Altbier

A Diebels Alt

Altbier is a German top-fermenting beer brewed in Düsseldorf and other parts of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The name Altbier, which means old beer, refers to the pre-lager brewing method of using a warm top-fermenting yeast. Over time the Alt yeast adjusted to lower temperatures, and the Alt brewers would store or lager the beer after fermentation, leading to a cleaner, crisper beer than is the norm for some other top-fermented beers such as British pale ale.

History

The Bavarian Reinheitsgebot (beer purity law) of 1516 did not affect brewers of the Rhineland. As such, the brewing traditions in this region developed slightly differently. For example, brewing during the summer was illegal in Bavaria, but the cooler climate of the Rhineland allowed Alt brewers to brew all year long and to experiment with storing fermented beer in cool caves and cellars. The first brewery to use the name Alt was Schumacher which opened in 1838. Alt is a dark, lagered, top-fermented beer that has some of the lean dryness of a lager but with fruity notes.

Regional variations of Alt

Well known German Altbier that does not come from Düsseldorf is produced by the Pinkus Müller brewery in Münster, the Diebels brewery in Issum (part of AB InBev), the Gleumes brewery in Krefeld and the Bolten brewery in Korschenbroich.

Venlo, a city in the Netherlands on the German border near Düsseldorf, produced the first Dutch Altbier. Altbier is also brewed in small quantities in Austria, Switzerland and the United States.

Some Altbier breweries have a tradition of producing a somewhat stronger version known as Sticke Alt, coming from a local dialect word meaning "secret". It is generally a seasonal or special occasion brew, and is stronger and sometimes darker than the brewery's standard output.

Brewpub Alts

Schumacher Alt

There are five pubs in Düsseldorf which brew Altbier on the premises:

• Füchschen
• Kürzer
• Schumacher
• Schlüssel
• Uerige

Four of the five are located in the Old Town (Altstadt); the other, Schumacher, is located between the Altstadt and the main rail station (Hauptbahnhof), although it also has a pub in the Altstadt, Goldener Kessel, directly across the street from Schlüssel.

Each produces a special, secret, seasonal "Sticke" version in small quantities, though the names vary: Schlüssel spells it "Stike", without the "c", while Schumacher calls its special beer "Latzenbier", meaning "slat beer", possibly because the kegs from which it was poured had been stored on raised shelves. Füchschen's seasonal is its Weihnachtsbier (Christmas beer), available in bottles starting mid-November, and served in the brewpub on Christmas Eve.

See also

• German beer