that were at hand, but also because brewers were looking to get around the law or avoid the taxman.
Perhaps the altbier was simply a result of changing tastes where "lager" attracted drinkers the way "hazy" does today. I can't recall.
Regardless, Düsseldorf got its altbier. Brewers are merely human like the rest of us and sometimes they deviate from the script. When they mismeasured their ingredients and ended up with a stronger than normal altbier, regulars would strike up a whisper campaign that the new batch was an even more potent potable. "Sticke" comes from "stickum", a word in a local dialect that means "whispering" and so these bigger altbiers became known as Sticke Altbiers.
The Doppelsticke is a double/imperial version of the Sticke Alt. I do see that one of the OG altbier brewers in Düsseldorf, Uerige, brews one but it is for the American market. (I love how Google's English translation of its description is "the yummy droplet".) I've never tasted it but I presume that it's über-malty with a very generous dose of hops.
Giant Jones (my progressive rock-addled brain keeps wanting me to type "Gentle Giant") brewed their Doppelsticke Altbier for the first time last summer for an episode of Wisconsin Foodie but it has since become an annual release in September.
My bottle was dated 9-22-21 so it was good'n fresh.
Most American altbiers that I've encountered seem to have been brown or amber ales that I suspect simply had a new label slapped on them and had never seen the inside of a lagering vessel. Not for long, anyway. Still, I had faith in Gentle Giant Jones and, this being a special occasion, it merited the use of an altbier glass.
My pour looked rather nice with some loose, just off-white head that sat atop the copper liquid. Thankfully the head had some staying power and I was actually able to get a photograph showing it off a bit. The beer was slightly hazy and the odd bubble could be seen here and there. Caramel was prominent on the nose but I also sniffed out some stone fruit which was cherry-like. Plus there was just a hint of smokiness.
Considering the paucity of bubbles I saw in the glass, the beer had a nice, firm fizziness to it. There was the requisite malt sweetness but it wasn't as big or overpowering as I thought it may be considering the "doppel" and the "sticke" parts of the name. Yeah, there was a lot of malt taste here but the sweetness was balanced with dryness and some astringency. Presumably the hops, which didn't have a strong taste at this point, countered some of the sweet flavors as did that fizz. I also tasted some roasty grain flavor and a touch of that cherry that I had smelled.
On the finish, I was able to taste the spicy, Nobley hops and their bitterness was allowed to come to the fore. Like the malt, you couldn't miss the hops here but they didn't overwhelm. The bitterness gave way to dryness which mixed with the booze – it's 9.6%. I caught a trace of malty sweetness but that faded rather quickly.
This was a very tasty beer. The best part of it for me was how the fizz and hops played against all of that malt. They did their job perfectly. The beer had a rich malt taste but also a nice dryness which laid the sweetness to rest at just the right point.
Junk food pairing: With a beer fit for Gargantua himself, grab yourself one of those giant pretzels that's equivalent to a couple loaves of bread and apply nacho cheese food sauce liberally.
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