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Anyone tried the Magnotta IPA, Altbier or Wunder weisse?
I had occasion to try an IPA on the week end at a friends...he surprised me because he usually buys whatever is cheap...but he had 2- 12s of Magnotta IPA for the game....of course I like this IPA and buy it when I see it , so I questioned him as to why he would buy this classic premium beer out of the blue and after years of ignoring my nagging to drink better not more....he just said it tasted good and had a kick to it
Whatever, small victories eh?
I haven't heard much about Magnotta's success or lack of it marketing these better than premium commercial beers.....I have to assume they are still an undiscovered gem.
The what style? I believe you are referring to a paper style that does not actually exist in Germany. There is only one Altbier style, and it is from Dusseldorf. I'm curious if you have any insight as to where this actually comes from (I mean, where the BJCP guys dug this one up because that's the only place I've ever heard of it).
I like Magnotta's Alt but it does not remind me much of the one altbier I have had (on draft) the Zum Uerige's sticke version of its alt. This was flown over specially for a tasting in Philadelphia some months ago and by chance I happened to be there at the time. I would say that was probably, together with one or two real ales in England, the best beer I have ever had in my life. I would equate it, not in taste but in hyper-quality, with Fuller's ESB in London and one or two old ales from further north in England. I guess kolsch is broadly an alt bier in its sense of the older, top-fermented type of beer still around here and there in Germany, so the Dusseldorf alt could be viewed, I think, as a style of altbier.
dhurtubise wrote:Wonderweiss is a true to form Weizen, usually closer to Hacker Pshor then Schneider Weiss. Well worth buying.
The alt is in the North German Alt style if I remember right. It is a nice malty interpretation and well worth the purchase.
I have sampled the wunder weisse and as a weizen/weisse fancier I think it is a fairly accurate representation of the style.....nice and dry... though Hacker-S or Schneider don't have that only Mahr's gets close to the nice dry finish WW has ( probably from unmalted wheat?). I wish they'd bottle it. But then they may have a lot of competition from Denisons. Me, I like both these local hefeweizens
Apparently Magnotta's head brewer was trying to reproduce the Dusseldorf version...malt biased, spalt hopping, bready, cold conditioned...keeps the ale fruityness down...a very nice beer, I buy it regularly when I see it available. Having not sampled a Dusseldorf Alt,( a gaping hole in my beer education I mourn as I love the traditional German styles) I can't make a comment on how close the resemblance is.
Last edited by pootz on Wed Feb 09, 2005 11:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
Josh Oakes wrote:The what style? I believe you are referring to a paper style that does not actually exist in Germany. There is only one Altbier style, and it is from Dusseldorf. I'm curious if you have any insight as to where this actually comes from (I mean, where the BJCP guys dug this one up because that's the only place I've ever heard of it).
Have you read Horst Dornbusch's book on the history of the style Josh?
Apparently Alts were made throughout the lower Rine (Niederrhein?) the Alts outside Dusseldorf, he states, may approximate the original but vary as they use other processes and equipment other than the true Dusseldorf Alt brewers. The BJCP style guide states the further north you get the more like "lager" the alts become??
Josh Oakes wrote:The what style? I believe you are referring to a paper style that does not actually exist in Germany. There is only one Altbier style, and it is from Dusseldorf. I'm curious if you have any insight as to where this actually comes from (I mean, where the BJCP guys dug this one up because that's the only place I've ever heard of it).
Have you read Horst Dornbusch's book on the history of the style Josh?
Apparently Alts were made throughout the lower Rine (Niederrhein?) the Alts outside Dusseldorf, he states, may approximate the original but vary as they use other processes and equipment other than the true Dusseldorf Alt brewers. The BJCP style guide states the further north you get the more like "lager" the alts become??
Answers my question at least. Everybody is free to their own interpretation, and while I may have sounded a little snotty really I just had no idea where they got that.
Sounds tenuous to me, though, but that's just me. I find there is a far more discernable character difference between house-brewed alt, be it in Dusseldorf or not (for example Bolten Alt), and mass-produced alt like Frankenheim or Gatz, which are produced inside the city. But alas, this is an argument best taken up with the people who wrote the guideline in the first place, not with the homebrewers who use the guide.
I find there is a far more discernable character difference between house-brewed alt, be it in Dusseldorf or not (for example Bolten Alt), and mass-produced alt like Frankenheim or Gatz, which are produced inside the city.
Would pasturization or sterile filtering have anything to do with the difference between inhouse and mass distribution? I often wonder about this when I taste Germa beers that are exported and wonder just how much real character of that brew has been lost to these 2 processes. Thus my dream of a brew tour of Germany to sample the traditional styles first hand and fresh.
I often wonder about pasteurisation too for German imported canned beers.
I think in some cases they are not all-malt although many clearly are (the cans say so).
I find so many German canned beers disappointing. It can't be canning as such. Pilsener Urquel tastes fine in the can and no doubt is pasteurised.
I don't think it is shipping time/storage factors either. Many of these beers are dated to a year from now or more but still the taste often disappoints.
I wonder if the overall quality of canned brews (the bottled ones seem better and I have no problem with the weizens or bocks, just the lagers) is declining even in Germany. Becks is not bad when fresh but I find most of the rest so-so. Dortmunder Union can be pretty good sometimes. Maybe there is just something about canning and German lager that don't go together because I have a feeling that the draft versions are much better (although imported drafts also have disappointed, but I put that down to their being pasteurised too, in large cans, basically).
