I spent the end of March in the old city of Düsseldorf, known as the Altstadt, sipping and, yes, occasionally gulping glasses of altbier, the traditional warm fermented but cool conditioned hybrid ale style of the region. It's a style with which I was not as familiar as I would have liked, so I viewed my trio of days in the city as a crash course in altbier understanding and appreciation.
And it was. Oh yes, it certainly was.
Discounting the biggest brewers of altbier, Frankenheim with their sweetish, somewhat simple version and Diebels with their frankly rather uninteresting, but hugely successful interpretation, I switched allegiance between Düsseldorf's remaining four brewers with remarkable regularity. Just as travel mate Lew Bryson and I professed a preference for altbier over kölsch right up until the time we boarded the train for Köln, and vice versa, my affection for im Füchschen's rounder altbier, Schumacher's more refined version, Uerige's dry, assertive ale and Schlüssel's roasty, appetizing brew shifted and swayed largely by dint of what I was drinking at the time and where I was enjoying it.
Hence my selection of the experience of drinking in Düsseldorf's Altstadt as the TOTM for March. Nicknamed "Europe's Longest Bar" for the 260+ bars and restaurants established within its perimeters, the old city is itself as special as the beer it is best known for, and although it might frustrate some who have not or perhaps will not make it to Düsseldorf, I left the city convinced that the understanding and appreciation of one is likely impossible without the experience of the other.
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