Pinkus Organic Munster Alt Beer

Brewer: Brauerei Pinkus Muller, Munster
Beer Name: Original Munster Alt Beer
Style: Alt Beer
ABV: 5.10%, but I didn't see that on the bottle!!

I purchased this delectable organic altbier at the same time as the Georg Schneider's Wiesen Edel-Weissen, from precisely the same bottom corner of the same bottom shelf at Mr. Dunderbak's. And so I was a bit worried about the freshness of the beer, but hoooooooly cow I shouldn't have worried my little head! This beer wins.

I paid $4.99 for 500 mL (a metric pint, which, thrillingly, does not fit into my Waterloo Records pint glass). The bottle is cheery and red, with fun black and white antique-y photos of people I can only assume boast the last name of Pinku.

I smelled the brew before I even poured it, and for a moment, I thought that I'd accidentally picked up a Lindeman's Cherry Lambic. Delicious cherries!! Oh, it smelled phenomenal. After my initial shock, I admitted that the cherry smell wasn't as strong as it would be in a kriek, but the distinct smell was still there. I poured a beautiful nutmeg-colored beer into my pint glass, which had a nice little foamy head (though not quite as nice as some other beer sites have made it out to be... which could simply be a consequence of -- again -- me picking up a beer from the back corner of the very bottom shelf at the store).

This altbier's taste made me want to hold the brew in my mouth and swish it around for a bit before I swallowed it... delicious. It tasted how it looked and how it smelled: it had a yummy (and appropriately seasonal) undertone of a deep red fruit and a subtly crushed nutty spice. Incredible. The first sip floored me, and I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the drink. I thought it held its flavor quite well, even through my distractions in the kitchen and with a drop-in guest. It probably took me over an hour to drink the whole thing, and I relished the last, somewhat sediment-y, drop just as much as I did the very first.

I had never heard of an altbier until I purchased this one, and Beer Advocate told me that it was a Dusseldorf specialty brown ale. It also told me that an alt beer is smooth and delicate, which both my boyfriend and I sort of scoffed at. How can a brew be delicate? Oh, but it is, my friends. It is. What a delicious mellowed and smooth brew it is! I don't know how to tell you what it means for it to be "delicate"... it just is. Very delicate, very lacey and soft, and very faerie-like. I could easily drink two or three of these in one sitting.

The Merchant du Vin webpage suggests serving this with cured ham, sweetbreads, or lasagna, all of which sound like they would be very much enhanced with a bottle of this sweet nectar. =) Next time, I'll be sipping on this with a dinner of vegetarian lasagna and cuban bread, instead of greedily cracking it open after a long day at work, and then downing it like a parched wanderer.

Liquid love. =)