Beer of the Moment Article - Riggers' Alt

Click here for small font text.
	Paul Rigby

Alt

History
Altbier is possibly one of the oldest styles of beer still in existence today, in fact the word “Alt” is German for old and Dusseldorf has become the home of this style.
Altbier history can be traced back as far as 1000 BC or the late bronze age, when Europe was inhabited by primitive hunter gatherer tribes only slightly more advanced than their Neanderthal ancestors. History tells us that the Germanic tribes were making ‘beer’ during this period by crumbling partly cooked loaves of bread into earthenware crocks with some water and ‘mashing’ this into a liquid where some sort of spontaneous fermentation took place and created an alcoholic beverage much enjoyed by the people of the time. This concoction was probably very dark in colour, murky, sour and not very tasty but the effect of the alcohol was worth the trouble!
The first written account of brewing in the region now known as Germany was by the Roman historian Tacitus in 98 AD when the Roman empire was running rampant all over Europe on the way, ultimately, to Britain. Tacitus wrote “ they serve an extract of barley and rye as a beverage that has been somehow adulterated (Fermented ?) to resemble wine”. Needless to say the Romans were not impressed by the local brew preferring their wine, so what did the Romans do I hear you ask - they planted grapes - everywhere! Today the contribution to the development of wine by Germany is as big as its contribution to the development of beer.
Christianity arriving in Europe was the next major influence on the development of Altbier, when the cloistered communities of Christian monks and nuns, who were really the only literate peoples of the era, took up brewing as part of their lives. Being literate they kept records of all their brewing attempts and with enough time and trials they were able to refine the process somewhat to be able to produce reasonable quality and consistent brews.
Enter the money hungry feudal lords who saw an opportunity for profit by brewing for the masses and breaking the brewing monopoly of the Christian monasteries and convents. Alas as is always the case when profit raises it’s ugly head, the penny pinching started on ingredients and the quality of the beer deteriorated, all sorts of adjuncts (eg Soot, hard boiled eggs, oxen gall bladders - yuk! ) were being added to make the beer palatable and thereby saleable. This is what ultimately brought about the famous ‘Reinheitsgebot’ in 1516, which basically prohibited the addition of any adjuncts to a beverage called beer.
It soon became apparent that the beer brewed in winter was far superior to that brewed in summer (we now know that yeast metabolism and that basic difference between a lager or cool fermentation yeast versus the warmer temperature or ale yeast was the culprit) and eventually brewing in summer became illegal. The importance of these two regulations is at the heart of the development of what we know today as Altbier and Kolsch. These two edicts caused a split in the brewing fraternity where the new generation or winter (lager) brewers tended to move toward the south of Germany and Bavaria while the old (Alt) or traditionalists moved toward the north to Dusseldorf (Altbier) and Cologne (Kolsch) where they became entrenched.
Today the two best known German Ale styles available are Altbier (Dusseldorf) and Kolsch (Cologne) and the cities of their heritage are still staunch bastions of the style despite the almost overwhelming competition from the lager styles.
Altbier in general should be a bittersweet, medium bodied nutty brown ale with a clean crisp finish of around 5% alcohol. It is somewhat like a fuller bodied British Brown Ale with moderate bitterness and a clean lager like finish.

Enhanced Kit Version (23 Litres)
I don’t think there are any Altbier kits on the market so I suggest purchasing a brown ale kit for this style. As usual I suggest using malt extracts rather than dextrose or sugar, in this case I recommend using a little amber or dark malt extract as part of the adjunct addition. The amount of dark malt extract to add is really a personal choice depending on how dark you want your beer to be, but I would suggest as a starting point to use 500gms of amber or 250gms of dark and the remainder light.
Follow your usual kit method for the remainder of the brew.

Malt Extract and Mini Mash Version (23 litres)
Base Malt - 2000gms Light Malt Extract
500gms Amber Malt Extract
500gms Dark Malt Extract
Mini mash - 600gms Ale Malt
200gms Dark Crystal
150gms Light Crystal
50gms Wheat Malt
Put half a litre of cold water in a saucepan and add grains and heat up VERY SLOWLY (over a 25 to 30 minute period) until just short of boiling. Strain the liquid into a boiling vessel, and discard the grain residue.
Hops – For bittering aim at around 35 IBU's using only noble hops. I recommend Tettnang for bittering but you can really use any hop for this purpose. Grain & Grape staff will be happy to do the calculations for you.
Total boil time should be 90 minutes with the bittering hops boiled for only 60 minutes.
Yeast - There is only one live yeast to use and that is Wyeast 1007 German Ale. I suggest a slightly lower fermentation temperature than the usual for this yeast, I recommend a primary fermentation of 16 to 18°C and a secondary of 12 to 14°C. If you prefer the convenience of dry yeast then try DCL Safale.

Full Grain Version (23 litres)
Grains - 3000gms Hoepfner Pilsner Malt (approx 57.7%)
1000gms Hoepfner Light Munich (approx 19.2%)
300gms Hoepfner Cara Helles (approx 5.8%)
500gms Hoepfner Melanoidin Malt (approx 9.6%)
300gms Hoepfner Wheat Malt (approx5.8%)
100gms Weyermann Carafa 1 (approx 1.9%)
Mashing regimes are many and varied. Most modern malts are very well modified and only need a simple single step infusion mash to obtain very good results. In this case I suggest mashing in at protein preparation temperature of 50ºC and rest for 15 mins, raise to 1st saccrification temperature of 60ºC and rest for 40 mins, then raise to 2nd saccrification temperature of 70°C and rest for 20 mins. Raise temperature to mash out of 78°C for 10 mins.
Hops – For bittering aim at around 40 IBU's using any noble hop, I would suggest using perle for base bittering and Tettnang for additional bittering and flavour and aroma. Total boil time should be a minimum of 90 minutes and the hops being boiled for only 60 minutes.
Yeast - There is only one live yeast to use and that is Wyeast 1007 German Ale. I suggest a slightly lower fermentation temperature than the usual for this yeast, I recommend a primary fermentation of 16 to 18°C and a secondary of 12 to 14°C. If you prefer the convenience of dry yeast then try DCL Safale.