Auerhahn-Bräu Urhahn, Helles Alt
Hochstiftliches Brauhaus

Can't recall where I bought this (HiTime wine?) and there's no price tag. So it's a mystery!

Pours a thin looking yellow with almost no head at the beginning. A lot of carbonation builds a moderate head after the pour is done. I've never seen a beer do this quite this way before.

Aroma is lightly sweet malts, with peaches. Flavor is much the same, perhaps the intorduction of pear juice, with just a touch (OK, a slight hint) of hop astringency. Very traditional obvious "German Beer" consistency and drinkability.

I don't really know the altbier style, so I can't really review against the style, but as a stand alone beer, this one is OK. Not anything outstanding, but OK.

Can't say I agree with anyof the reviewers so far, but i qualify that by saying my altbier experience is quite limited. The only highly rated alt i've had on the BA list is Long Trail's Double Bag. Auerhahn Helles Alt is Marlon Brando to Long Trail's Keanu Reeves (or ethan hawke or matt damon okok this is a beer site stay on topic!!!) By this i mean the complexity.

This beer, while very light by most BA's members standards, fulfills the promise of lighter beer, that is delivering the more subtle aromas that carefully selected and harvested hops and barley can provide. It delivers a meaty wheatiness that doesn't suffer from the cloying sweetness and noxious banana esters that so often plague the hefe-weizen style.

The flavor is capably delivered with wonderful mouthfeel. Almost bordering on "fizzy," the carbonation is adjusted admirably and doesn't gas off immediately, holding not a belgian wit-style lace, but rather a kajillion tiny bubbles that sturdily hold up over the space of a glass, possibly due to their soap-like heft, similar to very young american pale-ales.

The essence of a refreshing ale, it creates the illusion that american megalo-beers are just faint memories from a dystopian novel you read in high school. Like a free society restores our faith in humanity, this ale reminds up that we can make obscene gestures in the direction of Milwaukee while hoisting a glass of decent beer.

This is a Kolsch Bier, though it cannot be called so for the simple and strict reason that it is not brewed in Koln. Kolsch beers do differ as far as clarity, acidity (some add a small addition of wheat),
hop character etc. So far, I have only been able to find one true Kolsh in California - Reissdorf. This has been the only other German choice to offer on tap. I first discovered it in 1996 from Morandel Imports, Los Angeles.

In response to other reviews, it is NOT too light for the style. It is slightly darker, yet pale (a helles) compared to the Reissdorf. It has floculating cloudy yeast not settled in the bottle. I recall drinking cloudy Kolsch in Koln as well, so again it does not depart from the true style.

It pours from both the bottle and tap with a full head, remaining on the glass even after finishing the beer.

Yes it has a candylike, hoppy herbal smell. Hops too. The taste offers plenty of hops, more than the Reissdorf Kolsch. Hops taste as they smell.

Taste is somewhat bitter, though mild for any hophead. It is a lite quenching beer that offers plenty of lingering flavor. Great for a warm day when you many want to enjoy something other than a lager.

Presentation: One of those annoying imports that has the bare minimum of information on the label – why do importers do this – have they something to hide? Annoying as it was, with help from the Internet I tracked down the elusive Brewery name, and then found it on the BA Database. It appears to be brewed by Hochstiftliches Brauhaus, Motten, Germany.

The bottle is a brown glass 1 Pint 0.9 fl.oz bottle with the usual Teutonic style neck and main body labels. The main label has a picture of some kind of crowing bird and the words “Auerhahn-Bräu Urhahn, Helles Alt”. Not much more than that, no strength, just only the importers name Morandell Imports of LA.

Appearance: Pours with an expanding voluminous white head, created by a honeycombed mass of huge bubbles. Laces the glass walls very well and has a sticky consistency. Has a thin “wishy-washy”, pale yellow color. Looks rather unappetizing I have to say.

Smell: Awful butterscotch odors are pungent and unavoidable as you tip the glass to drink from it. Annoying, and unpleasant.

Taste: It’s there again, that sickly sweet butterscotch taste that I have only ever come across in other ‘low-quality’ lagers from countries that no-one has ever heard of. This does fade somewhat though to make way for a slight hoppiness in the middle, and a mildly bitter grainy finish. Is this really German? – I am beginning to wonder if this is not a clever scam by the importer, maybe they are just re-badging Miller Lite and hoping no-one will notice, LOL.

Mouthfeel: What there is – is immediately forgotten.

Overall: Well, to be brutally honest. It’s pretty piss poor really. The worst German beer that I have ever had. Shit I bought two of these – anyone fancy a trade??? LMAO.