Alpen Stoff Beer Review

Alpen Stoff

Review Date 1/8/2016 By John Staradumsky

For Christmas of 2015, my wife bought me a really cool present: BeerAdvent Calendar 2015 from Kalea. In truth, my wife got me a lot of nice presents (she’s the best wife ever), but the nice thing about the Beer Advent Calendar is you get it early. You have to, since it’s comprised of 24 different imported German beers in a box with little doors that you open, one per day from December 1^st through December 24^th. All of the beers are listed on the side of the carton, however, so be careful not to look and spoil the daily surprises!

I love German beer more than beer from any other country on Earth, so this was definitely right up my alley. My one criticism of the calendar is there are no bocks or doppelbocks (not fair!), but otherwise it’s just an amazing way to sample 24 German beers I’ve never seen before. I got mine a Costco here in Georgia and paid $59.95 for the box. That might sound steep, but when you distribute that price over 24 different half liter cans, it only works out to $2.50 per can. Not a bad deal at all looked at that way.

Day 1 of the calendar (days may vary actually as Kalea admitted a sorting problem with this year’s beer advent calendar) revealed a sleek black can of Alpen Stoff, a Dortmunder Export from the Private Alpenbrauerei BÜRGERBRÄU Bad Reichenhall. Their caps, not mine. The brewery is located in the midst of the Alps near Berchtesgaden. The brewery traces its history back to 1633.

Alpen Stoff the beer has an alcohol content of 5.5% by volume. Ingredients on the can are listed as water, barley malt, hops and hop extract. The slogan for this beer is “Das Bier der Berge”, or “The Beer of the Mountains”.

Private Alpenbrauerei Burgerbrau Alpen Stoff pours to a brilliant golden color with a medium head of fluffy foam and a heady soft malt and grassy hop nose. Taking a sip, the beer has a full bready maltiness up front, is creamy in texture, and is followed by a long dry herbal grassy hop aroma and bitterness. This is exactly what I want in an Export, the bready malt of a Helles with a stronger punctuating hop character than that style delivers.

I’m going to rate this one at 4 stars mostly by style guidelines, and it only loses the star because I would like just a smidge more hops. Still, the malt is dead on here, and this is a finely crafted example of the style. Dortmunder Export beers are few and far between in today’s ale dominated craft beer market, and it was very nice to try an authentic German brewed version.

I’m greatly enjoying my Beer Advent Calendar with the day 1 beer. Here’s looking forward to the remaining 23, and another assortment of 24 in 2016. We’ll be on the lookout next year at Costco, and following the beers on their Facebook page.

The beers of the 2015 Beer Advent Calendar:

Day 1 Alpinebrauerei Burgerbrau Alpen Stoff

Day 2 Ankerbrau Nordlingen Grandl Helles Lagerbier

Day 3 Herrnbrau Tradition Bayerisches Festbier

Day 4 Schlossbrauerei Herrngiersdorf Publiner

Day 5 Hofbrauhaus Friesing Huber Weisses

Day 6 Lowenbrauerei Passau Urtyp Hell

Day 7 Spath Brau Osser Osser Gold

Day 8 Hosl Marzenbier

Day 9 Wittmann Urhell

Day 10 Kloster Urstoff Marzen

Day 11 Egerer Eaglebrau Weizenbier Dunkel