Schell Schmaltzs Alt

Brewed by August Schell Brewing Company
Style: Altbier
New Ulm, Minnesota USA

Lovely beer - rich and warm and satisfying.

This beer has a very pleasant dark brown to black body with a medium sized tan head. The aroma is a nice blend of malt and fruity hops. The flavor is a little more malt than hops but, the hops are present with a fruity twang. A smooth and easy drinking medium bodied ale, with hints of coffee, caramel and chocolate. This is an outstanding and terrific tasting beer. Far and above the best product Schell’s turns out. Now they just need to make it a year around brew.

Even though this really isn’t an "alt" but more of a porter, I don’t understand the low scores. This beauty is rich and creamy and very malty. Please if you’ve reviewed this beer in the past, try it again, I think with an open mind you may really like this beer

UPDATEII (August 24, 2003): I’d heard that Schell’s was discontinuing this brew so I ran out and got another sixer. Still the same great combination of tastes as I’ve come to know & love. This is one of my top beers, for good reason--nice palate, great taste and it also looks nice in my trusty ale tumbler. I really hope they don’t pull the plug on this! UPDATE: The second batch I tried is even better than the first! Lots of malt flavor with a follow-up of hops near the end. This is great beer! INITIAL RATING: I’d seen this stuff in the cooler at our local beer outlet for a long time but never gave it a go...now I’m kicking myself for waiting so long. This stuff is great. I’d never tried an ’alt’ style beer before so this is my first taste. Because of that, it’s tough for me to compare it with anything else. It has a nice, malty character without being sweet and comes through with a nice hoppy finish. I really like it!

Are there actually hops in this sucker? It’s hard to tell because all you can taste are the malts. That’s OK -- this is an excellent dark, rich altbier.

Served at cellar temperature, and poured into my tall, straight-sided Gosser glass, this beer is dark brown with a huge frothy head of tan foam. The head bubbles down in a minute or so. Moderate lacing. Mildly fruity and chocolate malt in the aroma. Nice sweetish chocolate malt flavor, not overly complex, and truthfully, not really ‘alt-like.’ A nice hop bitterness comes into play in the finish with some additional bitter roasted chocolate malt. Very smooth and creamy mouthfeel, prominent carbonation, and medium body. Very drinkable (he says after polishing off his second and looking for the bottle opener again). Even though I’m not convinced its an altbier, I really enjoy drinking this beer, and have missed it during its absence. I am very glad it is back. As Eric Clapton once sang: “Hello old friend, Its really good to see you once again.”

Flinty, matilic but well balanced with malt. Creamy on the tounge. Hint of cherry on the nose. A little strong for game playing but good for sitting around wth friends. Gets better as it reaches warm temperatures