#27 - Dusseldorfer Style Alt Bier

27 - Dusseldorfer Style Alt Bier

Dusseldorfer Style Altbier.
Added 3-26-99

This batch was brewed back in November 1998. At that time there was a lot of talk of Alt biers on the Homebrew Digest. It inspired me to brew one of my own. I did a psuedo-decoction for this batch. My first "decoction". This beer turned out to be a very good clean, malty, slightly sweet beer. According to Al Korozonas this style is supposed to be very bitter. Mine did not come out very bitter at all but is still very good. With the decoction I pulled 100+% extraction with this batch. I ended up with a larger volume to get the gravity I was shooting for. Beautiful copper color.

Grains:	Hops:
8.75 De Wolfe-Cosyns Munich 2.00 Durst Munich	3.10 oz. Spalt (5.0% whole 90 minutes) 1.10 oz. Spalt (5.0% whole 30 minutes)

Water: RO water treated with Ken Schwartz's "Other Ale" water recipe.

Yeast: Wyeast 1338 European Ale Yeast

OG	FG	IBU	Total Grains:(lbs.)	Efficiency:	pts/lb/gallon:
1.051	1.015	54.0 (Daniel's formula)	10.75	100 + %	36.0

Notes:

Mash: 1 quart per pound at 150*F for 60 minutes.
Boil volume = 9.00 gallons at 1.043
Post-chill volume = 7.25 gallons at 1.051
The wort was boiled for 90 minutes total. I got a lot better extraction due to the decoction and had more volume than I had planned for. It didn't hit me until half way through the batch that I would need more hops to reach my intended bitterness. That is the reason for the second hop addition at 30 minutes. Next time I WILL only do one hop addition at the beginning of the boil.
I poured the wort into a 6.5 gallon carboy and then racked 1.5 gallons (with most of hops material) into a 3 gallon carboy. I split the yeast between both carboys.
Primaried for 10 days in the mid- 60*F area. Secondaried (6.4 gallons) for 2.5 months. I did not cold-condition this beer. Bottled with 7/8 cup of cornsugar.
Decoction: Here is the procedure I used for my psuedo-decoction. First I mashed in 2 lbs of the DWC + 2 lbs of the Durst Munich at 154*F for 20 minutes in a seperate, small pot. I then boiled this for 30 minutes adding water when needed. I added the rest of my strike water for the main mash to the decoction and heated to the correct strike temperature. I then mashed-in the rest of the grain and let rest at 150*F for 60 minutes. Proceeded with the rest of the brew day in my usual manner.

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