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Wine Details
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Description:
Southampton Altbier is made with ale yeast but fermented at cooler temperatures similar to lager beer. This results in an ale with less pronounced fruitiness than most ales. Additionally, Altbiers are aged cold for a longer period of time, again similar to lagers. This more expensive and time consuming process tends to dry out the beer and give it a cleaner, lager-like finish. Hence the term “hybrid” beer. With this “best of both worlds” approach, Phil produces an Altbier that has some of the most favorable characteristics of both ales and lagers.
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Varietal Definition
Altbier:
Put simply an Altbier has the smoothness of a classic lager with the flavors of an ale. A more rigorous definition must take account of history. Ale brewing in Germany predates the now predominant lager production. As the lager process spread from Bohemia, some brewers retained the top fermenting ale process but adopted the cold maturation associated with lager. Hence the name ’Old Beer’ (Alt means old in German). Altbier is associated with Dusseldorf, Munster, and Hanover. This style of ale is light to medium-bodied, less fruity, less yeasty, and has lower acidity than a traditional English ale.
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