Frankenheim Alt

Brewed by Privatbrauerei Frankenheim (Warsteiner)
Style: Altbier
Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

Draught in a Greek restaurant in Dusseldorf. This was a nice alt - fruity, thick and very smooth. It is sweet and edges towards cloying. It also feels a little heavier than say Diebels, but it's very easy to drink and leaves a trail of tasty, cakey notes as it glides across your tongue.

Nice dark colour. Quite aromatic with a malty and spicy tone. Hints of herbs in flavor, especially in finish. A little flat in the end.

Bottle. A reasonably tasty beer. Gentle malts. Nice balance of sweet and bitter. Nothing out-standing, but pleasant enough. Malty fruit nose. Mostly flat finish with only the merest metallic tang. I assume the metallic tang is peculiar to Alts that have been pasteurised. Lightish body holds everything down a bit, so that this comes across more of a fruity Vienna than a proper ale. But it's mostly inoffensive.

Had this on tap when it was the special at TapWerks on N. Western. I haven't had the opportunity to try many Altbiers, but out of the few I've had, this was pretty good. A little sweet with very little carbonation, and almost nutty finish.

Amber-brown looking beer with a small head. Sweet, light malty taste with a bitter finish. Well balanced but a bit flat.

On tap at the art of beer festival Stammtisch. Nice dark color. Weak malty aroma. Smooth malty flavor, creamy, finishes mildly bitter.

Blue bottle, copper color, big frothy head. Cake dough aroma. Slight hopbitter flavor with raisin and cake dough. Rather bland, but not too bad. Cannot be compared to the great Düsseldorf altbeers. Brewery tap: Hopbitter, fruity flavor. I can only smell some orange. Light hopbitter finish. Delicate, but not comparable in quality to the more assertive Düsseldorf alts.

The same shade of brown as the bottle, off-white head. Malty. Some caramel. Vague grassy bitterness behind the malt. Medium-full body. Nice but not spectacular.