Where have all the Altbiers gone?

I am one of the hugest Maltheads here and I load up on Ales all the time that dont have much hops and I am sastisfied. I like hops but more in the background maybe half. Does SC not get many domestic or import Ales?

 

there actually seems to be a minor renaissance in smaller (dare we say craft) maltsters popping up. I think that, like jesskidden noted, many of the popular craft beer styles actually require more malt even if it isn't as evident in final flavor, but also that there is a lot of experimentation going on within the malt space. I have certainly seen 'locally malted' advertised in breweries in different parts of the country and, like the altbier style in question, I think that the experimental use of local/regional malt houses and their use of local/regional grain varieties is just largely confined to taproom only or very limited distribution beers.
The major market is certainly favoring fruity and fruity hop flavors above all so many styles are less prevalent on retail shelves even while being available in local breweries in fairly large volume

 

No worries, Appreciate it.

 

It's too bad. Altbiers just don't sell. One of my favorite styles is ESB, and I have the same issues. Don't see much other than Shipyard Old Thumper.

 

Specialized malts could coax more of those desired trendy fruity flavors too, and support larger distribution....maybe...I'm just guessing. But generally malts seem like an untapped area of experimentation.

 

I strongly agree. I wouldn't be surprised if, 5 or 10 years from now, novel varieties and uses of malts gives us an explosion of malt forward styles similar to the hop forward wave we're in. I see it dovetailing into current beer culture through the pastry stouts/Imperial stouts as well as what I perceive as a slight increase in barleywine/strong ale/old ale going on at the moment

 

Every time I see the title of this thread, all I hear is Paula Cole singing it in my head.

 

The average beer consumer probably has no idea of what an Altbier is; terror of the unknown. Maybe that's why Alaskan labels theirs as an Amber Ale.

Last sentence...suggested to me by others in another thread.

 

It very well could be a Doppelsticke Altbier.

 

Uerige beers are imported into the US by B. United and that importer does periodically import some of the beers they handle via tank and those tanked beers are canned at the B. United site in Oxford, CT.

According to the B. United website the Sticke version of Uerige Altibier is available in cans:

“Uerige "Sticke" CAN 24 x 12.0oz / 355.0mL 6 x 4 Pack Cans

Uerige Obergaerige Hausbrauerei”

http://www.bunitedint.com/information/collections/cans/

Cans do have the benefit that once the beer is packaged there is zero air (oxygen) ingress into the package, which is not the case for bottled beers. Having stated that, how well a canned beer will hold up over time is a factor of how much oxygen was introduced during the packaging process (measured via TPO – Total Packaged Oxygen) and how the beers were stored (i.e., temperature of storage).

Cheers!

 

Yep - that's my pet peeve with State Line - old beer!

 

Whenever you're in TX, Altstadt Brewers outside of Fredericksburg produce a decent altbier, cleverly called "Alt". It's available at HEB in the SAT area, among others.

 

There has been a fair bit of discussion about the various ‘types’ of Altbier.

For example Uerige brewery produces three ‘versions’ of Altbier:

· Uerige Alt: 4.6% ABV

· Uerige Sticke: 6% ABV

· Uerige DoppelSticke: 8.5% ABV

There are other differences between these three ‘variants’ beyond amount of alcohol (i.e., amount of malt used to brew the beer). For example, Uerige Sticke is more highly hopped including hops added for a dry hopping process.

https://www.uerige.de/en/produkte.html

Cheers!

 

As coincidence would have it, I was in my local bottle shop today and what did they have but Uerige Altbier. I’ve never seen this before, so of course I picked one up.

 

Folks in Central and Northern Indiana have seasonal access to People's Brewing Company's Alt Ready To Go, a solid representation of the style I think.

 

Is there a bottle (or can) date on that beer?

Cheers!