Ah... beer mail. This came a few weeks back and, in fine style, there were two bottles. Two bottles is a good thing to get to have a decent think about a beer. Neighbour of Düsseldorf, Dortmund is in the North Rhine-Westphalia matrix of beers that are alleged ales... no... hybrids... no.... traditional... maybe... tasty... for sure.
For me, this beer takes me back. Before there were amber beers, alt beer was one of the early types of beer that craft brewers sought to emulate. In the mid to late 80s, there was a brewer in south eastern New Brunswick out east called Hans Haus. Recollection of taste back a quarter century is a perilous thing but to my mind this was close to one of those beers of my youth. Nutty malt. Almond more than hazelnut. A wee jag of steel in the hops. A twitch of smoke and a lot of brown bread crust as well. Fruit as well. A little wild cherry maybe overshadowing a little bit of apple butter. All with the feel of soft water.
BAer respect. I can live with that.
Comments
ethan - December 6, 2012 10:19 PM
Available at the German pavillion at Epcot, I dicovered last week, and in fact perhaps one of the best beers available in all the Disney parks. I was glad to find it!
The Beer Nut - December 7, 2012 5:17 AM
Lovely beer. It looks weird with a crown cap, like your best friend's bizarre new haircut.
Barry M - December 8, 2012 4:32 PM
TheBeerNut is right, it does look weird with a crown cap! This used to be my regular been when I was out of a night in Muenster (lived there for three years). But some of the shine seems to have worn off, but I reckon I could still spend a night drinking it. Interestig to note that it used to be called Hoevels Bitterbier, before Radeberger bought it and thought "Original" might market better than something described as bitter. Oh well. That stuff you have is probably brewed offsite somewhere, but they do still brew in the brewpub. Had the pleasure of visiting it a couple of years ago.