7.4

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

BOTTLE 37,5 CL shared. Rich fruity and jammy aroma, traces of spicy hosp and some spicy booze. Taste fruity and caramelish, with strong spicy bitterness. Crisp mouth feel, a little sticky on the palate. Very good.

7.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

Tap at Erzbierschof Zurich. Nutty and intense caramel malt aroma. Very bitter, some sweetness, with a medium body, texture is dusty with a bit of chalk, but that does not transfer to the flavor. Very dry with a short finish. Good!

7

Very late rating

7.8

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

750mL bottled July 3, 2015, drunk 1/10/16. Thanks to Yourilevesque for the bottle!
Fantastic pour to it, obviously unfiltered/bottle conditioned, with a massive auburn-flecked beige head that is very well-retained. Lovely looking chestnut-mahogany body shows good clarity and plentiful carbonation.
Earthy/dusty yeast notes in the nose combine with black pepper, red apples and cherries and tons of fig/raisin and caramel. It all balances nicely; a good mix of both earthy/peppery and fruity/rich. Quite clean, with no alcohol whatsoever.
Rich, well-malted caramel, toffee and raisin notes are supported by a soft, supple texture, tight carbonation and earthy, crusty bread notes and peppery hops on the finish, lending balancing dryness. Light vanilla, a hint of soft smokiness and tons of slightly tart fruit notes (apples, cherries, plums, prunes). Good bitterness to it, probably more than a traditional sticke alt, but it doesn’t have any resulting resin or anything like that, and does help keep the beer balanced and drinkable. Really nice, no burnt/scorched earth notes or anything weird that some raters have claimed. Only real detractors I found were a bit too much buttercream-like character stemming from the strong c-malt, also producing a bit too much sourdough-like character.

8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Brilliant slightly hazy deep amber colour, good frothy beige head, diminishing slowly, good lacing. Aroma is roasted malts, caramel, honey, maple syrup, dark fruits. Taste is medium sweet and bitter, with long duration, roasty, toffee, bit fruity. Medium to full body, creamy texture, soft carbonation, aftertaste bittersweet, roasty, spicy notes, distinct earthy and leafy hop bitterness at the end. Not completely an Alt because it’s stronger hopped than its nephews from Düsseldorf but very good anyway.

8.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Draft at Proletariat with James, pleasure drinking with you! Deep maroon brown color, fluffy beige head with good retention and lacing. Aroma of burnt caramel, burnt butterscotch. Taste is rich, sticky malt, burnt toast, butterscotch. Delicious.

7.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Canadian interpretation of ’Sticke’, a stronger version of Alt. Thick and dense, pale yellowish beige, moussy head resting on top of a beautifully deep copper red beer with slight amberish hue, containing masses of tiny bubbles rising up from the bottom, perturbing a very fine haze of minute yeast particles divided equally throughout the liquid. Pretty beer for sure. Aroma is a bit more restrained than expected, but rustic and attractive, with impressions of toasted bread, walnuts, a hint of sweet cherries piercing through, dry moss, some rhum-soaked raisins, dry tea leaves, caramel, straw, weak notes of gingerbread, sherry and dried orange peel. The same kind of ’noble restraint’ comes forward in the taste, beginning with a mixture of nuts and dried berries, only very vaguely sweet, toasted from the start with just the right (soft) amount of carbonation, balanced with a subtle sourishness in the background; a smooth, caramelly but most of all very nutty and toasted maltiness carries hop bitterness in an early stage, resulting in a very long and very dry, deeply bitter finish, almost like in an American-style barley wine, leafy, peppery, earthy, but low in aroma. In all: this beer has the class and nobility of the best of Düsseldorf’s Altbier (I’m thinking Uerige and the like), but is notably distinctive in its much more forwarded, longer and harsher hop bitterness, though fortunately the brewers have refrained from using very aromatic citrus hops and opted for a deep, earthy, ’European’ hop character instead, although I cannot completely exclude the possibility that a part of the hops aromas have gone lost, as this bottle has been aged for a while. Whatever the case, this is an Alt with a hoppy belly, and in many respects a very accomplished beer. I do wonder about the label, which clearly says ’red lager’, whereas true Altbiers are lager-like but top-fermented. Is this truly a lager? In a style which is almost in between top fermentation and bottom fermentation, this is really hard to tell...

7

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Marrón oscura. Densa y turbia. 2 dedos de espuma ocre que dejan una película de medio centímetro imborrable. Aroma complejo. Fruto seco. Caramelo. En boca predominio dulce, con rica base de caramelo. Pero no queda ahí. Frutos secos siguen. Y un final bien amargo, que perdura.

7

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

New England Bucket List Trip #191. C&C 750 mL bottle from State Line. "Smells like I need some seltzer and I could make an egg cream out of that." Says a good friend. Pours a hazy orange with a thin tan head. Fair head retention. Aroma of caramel, dark fruits, chocolate, raisin. Taste is raisin, toffee, chocolate, dark fruits, herbal hops. Medium bodied, lingering bitterness.

6.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Bottle. Amber colour with a beige head. Aroma is fruit, malt, hop, berries. Flavour is fruit, malt, hop, berries, caramel, apple. Medium body. OK beer.