Exemplary Altbiers in Boston Area?

Its a double but Double Bag is great.

 

You can find Uerige stickebier here and there. It's tasty and on point. I picked it up a few weeks ago at Charles St. Liquors when I was on a similar altbier exploration. Long trail Doublebag is readily available (also at Charles), and triplebag happens to be out now (try Cbc) They are more boozy versions of the style. I'd still suggest you give them a try.

 

It's not ubiquitous, but usually not too hard to find Tuckerman's Headwall Alt around time. It's one of my favorites in the style.

 

Outside of the few higher ABV takes on this style, like double bag and Tuckerman's Headwall, it's hard to find a non-imperial version readily available on shelves outside of Long Trail's flagship. I don't know about other parts of the country, but this is one style that seems poorly/under-represented in New England.

Kinda surprised even Sam Adams doesn't make an alt - seems it would be up their alley.

 

+1 for long trail ale and double bag. Another Vermont Classic alt is wolavers/otter creek copper ale. Great style for New England winters.

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/favorite-american-altbiers.33444/#post-419352

Read the thread above (it's only one page) and you'll quickly see you may be hard pressed to find a great Altbier in Boston. Olde Mecklenburg's is supposed to be outstanding, but unfortunately you can't get that here in Boston.

Long Trail's example(s) and Otter Creek's I've been told (by those who have traveled to Dusseldorf) are not great examples, and are probably more American brown ale than traditional Alts.

 

As one of those people, I would definitely not hold up Long Trail's as something similar to the German incarnation (never had the OC one). For one, it seems that this is one of those styles that's best super-fresh, so anything imported is lacking due to age and pasteurization, and it's not a popular style for domestic brewers because of the a) odd brewing conditions (ale yeast + low temp) and b) tweener style (not pale, but not high abv or notably hoppy). I'd actually venture that some American-made "octoberfest" beers--particularly the criper, hoppier, lower abv ones--are as close as some billed nominally as alts. But I rarely drink German styles outside of pils, so that part might be my imagination getting the better of me.

Altbier's an odd beast: simultaneously malty, bitter, with cask-level carbonation and pretty rich mouthfeel for a 4.5-5.0% beer. It's also delicious, especially when consumed with a giant Schweinshaxe, or outside on a crisp 50F fall evening.

 

Thank you for chiming in, very interesting response. Your description sounds like what happens many brewers make a "Koelsch" and it simply ends up being an American blonde. That's another style that's a tweener and is best consumed at the source/super fresh.

Your description here, "I'd actually venture that some American-made "octoberfest" beers--particularly the criper, hoppier, lower abv ones--are as close as some billed nominally as alts".

Sounds a lot like a Boston Lager. Although Boston Lager doesn't use any German malts, so it wouldn't be very traditional. Although that's a beer that I definitely feel suffers more than most realize when it's not super fresh.

 

Heh, I was thinking Boston Lager too, except I pulled the idea because it's always thrown out as a Vienna example and the malts are wrong I guess. But it definitely has a similar malt-bitterness balance as an alt. Serve Boston Lager on cask and I bet you'd fool a lot of people if you claimed it was an alt.

I've got altbiers pegged for my never-actually-going-to-happen foray into homebrewing. It seems like a great style for it--lowish abv, best fresh, easy-to-get malts and hops, and hard to find commercially. Alternate with a British ale and you're golden.

CBC usually throws a mild or bitter on cask. Maybe they--or The Tap--could get alts into the mix...

 

I was actually in Dusseldorf, home of the alt, last week and Uerige was the drink of choice (maybe due to my tourist nature). Like the other posters has said, this beer is intended to drink fresh. To the point that most of local breweries only give you a small .2L glass of it. I did find a bottle of it at Julio's a while back, but it certainly didn't drink the same as the fresh version.

As for the local comparison, the only thing I had close was the Beer Camp version which we will probably never see again.

 

I have not tried it, but Agner & Wolf in Nashua brews an Altbier. @AlcahueteJ wrote about it here.

 

Sam Adams brewed an alt in their Longshot series called "Derf's Secret Alt" - based on some homebrewer's recipe. It was equally if not even more tasty as Long Shots Doublebag.