Let There Be Alt
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

"Let there be light"
"Sound"
"Drums"
"Guitar"
"Let there be rock"

--AC/DC


Burnt orange-bronze that wasn't quite brown enough to be considered tawny. Close inspection revealed scads of fine bubbles hurrying up to the one finger cap of beige foam. The head hung around for quite a while (as an unbroken, creamy film) and left more lace than I'm used to for a bar pour. Several thick, ragged rings graced the glass as the beer fell with drinking.

The only negative as far as the aroma was concerned was its shyness. Well-toasted brown malt and spicy hops greeted my nose with less enthusiasm than I would have liked. It was a tad dark fruity as well, but not overly so.

The word that entered my mind with the first sip (and stuck around for the entire pint) was balanced. Let There Be Alt was exquisitely balanced in terms of sweet malt and bitter hops. Actually, hops edged in front as the ounces disappeared, but not enough to tip the scales too far in that direction.

As in the nose, the malt was toasted bready and maybe even a little roggenbier spicy. Since I'm fairly certain that no rye malt was used, I'll have to attribute the pleasant peppery spiciness to a beautiful use of what I assume is one or more varieties of German hop. The finish was snappy, clean and refreshing.

The body started out light-medium, just about reaching medium by the bottom of the pint. I especially enjoyed the soft, cask-like carbonation and would have suspected that the beer was cask-conditioned if I hadn't seen it come out of a tap. No letdown here.

I don't recall very many special altbiers throughout the years; it just isn't that sort of a style for me. Let There Be Alt, though, was some kind of delicious and hit all of its style marks with accuracy and with ease. There's no excuse for me to go several months between visits to Rock Bottom when beer this good is a mere five minutes from my front door.