Schwelmer Alt

Brewed by Brauerei Schwelm
Style: Altbier
Schwelm, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

From bottle pours brown with a fair amount of light brown hean. Nice flavor, with a pleasant lingering aftertaste.

(330 ml bottle from <A HREF=http://www.ratebeer.com/Place/maine/portland/ target=blank>Downeast Beverage Co.) A little thin but nice malty flavor...Pours clear dark brown with slightly orangish tint. Tall tan head. Aroma of fairly strong honey and some brown sugar. Mouthfeel has a slightly watery texture but not too bad. Weepy, crooked rings of lacing. Flavor is somewhat mild but tastes like a biscuit topped with honey and some brown sugar. It could use some more oomph but I enjoyed it.

Lifeless amber pour with a complete lack of head - dry, almost vinous aroma, with faint smells of roasted nuts - dry, chalky mouthfeel - light fruitiness, with some earthy, vegetal flavors - finishes with increased chalky/mineral flavors - I would have liked a tad more depth.

A soapy, fast fading head sits on top of a dark, coppery-reddish-brown-hued body. It is very dry, which is its most striking characteristic. Lots of ash/minerals in the flavor. It is not sweet at all - no hints of sweetness, although I expected some from the highly malts aroma. Pleasant, although very mild. Earthiness and nuttiness are also present, but mild. I’m not sure what kind of food this would pair well with - potatoes maybe. It is a thin and simple beer, of which the dryness stands out the most.

Pretty bland. Light brown color. Thin mouth feel. Few hops. Mostly malt flavor.

500ml bottle from Whole Foods. Clear bronze colour with a slight, short lived head. Sweet malt and some red fruit in the aroma. Flavour was a bit restrained - a touch of caramel with a smidgin of dryness in the finish. Distinctly middle-of-the-road.

A clear beige pour, slightly off-white substantial head, aroma is sweet with a bready note. Nice flavor profile, the malt stands out of course but there is some fruit character as well. I found this to be one of the better examples of this style that I have been able to sample.

Half liter swingtop bottle. Poured into a Gaffel kolsch glass, clear brown with a frothy and bumpy almond colored head. Lattice lacing. Malty, grainy aroma, with some dark brown sugar notes in the nose. Interesting flavor of dark but not too sweet malt with a tinge of a lemony hop. Finished like a high-fiber whole grain dark bread, with a bit of hop grass on the aftertaste. Flavors kind of undermined by a thinness in the body, however. Otherwise generally OK looking and tasting.