Frankenheim Alt

Brewed by Privatbrauerei Frankenheim (Warsteiner)
Style: Altbier
Düsseldorf, Germany

Serve in Kölsch/Altbier

This is the Ale of all Ales. It's like finding a new girlfriend. She's all you want. The Irish Pub in Ybor City, FL. has this masterpiece on tap.

Tap. I lived In Dusseldorf for a year, and found Frankenheim the perfect alt style: not too sweet, not too dry (and believe me, I tried all of them, a lot). At the Frankenheim itself, on Am Wehrhahn, they bring the alt as a given, in 250 ml galsses, and then ask what you want. Every time you get close to finishing, another glass appears. Inside, the bringing up up of kegs from the cellar, tapping, and pouring of hundreds of glasses is a continuous process, especially in summer. Soapy head, small bubbles, nice hops bite. Reading the bottle reviews, seems this is an alt best experienced live, because I thought it was Great.

Bottle. Dark greyish brown with quite quickly dissipating head. Aroma is caramel, coffee, hops, fruit (mango maybe), malt and a bit of honey. Taste is unexpectedly fruity for an altbier, caramel and coffee are not as prominent as in the nose, some malt and honey and a medium bitterness which grows with the drinking. Perfect altbier.

Poured into a .5l glass. Big frothy head that is slow to subside. Not much in the way of lacing as it dissipates as soon as the head does. Medium brown-nutty color. Crystal clear. Malty aroma that overpowers any other aromas. Again, malty. Slight nuttiness with a sweet front. The sweetness stays awhile after swallowing. Smooth creamy texture. A little more watered down creamy texture though. Still very good. I could drink this daily, and sometimes do. The alcohol content puts it a bit out of reach of the ’session’ beer. But there are not a lot of German beers that you could call a session beer. Overall, a good, economical beer to come home to and relax with.

Surprising, delicious roasted malt character. Color is gorgeous deep amber. No aroma to speak of. Malty, caramel flavors that finish extremely bitter all of a sudden. Will definitely try again.

UPDATED: OCT 28, 2003 Toasty oat-grain aroma that reminded my tasting krewe of Alphabits or Honeycomb cereal. Dry and nutty grain flavor with dark syrup shadowing. The beer is a very cool bronze-brown color with a light beige head. Trailing and building bitter palate. A new favorite -- distinctive and high quality.

I was very impressed with this beer. It is the first German Alt beer I have tasted. I will definately buy more.

UPDATED: APR 5, 2005 On tap: nice malty aroma; medium-dark brown (pretty dark in a liter dimpled mug, but I get the impression it wouldn’t be so dark in more common glassware); wonderful flavor, malty, even subtly fruity, bitter finish.

Bottled: musty aroma, lightly malty; medium brown, about the color of Coke after the ice has started to melt; the flavor is much less complex (and much lighter) than the tapped beer was. It’s not nearly as good, tastes watered down. Lightly malty flavor with an even lighter hop finish. Not bad, but not remarkable.

You can find better bottles of beer, but if this is on tap around you it’s certainly worth a try.