Uerige Alt

Brewed by Uerige Obergärige Hausbrauerei
Style: Altbier
Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

Package alone gets perfect score from me- what a great bottle. Alt is a new style for me, but I ma starting to dig them. This one has a lot of malt and a really nice fizzy mouthfeel. A tiny bit burnt, but forgiveable.

Head goes quickly. Nearly clear bronze color. Very smooth. Starts bitter then smoothens right out with sweetness at the end with some modulations between sweet and bitter at the tail. Complex in taste trail.

MoBev distributing. Initial aroma from the swing top bottle is lemons. After opening up in the glass, the aroma is soggy malt and hops, like a homebrewers kitchen. A little later, slight caramel. Deep bronze color. Cavernous lace from the head. Flavor of light crisp malt and a dry hop, back of the throat bitterness. Given the intense presentation, I was slightly dissapointed.

A good example of an alt, maybe slightly off-style but not by much. Predominantly malty but a crisp hop finish ends it well. Still prefer Sticke and especially DoppelSticke, but this is a good choice more in the direction of a session beer.

11 August 05 Uerige Alt. (Very Cool) Bottle. In my Maudite tulip, the head is large and large-bubbled; rather quickly forms a thick coating on top, w/ little islands here and there. Nice lace throughout. Color’s a bit odd, kind of a mix between a light burnt sienna and a ruby orange. Even in the tulip, aromas are hard to pick out. Kinda damp and dusty. Some wet dog. Is this really German? Seems more like a cross, oddly, between certain Belgians and Brits. Not to stereotype, but the Belgian aspects are nice (e.g. candi-ish), and the British elements are not so nice (e.g. stale bottled beer that probably wasn’t meant to be bottled). Some burnt flavors as it warms.

Bottle at Crescent Moon Alehouse, Omaha: Orange-red with a thin head. Sugary-alcohol aroma. Sugar-malty flavors. Almost too thin a body. Almost a Belgian-type character in the guise of the Altbier label. Rerate of a bottle in Virginia: This one got a nice bit rocky head with some sediment. Otherwise, consistent with first rating.

Bottled on 04.18. Served in a tall cylinder glass. Aroma: Very strong, rich caramel aromas. Some roast. Apperance: Crystal clear, copper orange, with a dirty white head. Flavor: There is something about this beer that I do not like. It really hits the sides of my tounge. It is very bitter, but that fades fast, and there is some roast character there. Palate: Very drying, and that my be what I don’t like the most about it. Overall: I would prefer a fuller, rounder drink from an alt. Is that off base?

Coppery colour - not very dark. Dry and nutty with some bitterness on the finish. If I didn’t know better this could have been an English best bitter. Pleasant enough but I have to admit that I’ve never found altbiers that enthralling. This is a good example though. On tap at Reading Beer Festival, April 2005.