Marzonis Lichtenhainer

Commercial Description:
An almost obsolete (only one example currently being brewed) German Ale, this style of beer was very popular at the end of the 19th century in the Thüringen area of Germany. This is traditionally a pale beer brewed with lightly smoked malted barley and then allowed to become infected with lactic acid in the serving barrel.

This beer is the first half of two collaborative brews between Marzoni’s and East End Brewing, more to come on our other beer (another obscure German style, gose) later. Since I neither of us had wooden barrels to allow a lactic infection to occur and we didn’t want to risk infecting our regular equipment we decided to start off with a sour mash. A sour mash is basically mixing the malted barley with hot water and then holding it at 120 degrees for a few days allowing the natural yeast to create a wonderful lemonadey sourness. We then mixed this with smoked malt and a small amount of wheat and continued on as a normal brew day. We then added a small amount of lactic acid at the end of fermentation to try to keep the flavor to style again without risking a major brewery infection.

This light bodied, pale gold ale starts off with a noticeable but pleasant sourness, displays hints of smokiness, and finishes with a mild lactic bite. ABV – 3.0%