Brupaks Dusseldorf Alt Bier kit

[mike004]

I've just bought a Brupaks "Beers of the World" Dusseldorf Alt kit.

Some questions:

* The kit includes a dry lager yeast. I always thought that Alt was a top-fermenting brew. Hence, an ale yeast would be best. But the leaflet included with the kit explains that the lager yeast was included as it closely matched the process used in D'dorf.

* I have some Spalt hops left over from another project. I expect these would be OK and in-style?

* Alt bier is very hoppy. (The first time I drank it in D'dorf I wasn't too keen on it -- then after a few I got hooked!) Would it be appropriate to use dry-hopping in the 2ndary for this brew?

Thanks
Mike

[steve_flack]

Alt beer isn't always hoppy. Several of the bottled versions aren't - some aren't even that bitter. That being said the Dusseldorf 'standards' of the style are -Zum Uerige for example.

Whilst alt is fermented with an ale yeast it is however lagered after fermentation. It's flavour profile is more like that of lager than that of a British ale. The standard yeast for these beers is Wyeast 1007 which is a highly attenuative, low ester, non-flocculant strain. If you wanted to brew it with a dried yeast you could use US-05 fermented on the cool side or a lager strain - Ithink a lager yeast is an OK choice if you can control fermentation temperatures.

Spalt hops are in style but some people don't like them much. Dry-hopping is pretty rare for German beers.

[mike004]

In the fermentation bin at the moment, I have a Brupaks Czech Pils. This also uses a dry lager yeast.
Since there isn't a great variety of dry lager yeasts on the market as far as I know, I am assuming that the Brupaks Czech Pils and Dusseldorf Alt both use the same yeast.
So if I brew the Alt next and pitch it on the yeast cake it should take off with no problems.

Mike

[steve_flack]

You're right there aren't many dried lager yeasts out there. One of them, S-23, has a tendency to be slightly more estery than perhaps a good lager yeast should be. It would however probably work quite well in an alt, kolsch, steam beer etc. Do you know what the yeast supplied was?

[mike004]

The yeast supplied with the Dusseldorf Alt (and the Czech lager) is a Brewferm Lager yeast, from Belgium. And there is plenty of it...
Brewferm make quite nice Belgian beer kits, as I recall.
Fermentation temp is stated as 12 to 15 deg C on the label.

Mike