Boltens Alt

Brewed by Privatbrauerei Bolten
Style: Altbier
Korschenbroich, Germany

Serve in Kölsch/Altbier

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Bottled. A reddy brown mahogany coloured beer with a small head to start but that soon goes. The aroma is a bit eggy and smoky with nuts and caramel. The taste is a bit more of the same with some sweet caramel mixed in. It’s perfectly drinkable but I find all the altbiers I’ve had much of a muchness and only worthy of average marks.

Roastmalty nose. Roastmalty taste with a soapy and very nut-bitter finish. Not my type of Alt, for sure. Still okay, somehow, though.

Firm head. Nutty aroma with some hops shimmering through. Malty and slightly metallic flavor. Some bitterness present. Sweeyish with some butterscotch. Not too bad for an industrial alt.

Bottle from Beers of Europe. Ruby red/dark brown colout with moderate, slightly off white head. Aroma is sweet, figgy? and bready. Flavour is nutty, malty, toasted. Moderate carbonation and smooth with a medium mouthfeel, perhaps a bit thin at the end. Really late bitter aftertaste. Good altbier.

Copper hue with a creamy off white head. Rusty malty nose. Rusty flavour a bit like John Smiths Extra Smooth, no thats an insult, but you get the picture. Not as brutally woody as some alts but the wood is stilll there in spades. A good alt, not too woody and some good flavours.

500 ml (nor bottle conditioned). Dark oak colour. Modest head that diminishes down to nothing. Light bready malt aroma, with something a little medicinal and tinny lurking in the background. Some caramel and tobacco hints too. The mouthfeel is rather thin, with no more than a slight prickle on the tongue. No very distinctive elements in the flavour - a whisper of acid morello cherry, a suggestion of nuts, some sharp hops but, again, that metallic tang persists. Slightly tart, but fleeting, finish. Acceptable, but the rather weak body and metallic tang detract.

Dark syrup aroma. Nice oldstyle green and gold label. Moderately sweet, grainy, figgy and leathery. Dryish finish. Medium dark brown. Lightly bitter finish with caramel and grain. A little thinnish, but pretty good and true to the style.

Peppery nose. Brown creamy head. Full spicy taste, nice hops too and a roasted+bitterhop aftertaste.

Bottle. Bolten have been brewing in Korschenbroich near Dusseldorf since 1266, making this the oldest and most traditional altbier in the world. Top fermented and then lagered for 5 months, Bolten is a glowing ruby mahogony colour with a soon vanishing head. It has a mild but inviting chocolate and cherry aroma which warms up to become cherry brandy with a whiff of whisky, the whole slightly marred by a hint of metallic hops and then by the band-aid aroma noted by Yogi_Beera. Light bodied but with chocolate, coffee and cherry flavours soon overtaken by a crude hop bitterness which fades into a dull finish. Late in the after-taste the band-aid aroma comes back to settle in the mouth. There are good moments in this beer, but the whole is raggedy and not all that enjoyable.

Dark amber color. The cacao powder flavor that you can find in Romanian chocolate - no offence.