Hello all, At my local store today, in one of the coolers, I found some Uerige, which got me excited. They had the Sticke, and next to it, for a couple bucks more, they had the Doppel Sticke. Not having tried it before, I snatched it up quickly. When I got home, I noticed that there was tag saying that it was brewed in 2008, and bottled in 2009. There was an extra little thing in German that seemed to indicate it was released in 2012 to celebrate the brewery's 150 year anniversary (1862-2012). I was worried that altbiers might not hold up with that sort of age on them, but I dove in anyway. And, it was incredible. It was showing some signs of age (slight oxidation, barely any hop flavors left except for a few flashes of something grassy on the back end of each sip), but beyond that, it was amazing. Really complex flavors going on. It still tastes quite toasty, a bit nutty, lots of molasses, honey, dark fruits, etc. Just an incredible experience. So I was wondering, for any German BAs on here, what do you know about this beer? Do you know if the brewery released an old aged batch of this for their anniversary? Does anybody know the circumstances behind this? Does this beer get drunk in Germany, or is it made just for the US, which is what I've heard? Thanks in advance!
Only for US Market I believe but if memory serves you can buy it from Zum Uerige in Dusseldorf? I'm sure someone will confirm that. Truly an amazing beer, I have some cellared, will need to check best before date when I get home. I don't think they purposely aged any, suspicions tell me you are drinking old beer! Who cares if it tastes good though Prost! Sean
Seems like if you had to age it, 1-2 years would be best. At the over 5 year mark (bottled January '09) that I had it, it was quite tasty, but no hop flavor. I think they brew it to 75 IBUs, so it's supposed to have some stronger hop flavors, I would guess. Didn't taste much like an altbier anymore, more like a dry barleywine.
Uerige is definitely at the hop pier end of the altbier spectrum which isn't to my taste but the doppelsticke has such a nice balance due to the richer malty goodness, I think it's just right. It's too difficult to keep it hanging around for a year!
Agreed. I had an older one and it tasted similar to an English Barleywine or Old Ale. Not quite as bold as J.W. Lees and the like, but more like American takes on English barleywine. When served a bit fresher (my local pub got a keg last Fall) it tasted closer to a doppelbock. More cocoa and raisins vs. the caramel and pears from a barleywine. Either way, it's phenomenal. I don't have a ton of experience with the German beers outside of Bavaria, but this one was one of the best I have been lucky to try.
I have yet to try this one. It is available on occasion at the little bar across the street from Uerige or by mail order from Biershop-Braugasthöfe.com (EU delivery only, I think). The new labels were done for their 150th anniversary in 2012 and they continue to use them (at least, as of the last time I ordered some online). I doubt that has to do with the release date of your beer. Not sure how they label Uerige in the US, but here it is DD.MM with no year. They have both bottled-on and best-before dates, and, at least with their normal alt, I think it is assumed that it was made in whatever year you are holding the bottle.
In English, on a little tag, it said brewed in 2008, then bottled in January of '09. So it's definitely about 5 years old. It said it was a special release for the 150th anniversary (2012), which made me think they had some old stock and "released" it again.
Never tried it, impossible to get them outside of Düsseldorf here. But thanks for the tip @mjtierney2 , I didn't know about that shop. Most others focus on Bavarian, Franconian and newer "craft" beers and don't offer much when it comes to Alt and Kölsch.
Two quick notes about that shop: 1) they are sister shops to the Bayern Biershop online, and 2) the first time I ordered Uerige from them, the bottled on date was two days before it arrived on my doorstep! I've had less success with subsequent efforts, but definitely worth doing once in a while. But yes, here in Deutschland the good ones are very hard to find outside of Düsseldorf. And Uerige is the only one I know that you can even order online for delivery. The new CAMBA place in Munich actually seems to carry Kürzer Alt (the newest Düsseldorfer alt) in their restaurant, which I was a little surprised to see. If you have the time and ability, Düsseldorf itself is a great city to visit and definitely worth a train ride up.
I've had this beer* in the past, once from a small gravity cask specially imported for a beer fest, but I don't recall it ever being specifically aged. Is this something new, or has it always been cellared a few years before release? *Just looked up some images from that fest, it was the Sticke Alt, not the Doppelsticke.
Huh. This doesn't make much sense to me, but I've never had it before so I don't know when it is brewed in relation to when it is released. Interesting, maybe I'll order myself some!
This doesn't really make sense. Uerige doesn't cellar its beers (they don't have the space for it). And if it was cellared, then in the bottle, not in a barrel. Is the english tag part of the normal label? Or is it something from an importer? Can you take a picture of it? One guess is that the importer created a label 5 years ago and still uses the same like 5 years ago. If there is an original date from Uerige on the bottle, it is just at the label covering the swing-top - mainly very hard to read. It says normally DD.MM (bottled = abgefüllt am) and DD.MM (BB = haltbar bis). But Uerige only uses stamps for it with no year. And I often buy the Doppelsticke directly from the brewery, it is normally labeld for the US (as they don't really sell it here in Germany). And I never saw such an additional sticker. --> Your beer is 99.9% from 2012+ (according to the anniversary-thing). If you can read the stamp, you can guess the month, but not the year…
I second everything here with one minor exception - at least in Germany, the 150th Anniversary label editions have done away with the neck label and moved the dating to the back label. I say that fully admitting that I have never seen a Dopplesticke and am not sure if the dating/labeling is different for their exports vs. what is sold here.
The problem is that we in this case would need a picture. But the "normal" Sticke I bought in January still has the stamped date on the neck-lable. For the "normal" Alt you're right!
Unfortunately the bottle and label is already gone at this point. It's certainly weird, and maybe I read the dates/info wrong. It's possible, I was drinking!
US BA here... My supplier get UDS periodically and I usually buy several bottles. I might let them sit in my fridge for a month or two but that's about it, I could see extended aging sweetening it up to the point of killing off the finish.
