Oh dear. The race apparently is on as Stan say Jay is going to pass me for blog posts. So I better start posting posts whether I like them or not. Maybe... maybe I will do posts about beer people and their birthdays. DAMN. Jay does that already! OK - beer people and their pets. Maybe. I will have to work on that. Look, I am not saying Jay has lower standards but that is no reason for me to not lower mine.
Meantime, it is about 84 degrees outside on the 3rd of April, it's Saturday, there is the last of spring training baseball on the TV and I am having a sticke alt. Alt is a funny beer. Used to be that US craft brewers called their amber ales alts until they realized no one knew what they were talking about. So they switched it to amber ale. Horst D. Dornbusch wrote the book Altbier for the Classic Beer Style Series from Brewers Publications back in 1998 and he says sticke alt is a strong Dusseldorf specialty. I think had one once before but never wrote a note. This take on the style from Quebec's powerhouse brewery Les Trois Mousquetaires pours a glowing dark red amber ale under a lace leaving cream froth and foam. On the nose there is rich apple butter malt with a nice zesty herbality. I never wrote the word "herbality" before but I am sure it means the presence of herbalness. Herbalosity. Fat chance Jay ever coming up with a word as swell as herbality.
Anyway, I am struck with one thing so far: does Horst D. Dornbusch use the "D" as an initial because of some other famous Horst Dornbusch? Was Horst K. Dornbusch the best known short story writer from Munich in the 1950s? Was Horst B. Dornbusch a great municipal political leader? Anyway, as I dwell on that a little too much I also see that I probably have enough content for two or even three passable posts. DAMN. I still should note that in the mouth the sticke alt is a ball of rich round malt deftly cut by steely German hops with subtle almond and cherry hints. Fortunately, I have to be back in the national capital zone on Monday and I may well pick up a few more of these at Marche Omni, especially given the incredibly reasonable price of $4.99 (Canadian!) for a 750 ml bottle. Regard! Beaucoups d'amore BAer.
