The Naked Pint (19 page)

Okay, we bet that you will love Kölsch because, well, we haven’t met anyone who didn’t, but are you feeling randy, baby? Have we earned your trust enough yet to take you to the next destination on your Beer Journey? Well, travel just 25 miles down the Rhine River from Cologne and you’ll be in Dusseldorf and in the land of the Altbier.
Alt
(German for “old”) harkens back to an old style of brewing in Germany. Just like Kölsch, the Altbier is one of the few indigenous German beers. And also like Kölsch, it’s another example of a hybridized beer style. Most Germans will tell you that an Altbier is definitely an ale. But once again, this is a beer that uses ale yeast and then ferments at cooler temperatures and is lagered, or stored fermenting for anywhere from one to two months.

Originally brewed in Westphalia, this kind of beer is a great foray into drinking a darker-colored beer for those beer drinkers who prefer lighter styles. Because of the lagering process, this beer has low hop aromatics, but instead of using the same Pilsner-style malts that Kölsch does, Altbier uses much darker malts, creating a deep amber, orangey, and copper-colored beer. Altbier does have some hop bitterness on the tongue, but it’s very subtle and is balanced by caramel, toasty flavors with a dry and nutty finish. This is a beer that is full of flavor yet still considered light bodied. It is generally low in alcohol (yes, there are exceptions). Because of its color, this beer frequently gets lumped into the Amber Ale category (see Chapter 4). But to us, Altbier has its own identity and deserves mad props. Here are some of our favorite Altbiers:

Steam beer is another ye olden style of beer but was born in the good old U.S. of A., most likely during the gold rush. It is basically another ale-lager hybrid because of the use of lager yeasts fermented at high ale temperatures. This was an attempt to make a refreshing lager-style beer without the use of refrigeration, as ice, cold water, and other ways to cool down water was often unavailable in the gold-rush era. It gained popularity in California and is still associated with San Francisco and its giant brewery Anchor. The beer was originally made cheaply (thus the lack of refrigeration) and probably tasted like crap back then—yes, it’s true. As with many beers from ye olden times, there wasn’t much control over the brewing environment, especially in the makeshift situations of the Old West. Now, of course, the style has been refined. Today, Anchor’s brewery is nothing to sneeze at, with copper kettles, quality ingredients, and pristine walkways.

The derivation of the name “steam” is much debated. Some claim it is because the CO
₂
pressure built up in the brew kettles and had to be released slightly before transfer, thus letting off “steam.” Others believe that the word comes from
Dampbier
, which is German for “steam beer,” an ale that German Americans would have been familiar with. Anchor Brewing subscribes to the belief that the name came from the brewery’s old practice of cooling the hot wort in large open bins on the brewery’s roof, sending up clouds of steam. Whatever the origin, this style typically has a nice nutty malt character, notes of fruit, with low to medium bitterness. They are low-alcohol beers, coming in at around 5%.

A relative of the steam beer is California Common. This style boasts the same flavor profile of steam beer, but has had to be renamed because of Anchor Brewing’s trademark of the name “Steam” (they’re no dummies). California Common has the same flavor notes of a steam and is fermented at high temperatures using lager yeast. But any craft brewer who wishes to re-create this style, often from California, must use “Common” on the label or face a good-old American legal battle. Here are our favorite uncommon Commons: