French Broad Altbier Cask at Busy Bee

After enjoying French Broad's quaint tasting room last week, I was excited to hear that they would be bringing a cask of their Altbier to the Busy Bee here in Raleigh. Altbier is one of the rarer German styles, and unlike many other is actually an ale. The name actually means old beer. Now this doesn't mean old as in bad. It has a couple of implications, the first being that altbier is traditionally fermented longer than normal. The other is that the beer is brewed in the "old style" which means using ale yeast, as lagers had not been developed yet.

French Broad's version was poured with a nice creamy inch of head, no doubt that this one came out of a cask. The color was a nice deep amber and slightly cloudy. Drinking this beer was an absolute pleasure, it was very drinkable, with nice bready and caramel flavors accentuated by some light floral hops. I've had this beer in bottles before, and the cask version really stands out in my opinion.

As a final note, it appears that Busy Bee has installed a beer engine, which should mean that they will begin having many more cask events such as this one. Looking forward to their next surprise for sure!

French Broad Brewing Tasting Room

I'm currently enjoying my afternoon with fresh French Broad brew at their tasting room in Asheville. The brewers are working away in the background, and the smell of fresh wort is permeating the atmosphere.

I have had their Belgian Stout and Wee-Heavy-est, a Scotch ale brewed with Belgian yeast. I believe I will take home a growler of the stout, as the rest of their lineup is available in the Raleigh area.

The tasting room is small and really just a portion of their brewhouse. They do however host a lot of live music events. Very laid back and a great place to just relax with some great brew and music.