Serve in a stange at 6-9 °C
What it tastes like
Alt means old, and the name points at the older way of brewing: top fermenting ale yeast, used in Dusseldorf long after most of Germany switched to lager. The Dusseldorf brewers kept the yeast and borrowed the cold. They ferment cool, around 13 to 19 °C, then lager the beer for weeks near freezing.
The result is copper to brown, very clean, and more bitter than its colour suggests. Munich malt gives a bready, nutty base, sometimes a little toasted, and noble German hops add a spicy, peppery bitterness that runs to a dry finish. There is almost no fruit from the yeast. If you like a brown ale but find it sweet, or like lager but want more flavour, this is the beer.
In the old town of Dusseldorf it is served in small, straight glasses and replaced as soon as you empty one. The bitterness is the point. A soft, sweet altbier is a brown ale wearing the wrong label.
Style profile
- Look
- Copper to deep amber brown, brilliantly clear, with a dense off white head.
- Aroma and flavour
- Bready and nutty Munich malt, light toast, spicy German hops, a clean ferment with almost no fruitiness.
- Mouthfeel
- Medium body, firm carbonation, a crisp, dry and lingering bitter finish.
- Ingredients
- Pilsner and Munich malts, a little caramel or black malt for colour, Spalt or other German hops, a clean German ale yeast.
In India
Altbier rewards a brewer who can control temperature, which is the hard part in an Indian brewpub in May. Get the cool ferment and cold lagering right and you have a beer that suits the darker, malty side of a menu without the weight of a stout. It travels reasonably because it is clean and not hop aroma led. Look for it as a winter seasonal at German leaning brewpubs.
At the Indian table
Food pairings contributed by Anuradha Rao
- Chole bhatureNutty malt meets the chickpeas and the bitterness cuts through the fried bread.
- Pandi curryCoorg pork with kachampuli is sharp and dark, and a dry, bitter beer holds its own.
- Dal makhaniThe bready malt likes the slow cooked black lentils, and carbonation lifts the cream.
- Gur ki rotiJaggery sweetness against hop bitterness, a simple contrast that works.
Brewed in India
We could not verify a current Indian commercial altbier. German style brewpubs sometimes pour one as a seasonal, so ask.
Want the long read? Altbier