Alt Bier

[Barley Water]

Yesterday I fired up the kettle and did an Alt, another first for me. I have, for whatever reason, never tried this style so we will see what happens. Maybe it's because you really can't get any of the authentic commerical examples over here but we have a contest coming up in August and I needed an Amber hybrid so I gave it a shot. I did a double decoction for this one but at the same time tried to mash for a fermentable wort (all the literature I read indicated that you want the beer fairly dry and crisp). This will also be my first time using the Alt yeast, the stuff seems to go off pretty quickly as I see I have yet another mess to clean up after only about 15 hours or so in the fermentation carboy. I am running this one at 60F so I basicly treated this beer just like a lager with a pretty big load of yeast. I think what I will do is let this go for a few days at this temperature then run things up to about 70F to make sure it ferments out all the way and if there is any diacetyl, that should take care of it also.

To make room for the Alt, I had to move the Cream Ale I did last week out of the fermenter into another carboy. This stuff looks and tastes like it is not quite done yet as it tastes a little sweet to me and and not yet cleared. Of course, there are no hops to speak of in the beer so maybe that is just what happens when you use 20% corn grits. I was using WLP01 at 62F and the beer tastes just like a lager but I would absolutely not go any colder with this yeast although when it started, it also blew right out of the fermenter, go figure. Anyhow, next week when I run the temperature up on the Alt I will also warm this beer up a little and see if I can get it to dry out a little more. It will be interesting to see how the American and German ale yeasts compare, I may come to the conclusion that I should have used the Alt yeast on both beers.