The Altbiers of Dusseldorf

I've said it before and last week only reinforced it for me, Dusseldorf is perhaps the greatest single- night pub crawl in the world for a beer lover.  If I had to spend a week in a city I'd choose Bamberg over Dusseldorf because there is more variety of beer and pubs in and around the city.  However, if I had only one night, you simply can't beat Dusseldorf IMO. 

There are five breweries in Dusseldorf that brew Altbier on site at their own pub.  Four of them are in the Altstadt and the fifth, while it's main brewpub is outside the Altstadt, also has a nice outlet pub in the Altstadt where you can enjoy their beer.

What really struck me on this visit about the five different Altbiers is how each one of them has it's own unique taste.  In other words, they don't taste the same.  They range from the dry and hoppy Uerige to the sweet, caramelly Kuerzer and the others fall in between with Schlussel being the most balanced and my personal favorite of the five.  I'll give a rundown of them (with photos) in order from my least favorite to my most favorite.  I will say though that even my least favorite of the five is an excellent beer and I would gladly sit in that pub right now if it were possible.

So let's start with Brauerei Kuerzer.  This is the new kid on the block.  While the other four have been around a long time this one is only about 2 years old.  The atmosphere is a more modern brewpub style.  You can go in the back and look at the brewing equipment much like many of the modern American brewpubs that we're used to.  They differ also from the others in that they don't serve it from the oak barrel.  Their beer is served from some kind of contraption on the bar that they boast as an endless keg.  It appears to be some kind of glass keg that they continuously pump beer into from the cellar below. 

Kuerzer's beer is the sweetest of the five with a very pronounced caramel flavor.   It's quite drinkable though and I suspect those that don't like hoppy beer would really enjoy it. 

We were joined on the pub crawl by our friend Severin whom I met a few years ago through Ingmar and Severin had given me my first pub tour of Dusseldorf.  I make it a point to get in contact with him when I visit and this was our third Altstadt pub crawl together. 

Here's Dorff and Severin enjoying a laugh and the Kuerzer Alt.

I tried to get a shot of the "bottomless keg" on the bar.  I should have just got up closer to take the phote but I'm too lazy.

The brewing equipment was directly behind the bar area.









So I quite liked Kuerzer and will make sure to stop in again.

The next visit was a pub call Im Goldener Kessel about 1 block away (next street over) in the Altstadt.  Here is the Altstadt outlet for Brauerei Schumacher.  I have never been to the Schumacher brewpub itself mainly because it is not in the Altstadt and would require a long walk or a cab ride to get to.  I really should make the effort someday because I hear it is terrific.  But we stopped at Im Goldener Kessel for two Schumacher beers and just drank them outside.  I was quite pleased that even though it was December would could still stand outside and have beer served to us.  As you can see, Severin and I really enjoy this pub crawl.

The Schumacher beer isn't very hoppy but not as sweet as Kuerzer.  I really need to try the Schumacher more often as I vaguely remember it's taste and we didn't linger there long.

The next one though is unforgettable.  The very dry, hoppy, and amazing Brauerei Uerige.  In addition to this great Altbier it is one of the most beautiful pubs in the world.  There are multiple rooms that make up the pub each one a little different.

We first stood in the open room next to the brewery where they allow smoking.  It did get too smokey for me but the crowd in there was lively and enjoyable and we could watch the Kobe's rolling new barrels of beer past us from time to time.

Afterward we decided to go into the adjacent room to sit around a barrel.  No smoke in this room but it is still one of the more informal rooms where you go to just drink the beer and not worry about having to order food.  I paid this room a visit earlier in the day while Dorff was napping and got a kick out of the listening to the locals having a laugh and teasing the other patrons and staff when they walked by.

Another thing I truly love about the Dusseldorf pub crawl is that not only is the service fantastic (you're almost never without a beer - they just keep bringing them until you tell them to stop) but the Kobes (waiters in blue) are very entertaining.  They are the perfect balance between kick ass service and a don't give a fuck, cheeky, sarcastic attitude.  The one we had at Uerige got Dorff a bit riled up so we took some pictures of Dorff joking around with him while other patrons had a good laugh at the scene.

Uerige is just brilliant in every possible way.  It's my favorite pub worldwide.

However, before we got to Kuerzer, Schumacher, and Uerige we met Severin at my second favorite Altbier brewery Brauerei im Fuchschen.  Not quite as hoppy as Uerige but I think the second most hoppiest.  Also another magnificient pub.  We stood in the entrance hallway in front of the bar and watched the barrel changing process while we had a few.  It was hard to leave this place as the beer is so damn good and the atmosphere is really cozy.

Here is the entrance to Fuchschen.

Then we have the serving area.  Notice the two barrels on the bar.  One of them is in serving position and the other is upright.  The upright barrel is on top of an elevator that is used to lower empty barrels into the cellar and raise up a full one a few minutes later.  This happened twice while we were standing there.

Oh and what a beautiful beer it is.  A perfect Altbier.  Just look at that color.  Believe me, it tastes as good as it looks.









Dorff was happy with Fuchschen:

Now I've saved the best for last.  Or at least I've saved my favorite for last.  Brauerei Schluessel.

The perfect Altbier.  The perfect balance of hoppiness and maltiness in one glass all served in the dead center of the Altstadt in one of the most gorgeous pubs I've ever seen.  My friends I give you Schlussel.  The pictures speak for themselves.

Dorff and I also had a nice dinner at Schlussel.  They have a very traditional, regional menu.  I had a venison goulash with red cabbage that was brilliant.

Yeah you can tell I love Dusseldorf.  I've tried to put it into words the best I can but it's tough to really capture how great it truly is.  It really is one of the worlds greatest beer crawls one can possibly find.  It's worth going out of the way for even if only for one night.  It is so easy to visit all five Altbier pubs in one crawl as you don't have to wait around for service and you don't have to go in and sit down at a table if you just want to step up and try the beer at a counter or even outside.  In other words, they don't make you work for it.  I think it is the most beer lover friendly place I've ever been.  Okay, I've talked myself into it.  I need to go back as soon as possible.

My Beer Sanctuary

It took a couple of years but I got my room back.  So this weekend after clearning some furniture out I moved all of my beer stuff back into the beer sanctuary.  I just got a new camera today so I figured this was a good excuse as any to try it out.

I've got an Altbier and IPA in primary fermentation and a Stout in secondary.  Behind that is the rack and containers of grain.

Then we have the wall of Franconian beer coasters and the table with the glorious Hereford cask.

And of course I have to have the inspirational Franconian beer maps on the wall.

It's a modest beer sanctuary but its off to a good start.  Now I just have to prevent relatives from moving into the basement.

Brauerei Josef Schneider - Essing

Geographically the small town of Essing is one of the strangest I have ever seen.  It's wedged between a tall cliff on one side that looms over the village and a tributary of the Danube river on the other side.  What lies in between the two is a very small village with a spectacular brewery, hotel, restaurant/pub, and beer garden complex called Brauereigasthof Schneider.  The location is in the Altmuehltal Nature Park.  This is a fairly large park region with a very unique landscape set in Northern Bavaria.  I believe some of the park crosses over into Southern Franconia and the rest in Bavaria.  Essing itself is off a small tributary of the mighty Danube river.  Only a few kilometers away is the larger town of Kelheim and the city of Regensburg a little further away.  Kelheim's beer fame comes from the fact that it is home to the Schneider brewery (I don't know if there is a relation to the Schneiders of Essing) that brews the famous Schneider Weisse beers.  Also not far away is the monastary Kloster Weltenburg where they brew a half decent Dunkle bier. 

Anyhow, we stayed for a couple of days at the excellent hotel of Brauereigasthof Schneider. 

As soon as you get out of the car the first thing you notice is the cliff looming over the village.

Like a lot of these places in Germany the check in for the hotel is in the pub/restaurant.  I like the way these people think.  Go straight to the pub first!

The brewery appeared to mostly be in an older building out behind the hotel.

On the wall next to my room was a picture of the brewing process (including decoction mashing) used here. 

Okay now what about the beer?  They produce a Dunkle, Helles, Pilsener, Weissebier, and  Helles Bock.  It was a lovely day so I sat out in the beer garden along the stream and had the Dunkle bier first.  It was a terrific Dunkle.  Nutty, a bit chocolately. and smooth as silk.

Nice views from the beer garden as well.  A view of the stream, the nearby bridge, and the cliff.

Well I think you get the point.  It's a really nice place to drink beer.  Especially beer of this caliber.

After a couple of beers we went for a walk to check out the local scenery.  It's really spectacular.  The stream alongside the brewery is full of rainbow trout.  There's an old castle on top of the cliff.   There's a large and kind of strange bridge on the other end of Essing that runs over the main tributary and lots of walking paths about.

On the second day the weather turned lousy and we spent most of the day inside.  We did venture over to Kloster Weltenburg.  Here's a photo of the girls enjoying their Dunkle bier inside.  Another good beer.  Not quite the caliber of Schneiders though.

Overall I would rate Schneider of Essing the best brewery/hotel/restaurant I've visited in Germany.  Everything including the beer, the service, the food, the rooms were top notch. 

Belgian Beer and a Pilsener

I've decided that I want to learn more about Belgian Beers and I learn by drinking .... errr .. I mean doing.  So I stopped by a new beer store in Wareham this afternoon.  First of all it's hard to believe that the town of Wareham, Mass. now has a huge store with over a 1000 beers to choose from.  If there was ever evidence that the craft beer revolution has won this is it.  Believe me, before this Sam Adams was top of the line and hard to find in Wareham.

Anyhow there is a lot of variety in Belgian beers and much to learn but I figured I'd start with a Tripel knowing that I liked these in the past.  The one I had tonight was called Maredsous Tripel and is supposedly based on a recipe from the Maredsous Abbey.  Reading the fine print it says it is brewed and bottled by Duvel.  I liked it just fine.  I'm not one for trying to type fancy tasting notes.  I suck at it and I don't like reading them either.  The beer was decent but not as good as the only other Belgian Tripel I've had (Kasteel).  But it's a start and I'll keep trying them.

Here's the obligatory, pretentious, Belgian beer photo.

Once I polished that off I remembered I still had some Pilsener left in my homebrew keg.  The picture of the Tripel was taken with my wife's fancy camera.  The picture of the Pilsener was with my crappy cellphone.  The Pilsener still tasted better than the Tripel.  It was overshadowed last weekend by Aaron's outstanding Oatmeal Stout but it really is an excellent beer for the style.  But people will prefer a good Oatmeal Stout to a good Pilsener almost always, especially in November.  This one was brewed with Weyerman's Bohemian Pilsener malt and Czech Saaz hops. 

Good night.  I've got to finish this beer and get some sleep.  NERAX is tommorrow!

To Sparge or not to Sparge

I was reading one of my homebrew magazines the other day and came across an article about the "No Sparge" method of homebrewing.  Naturally I laughed as soon as I saw it but read the article anyhow thinking sarcastically "this ought to be good".  By the time I got done reading the article and thinking about it I thought there might actually be a lot of merit to the idea.  I scanned the internet for other articles most of which peaked my interest even more.

The basic idea is this:  sacrifice mash efficiency in exchange for saving time and potentially upping the quality.

Okay I understood right away the bit about saving time.  After all a good slow sparge adds another hour to an hour and a half not to mention burns up more propone heating up the sparge water.  Then there is the process of lifting or pumping the sparge water to an elevated position above the mash tun.  So yeah there is no question that not sparging will save time and effort.

I wasn't quite sure about the improvement in quality though but the argument goes that if you are using the no sparge method then your entire batch of wort is "first runnings" and you don't have as much of the rinsing of the grains which does cause more of the off flavor particles to run off into the wort such as tannins.  The comments I've read about it are that you get a cleaner and better malt flavor with the no sparge method. 

Okay so how does the "No Sparge" method work?  Firstly, since mash efficiency will drop you have to add more grain to the mash to make up for it.  Most people seem to think around a 1/3rd increase is the magic number.  So 12 pounds of malted grain in a batch that would normally use 9.  Secondly all the mash water is heated and added to the mash straight away.  So instead of the usual 1 - 1.5 quarts of water per pound of malt you infuse with about 2.5 - 3 quarts per pound.  The mash time doesn't change.  You can still reserve and heat some of the water to do a mash out if you want.  You can still do decoction mashing if you prefer.  You are just not heating sparge water since it is all ultimately in the mash before running off into the kettle.  When you're ready you run the wort out of the mash tun straight into the kettle as fast as you want.  Since we're not sparging/rinsing the grain there is no need to go super slow. 

So what's the downside?  I guess the biggest downside is that you have to use more grain.  Thus the batch cost a little bit more.  Altough the counter to that is you're not only saving time but you're also reducing the amount of propane used a bit.  Also, I would argue that as a homebrewer doing small batches my #1 concern is quality over saving $3-4 a batch.  If I can get equal or better quality using a no-sparge method then why wouldn't I do that and make my brew day easier.  Hopefully the quality is better and that remains to be seen.  Another downside is if you don't have a big enough mash tun then this approach will be limited to smaller batches.  You're not going to do 10 gallons with a single mash tun and you're not going to do a Dopplebock that calls for 14 pounds of malt even with a sparge.  Although once could always use two mash tuns to get the job done I suppose.

At any rate, being convinced that it was worth trying I made a no sparge batch this last Saturday.  I added an additional 1/3 to my grain bill as suggested.  I used 2.5 quarts of water per pound.  In hindsight I should have used a bit more.  I did manage to drain off the mash tun 6 gallons of wort at a good pre-boil gravity.  I did add 1 gallon of water to the kettle because my kettle causes a lot of evaporation.  I should have added a 2nd gallon because I ended up about a gallon short after the boil and so added more cold water to the carboy.  However, I was shooting for a 1.060 OG and wound up with 1.065 so I think the efficiency was a bit higher than I thought and I could have easily added another gallon to the mash tun.  It tasted great and is fermenting well in the basement so we'll see in about 1 week how it turns out after primary fermentation. 

I plan on using this batch as the first batch to go into my new cask.

Dinkelsbühl

Dinkelsbühl is a picture perfect medieval walled city set in the countryside of southwestern Franconia.  I actually made two visits here in July.  First stop was when we went on a bier tour of the region with some local friends.  This city was the first stop to check out the two breweries there.  Brauerei Hauf and Weib's Brauhaus.  What we found in addition to some really nice beer was a beautiful city.  I liked it so much I took my daughter and her friend back here for the last night of our trip before going home.  The day of our beer tour we happened to be there on the first day of their week long festival commemorating the 30 years war.  The second day there we caught the last day of the festival.  I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking:

First beer at Weib's.  Very refreshing lager, especially on a warm sunny day.

It's a small brewery and fairly new not much unlike a American brewpub.

Just outside one of the gates we stopped for some Hauf Festbier at the Wildemann pub.  The sign almost looks a bit like Thor battling the Midgard serpent.

Lots of folks drinking at the pub were in costume getting ready to recreate the Swedish invasion of the city.

... and the conquest of the city begins:

One week later we came back to find the main square of the town (where out hotel was) roped off to celebrate the end of the festival with lots of live music.  It was a challenge trying to check in but it was worth it to spend the last night of the vacation in such a perfect setting.  I had a few Hauf Festbier from one of the outdoor stands that night in the square while the festivities were going on.