Here is Erics 2025 Vicbrew Beer of Show winning Altbier recipe. Thanks Eric for sharing!
Intro
I played soccer with someone who would talk about Altbier a fair bit, so when I started brewing each Oktoberfest period I said maybe I should make one. Well in 2025 for the 2nd year running I hosted an Oktobeckfest (play on last name) and decided to give an Altbier a crack. It did score well with the party doing a blind taste with two other locally made Altbiers.
It’s an interesting style and one you don’t see around much or if at all! When Vicbrew came along I had three Amber style beers to enter but was only allowed to enter two. I was close to not entering the Alt but lucky I did as it won Amber and also took out Beer of Show from 300+ entries with an average score of 43.3! This qualified it for AABC Nationals in WA and it also picked up 1st in Amber!
Stats
OG: 1.049
FG: 1.014
ABV: 4.6%
Boil: 60 mins
IBU: 33
BU/GU: 0.66
Colour: 12.5 EBC
Mash
Mash 67C for 60 minutes
Malt Bill
I didn’t go with the traditional German malts and went for more local easier to get
Gladfield Munich (40%)
Gladfield Pilsner (39%)
Gladfield Gladiator (8%)
Gladfield Medium Crystal (7%)
Gladfield Aurora Malt (6%)
Hops
Hops (23L batch size)
Boil 60 mins:
40g Spalter Select 22.4 IBU
10g Hallertauer Mittelfrüh 4.7 IBU
Flameout 0 mins:
40g Spalter Select 2.5 IBU
40g Hallertauer Mittelfrüh 2.9 IBU
Yeast
I did source specialty yeast for this: White Labs WLP036 – Dusseldorf Alt Yeast
Water
Brew Father Dusseldorf (Altbier) profile
pH 5.44
Fermentation
Ferment for 2 weeks at 18 degrees then cold crash for 2 days.