My First Born Dorf

The beer of Dusseldorf Germany is not seen often in United States. My search online and local for an example was retuning literary accounts of alt beer. I gathered that the hops where to balance the malt and the beer was to be decidedly bitter. For color and inspiration I pulled a recipe from Brewing Classic Styles as a base. The malts called for Munich with Carafa for color. Having brewed a similar styled beer the Dusseldorf would be a kicked up version of a Vienna lager. There would be more hops and deeper color. I crafted the recipe as a good starting point. The malt profile selected was heavy Pilsen with some wheat and chocolate. Not quite the recipe from Classic Styles but one I wanted to try.

Jamil's Dusseldorf Alt Beer
60.6% Pilsener
16.2% Vienna
16.2% Munich Light
6.1% CaraMunich
1.0% Carafa

Boiling:
60 Minute Hops
0.66oz Horizon AA13.6%
30 Minute Hops
0.50 oz Tettnang AA2.3%

After brewday research continued I found photos and a commercial example. Shiner had made an Old Timer to the Dusseldorf style. The beer was copper colored with more flavoring hops. My own creation was malt forward with a bitter finish. I was proud to have a beer within style but darker in color. I found the hops to balanced with the malt. For my next batch I plan to work out the chocolate malt and increase the hops.

Works Cited:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dinglehoser/4494762973/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24792024@N00/4852002747/