Short & Shoddy | Lichtenhainer

Author: Will Lovell

One of the many cool things about developing an obsession with beer and brewing is that it facilitated my introduction to a bunch of unique styles I otherwise would likely never have heard of. Recently, I attended a beer fest where Vector Brewing was pouring a beer they call Moonsmoke, which is described as a “refreshing, unfiltered tart lager” with “a gentle whisp of smoke on the nose and palate.” As someone who enjoys both sour and smoked beers, I was excited to give this a taste.

Admittedly, my expectations were low when I received my sample of Moonsmoke, but I was pleasantly surprised with how good this beer was. The interplay of acidity and smoke, which comes from the use of smoked wheat malt, was delightful enough that I made a stop at Vector Brewing a few weeks later just to try this beer again, and my experience was the same. The BJCP offers the following description of this historical beer:

A sour, smoked, lower-gravity historical central European wheat beer. Complex yet refreshing character due to high attenuation and carbonation, along with low bitterness and moderate sourness.

Deemed a “forgotten style” by Vector Brewing, it’s nearly impossible to find commercial examples of Lichtenhainer, at least in my neck of the woods. As a homebrewer, this really isn’t an issue since I can just make my own, so I started working on a recipe and figured it’d be a good candidate for Short & Shoddy.

| BREWING THE BEER |

Given how much I enjoyed Moonsmoke, I loosely based this recipe off of the information I found on it, as well as what I could find online about Lichtenhainer.

Short & Shoddy Lichtenhainer

I began collecting the full volume of filtered water at 6:11 AM, which I adjusted with salts to achieve my desired mineral profile.

As the water was heating up, I weighed out and milled the grain.

When the water was properly heated, I stirred in the grist then checked to make sure it was at my target mash temperature.

During the mash rest, I prepared the kettle hop additions.

The wort was boiled for just 30 minutes with hops added at the times stated in the recipe.

At the completion of the boil, I quickly chilled the wort  then took a refractometer reading showing the wort was at 1.036 OG, for a brewhouse efficiency of 55%.

After transferring the wort to a sanitized FermTank, I co-pitched a sachet of Safale US-05 American Ale yeast with LalBrew Sourvisiae. It was 7:43 PM, meaning this brew day took a total of 1 hour 32 minutes.

The filled fermenter was connected to my glycol chiller that was set to 66°F/19°C and left for a week before I took hydrometer measurements indicating fermentation was complete.

Curious of the acidity contributed by the Sourvisiae, I took a measurement showing the beer was at 3.15 pH, which is a bit lower than the standard range for lagers of 4.4 to 4.7 pH.

At this point, I transferred the beer to a CO2 purged keg that was placed in my keezer and burst carbonated overnight before I reduced the gas to serving pressure. After a week of conditioning, the beer was carbonated, clear, and ready to serve to tasters.

| RESULTS |

A total of 23 people of various levels of experience participated in this Short & Shoddy evaluation. Participants were informed of the specific beer style and provided the BJCP description prior to completing the survey. Tasters were then instructed to rate how hoppy, malty, and dry they perceived the beer to be on a 0-5 scale where a rating of 0 indicated “not at all” and 5 indicated “extremely.”

Tasters were provided a list of common hop, malt, and yeast characteristics then instructed to select from each the one they perceived as being most prominent in the beer.

Hop Characteristics

Malt Characteristics

Yeast Characteristics

Next, participants were asked to indicate whether or not they detected any off-flavors in the beer; those who did were provided a list of common off-flavors and instructed to select the one they perceived as being strongest. Out of the 14 participants, just 3 identified off-flavors, with one noting acetaldehyde and another detecting sour/acidic; the third person endorsed astringent, acetaldehyde, DMS, grassy, oxidized, phenolic, sour/acidic, sulfur, and yeast off-flavors.

Tasters were then asked to rate how well the beer represented the intended style, based on the provided BJCP description, on a 0-5 scale where 0 meant “not at all” and 5 meant “exactly.”

Finally, tasters were asked to rate how much they enjoyed the beer on a 0-5 scale where 0 indicated not at all and 5 indicated extremely.

My Impressions: I was quite pleased with how this beer turned out and felt it was really drinkable.  The sour component pretty spot-on, and while this Lichtenhainer was by no means lacking in smoke character, I personally would have enjoyed a touch more smoke.

| CONCLUSION |

When people talk about “classic” beer styles, most of comes up is rooted in history, like British Bitter, Belgian Dubbel, and Czech Pils. However, not all historical styles are as well known, as is certainly the case for the sour smoked beer known as Lichtenhainer, which was purportedly first brewed in the 17^th century.

While the sour component of Lichtenhainer traditionally came from exogenous bacteria spontaneous inoculation, modern brewers have more predictable options including novel yeasts known to produce acidity. Interestingly, most tasters of this Short & Shoddy Lichtenhainer made with several corner-cutting methods felt it was a pretty solid representation of the style, while a good number also seemed to enjoy. Moreover, despite the one taster who was a bit trigger-happy, the vast majority detected no off-flavors that are associated with the methods used to brew this beer.

Given my limited experience with Lichtenhainer, it’s difficult to say for certain that my Short & Shoddy version was as good as classic examples, but it wasn’t too far off from what I remember of Vector Brewing’s Moonsmoke. Overall, I felt this beer hit all the marks based on the BJCP description and was equally as refreshing to drink as it was a unique experience. I’m not sure this is a style that will appeal to all beer drinkers, perhaps that speaks to its lack of popularity, but it’s definitely a fun one to have on tap, and I don’t feel the Short & Shoddy approach I took had any detrimental impact.

If you have thoughts about this Short & Shoddy brew, please feel free to share it in the comments section below!

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