Recently I had the opportunity to judge alts at Roberts Cover Germanfest. As I’d never had a German alt other than Uerige Sticke I had no idea what to expect but was surprised at how much I enjoyed the beers submitted. So I’ve made it a point to brew my own German altbiers this year starting with 10 gallons of Jamil’s North German Altbier with a minor change of using only half of the roasted malts he used. The reason for this change is the beers I judged seem very dark compared to the description of the style. Most of the alt recipes I’ve seen out there are adaptations of Jamil’s North German Alt or Dusseldorf Alt recipe and I suspect these are where many of the beers I judged came from.

Brew Day Was January 20, 2014

A fairly hectic brew day. Had some pump issues with recirculation and something happened with the screen at the bottom of the mash tun as I couldn’t get it to run clear. I ended up transferring the wort/grain to buckets, resetting the tun, transferring it back, recirculating and getting it straight. Post boil and in to the fermenters everything was right on gravity and tasted/looked really good so no worries. As I suspected the beer is much lighter in color and more akin to the style description.

January 22, 2014

Really strong 2 days of fermentation at 60F and it’s still going. Should be a good beer. It’d better be for 10 gallons.

January 26, 2014

After the great ice storm of 2014 here in Baton Rouge I was a little worried this beer wouldn’t finish out enough. It’s currently at 1.0115 even though with the cold weather my outside storage got it down as low as 50F. The top 1/4 of the fermenter is brightening so I’ll let it sit for another week to polish up before crashing to lager on the yeast for a week. Overall it’s a very bready, very strongly bittered beer with distinct German flavors. Definitely some bready tastes bordering on toasty in there and a full body especially for a 1.048 beer. I think I’m going to really enjoy this one when it’s finished.