Gatz Alt - A short introduction to Altbiers

Fellow beer enthusiasts,

today I will go a little bit into the world of altbiers. I will do that by posting a very common altbier - Gatz Alt. With this, I intend to open a series of posts related to other Altbiers and to the city of Düsseldorf.

The Gatz Altbier is, since 1999, a part of the Carlsberg Brewery, it contains 4,8% alcohol and is sold mostly in 500ml bottles, such as the one I acquired in 2008 when backpacking through the region of North-Rhein Westphalia.

Gatz Alt - a part of the Carlsberg Empire in Düsseldorf

This region contains two rival cities, Cologne and Düsseldorf, each one with their very own kind of beer: Altbier for Düsseldorf and Kölsch for Cologne. Both use top fermentation yeasts (ales) and are fermented in warm temperatures (but still not as warm as the british ales). But the similarities stop there, the color and taste of the beers are completely different, making for two beer styles that are usually loved in their home town and despised at the other. Order a Kölsch in Düsseldorf, and you'll be sent straight to Cologne...

As much as I like the city of Cologne and do enjoy an occasional Kölsch, I have to say that I prefer the stronger taste of the Altbier.

Altbiers are dark in color and bitter in taste, and although they are produced mostly in Düsseldorf, there are brands of Altbier produced also in other cities, like Münster, Krefeld, Warstein and even in Cologne!! (More on that one later...)

This kind of beer is a surviving tradition... back in the time of the German unification, Bavaria imposed their purity law (Rheinheitsgebot) as a condition to join the forming country, which put an end to many spiced beers produced in the other regions. The Altbier survived this imposition, being nowadays one of the few traditional beer types with its origins in the northern portion of Germany.

When observing a map of the German breweries, one can notice the huge concentration of breweries in the southern portion (Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg) when compared to the northern states.

Beer map of Germany - Augmented area corresponds to Franconia (no surprise there)

That's it for this week my friends, in the next weeks I will be bringing some curious stories around Düsseldorf and some lower-scale produced Altbiers.

Cheers!