Stike
Hausbrauerei Zum Schlüssel

How do you take a spectacular beer and make it even better? Schlüssel's Stike Altbier is a deep chestnut brown under a tight, creamy white head. It has a nutty and bready malt character with some very slight caramel notes in the background. It is smooth and rich yet finishes dry. Noble hops at 38 IBU balance out the residual malt sweetness and provide a lovely, delicate hop note in the finish. Fermentation is flawless, providing a clean, lager-like beer, but with the character and esters from open fermentation. At 6.0% ABV it is bigger, richer, and just a tiny bit sweeter up front than their usual Altbier. The alcohol is very well hidden in this delicious beer.

 

Schlüssel Sticke

Has a dark brown, vibrant, mohagony appearance, underneath a solid, beige, bubbly head, leaving back solid webs of lacing.

The aromas offer the typical Schlüssel keg skunkiness, resulting from young yeast, with an acidic sour whiff to it, coating up herbal hops and whole-grain bread, while the malts remain unusual subdued underneath the skunk.

Offers a very smooth mouthfeel, with a mineralic softness to it, adding to the dough bread qualities of the beer. Although it ends utmost dry, the beer remains easy drinkable, due to its great, clean finish.

Tastes of rustic, dough, whole-grain bread, together with a faint toffee whiff to it, and a profound earthiness, exhibiting the taste foundation in this. Turns a tad more toffeeish, heading into a sweeter direction, together with bakers chocolate and a note of molasses, balanced by the bubbly carbonation, opening up the palate for the hops. Hops become the most apparent during the beers finish, revealing pungent floral, as well as herbal qualities, evoking a short juicy peak, as they blend in the still very profound malts, while producing a long lasting, hop focussed dryness.

Extremely well put together, benefiting from its perfect balance throughout, handling the taste defining hop dryness outstandingly well, due to its rustic malt coating. While this is still easily recognizable as an Alt, it almost reverses roles, especially during the beers finish, in which malts have to balance an usual powerful hop onslaught, which I have never experienced within this style before.