German Altbier

[MadBrewer]

I guess I never got around to posting this. I brewed up an Altbier a few weeks back and it's been cold crashing about a week now. I'm thinking of kegging it up tomorrow now that it seems to have cleared up. I never brewed the style yet alone really had an example of the style but it sounded really good. I brewed a Kolsch back in February and it came out great so I took that as a base and built on it. I looked over a lot of recipes, even from Jamil and Gordon Strong and took those into consideration. What I ended up with is what I hope will be a nice little German session beer. The style is meant to be a clean, cool fermented Amber colored Ale. Malty, flavorful, firm bitterness and hop character yet finish clean and crisp. I even have some Kolsch glasses that I'm really looking foward to trying out with this beer. Anyone ever brew the style? I used Crystal for late hops because I really liked them in my Kolsch. I also used the K-97 German Ale yeast again. If anyone has been wanting to try that yeast do it. I'm very impressed. Here's what I put together.

Alt
Dusseldorf Altbier

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (G): 6.0
Total Grain (lb): 10.000
Total Hops (oz): 2.75
Original Gravity (OG): 1.049 (°P): 12.1
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.81 %
Colour (SRM): 14.4 (EBC): 28.4
Bitterness (IBU): 36.8 (Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 80
Boil Time (Minutes): 90

Grain Bill
----------------
7.000 lb Pilsner (70%)
2.000 lb Munich I (20%)
0.500 lb Caramunich II (5%)
0.250 lb Chocoalte Wheat (2.5%)
0.250 lb Carafoam (2.5%)

1.00 oz Perle Pellet (7.3% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (Boil) (0.2 oz/Gal)
1.00 oz Crystal Pellet (4.5% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil) (0.2 oz/Gal)
0.75 oz Crystal Pellet (4.5% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (0.1 oz/Gal)

Single step Infusion at 154°F for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 60°F with Safale K-97.

This was a pic of the hydro sample. Came in exactly on target at 1.049 OG. Looks like an Altbier.

[MrBandGuy]

That looks yummy! I've had a few alt beers from breweries, Against the Grain and New Albanian. Had one in Austin TX that was solid too. Haven't made one myself, but I do enjoy the style. Hope this one turns out for you!

[mashani]

Sounds delicious.

[BigPapaG]

Sweet!

Sounds great, looks great too!

I enjoyed the K-97 in my Cream Ale.

[ScrewyBrewer]

@MadBrewer I can see that you and I share the same tastes in hydrometers. The color and clarity of your Altbier looks absolutely amazing. I'll be saving your recipe and brewing notes, thanks for sharing. I don't remember reading much about the Altbier style, but then I didn't know anything about the Kolsch style either until I brewed my own. I'll be searching my local shelves and taps for an Altbier that I can sample.

kolsch-3.jpg (24.37 KiB) Viewed 353 times

When brewing a Kolsch I use a soft water profile, something similar to that of a Pilsner beer. Did you tinker with your brewing water any?

[MadBrewer]

@MadBrewer When brewing a Kolsch I use a soft water profile, something similar to that of a Pilsner beer. Did you tinker with your brewing water any?

I did not, no. I just adjusted for a mash ph of 5.3-5.4 with Lactic acid and hit 5.35 if I remember correctly. I do not do much with my water except for the opposite ends of the spectrum. For my Porters/Stouts I like to add Chloride and Sodium and of course alkalinity via Baking Soda. On the other end, I have only recently been experimenting with high Sulfate for hoppy beers by adding Gypsum. For the in between beers (which is most of what I brew) my water is quite balanced and middle of the road. To an extent, it's even quite neutral compared to some, except for it's high alkalinity/bicarbonate. I was really happy with the Kolsch so again using that as the base I built on that for the Altbier. The Kolsch might have been slightly swayed hoppy but was really good. For the Altbier, I took that and made sure I swayed the hop character towards bittering and not hoppy, although there will still be some hop character.

So while you are asking, my water profile as is:

35ppm Ca, 12ppm Mg, 8ppm Na, 18ppm Cl, 24ppm So4

Again, that's also what I used as is for the Kolsch, so yeah in a sense it's a softer "Pilsen" like water profile. What was your water profile, you have me curious.