Fresh old beer: Alpenwald Altbier by Hinterland Brewery

Every time I encounter some Uerige on a liquor store shelf the beer lives up to its style and proves to be older than dirt. And so seeing an altbier of a much more recent vintage plus one that was brewed right here in Wisconsin got me excited. Perhaps more than was warranted.

The odd thing was the beer's name: Alpenwald. I like Alpenwalds as much as the next guy but the altbier's home is Düsseldorf and Düsseldorf is nowhere near the Alps. It's in west central Germany like Eau Claire is here in Wisconsin. Perhaps Americans are only familiar with Southern German culture and so lump everything German into a Bavarian box.

Hinterland brewed Alpenwald Altbier earlier this year as part of their 30th anniversary celebration. I am not sure exactly when it was released but I am thinking that it appeared sometime this past summer. My tardiness in doing a tasting was due to divorce, moving, and, if I am honest, depression; my tardiness in writing a post was due to being very busy and never finding quite the right moment to put things down in the ol' blog.

I don't think I've ever had even a reasonably fresh altbier from Düsseldorf or anywhere else in Germany for that matter so my understanding of the Platonic form of the style is an amalgam of things I've read and American versions I've tasted. I think of it as being malty with an emphasis on a kind of roastiness with little sweetness but not too malty. The hops should be assertive but not completely in your face. It's like the Midwest nice of beers - no extremes and just pleasant all around.

Despite my can not being straight from the canning line, it did have a best by date of 4/20/2026. I've kept it chilled and hope the distributor and Woodman's did too.

This was one gorgeous brew. A big light tan head sat atop the amber liquid which was clear as day. The foam stuck around a fairly long time and so I managed to get a not horrible photograph. There were lots of bubbles inside which made me slightly giddy because I have become a fan of fizz in my middle age. The aroma was of caramel, roastiness, and grass which is what I expected, more or less.

Also as expected was the nice, firm fizziness that complemented the medium-light body. I was pleased that the brew wasn't particularly sweet and that caramel flavor was minimal. It had some of that roasty taste along with a bread-cracker hybrid flavor that was aided and abetted by the addition of rye. All of this was balanced by a nice herbal-grassy hop flavor with a toothsome bitterness.

The malt faded quickly on the swallow and the hops were more than happy to fill the void. There was a nice briskness to the finish, hoppy and bitter but not overly so. Just a fine dry ending.

With an A.B.V. of 4.7% and a fairly mellow malt taste this stuff was very tasty on a warmer fall day. Just as a schwarzbier is often thought of as a black pils, the moniker of brown pils is not wholly unwarranted here. The fairly light body, the soft maltiness, and the zing of the hops all contribute; it's the malt's roastiness that offers a sharp delineation.

Sehr gut even if it comes from Green Bay and not Düsseldorf.

Junk food pairing: I paired my Alpenwald Altbier with a bag of Flint rye crisps (from Ukraine) with Bavarian sausage flavoring and the combo was excellent.

Düsseldorf Calling: Uerige Alt

My little altbier trifecta ends with a taste of Düsseldorf - Uerige Alt. Credit must go to Riley's Wines of the World for carrying Uerige's bier as I haven't seen it anywhere else.

Uerige was established in 1862 which means it's been around for most of the time there's been this beer that we call the Düsseldorfer Alt. I did some reading on the origin of the altbier and ended up getting thoroughly lost in a labyrinth of 16th and 17th century Westphalian and Bavarian alimentary laws. The altbier's cousin, the Kölsch, springs from Cologne's brewing traditions shaped by a 1603 law banning bottom-fermented beers. As far as I can tell the point of this law was to preserve the city's brewing heritage against the encroachment of lagers but surely it also had something to do with protecting the city's indigenous breweries. Did Düsseldorf have any similar laws? I could find nothing at Ron Pattinson's blog indicating that it did but this could very well just be lazy researching on my part.

It seems that the brewers of Northern Germany spent a lot of Renaissance fending off the influence of Bavaria. In 1551 a Munich law mandated the use of bottom-fermenting yeast there and a couple years later Bavaria outlawed brewing in the summer because of ales going south. In what appears to be a series of laws aimed at protecting the consumer, Bavarians unwittingly elevated lagerbier above ales. The lager trend spread and brewers in places like Cologne and Düsseldorf struggled against it. It seems that the altbier and Kölsch are the products of brewers clinging onto tradition on the one hand (top-fermenting) and yielding to trends on the other (lagering). Hence the native style for these brews is Obergäriges Lagerbier - or top-fermented lager beer.

In doing my reading I also learned that the altbier and Kölsch, while top-fermenting, are fermented at cooler temperatures (55°F-60°F) than your average ale (65°F-75°F).

My photo didn't turn out too badly here and, as you can see, Uerige Alt is a beauty. It's clear with a nice copper color. My pour had a nice off-white head that was in no hurry to leave. The aroma was sweet with caramel and raisin notes in my nose. I was surprised not to catch any hops as I was under the impression that the alt was fairly hoppy – in the Czech pilsner range. But, as with any other beer style, your mileage may vary. Plus I wasn't sure how long the beer had been sitting on the shelf when I bought it.

Curiously enough, I didn't find much in the way of hops in the flavor either. The dominant flavor was roasted grain which veered into chocolate territory slightly. But there was also this slight plum-like flavor and I tasted something I can best describe as being like vermouth. The latter of these was quite unexpected. The beer wasn't very sweet but had a medium body. I think the carbonation helped add to my tongue's impression that this wasn't a particularly sweet beer.

The beer finished dry with (finally!) some spicy hop goodness coming through.

I am reluctant to make any definitive judgements about the beer as I can't vouch for its freshness. With that caveat, I will say that I rather liked this beer. The fruitier flavors weren't as prominent as roasted grain ones and I really liked the chocolate tones. These flavors melded well. Actually, Uerige Alt had a rather more complicated malt profile than I expected. There were just more fruity bits comingling with more roasty bits than I thought there would be. The absence of hops until the finish was disappointing, however.

Junk food pairing: Uerige Alt goes well with Cheez-It Duos Sharp Cheddar and Parmesan crackers. These brighter tasting snacks help provide some balance since there's not much hop bitterness to be had.