Licht ‘Em Up

Vector Brewing produced a very delightful Lichtenhainer back in 2021 and we were smitten.

I recieved some free smoked grain from Collin Zreet and decided to try brewing this style. Smoked malt made up one third of the malt bill. Goodbelly handled kettle souring the wort and a German Ale yeast converted the sugars to alcohol and CO2. The results were quite encouraging with judges feedback suggesting a bit more tart bite.

For the 2026 Bluebonnet Brewoff I took another stab at brewing this style and scheduled a brew day that would have judges tasting a fresh, young beer. The original Moon Smoke used smoked wheat. Unable to source oak smoked wheat malt, I decided to fire up the smoker and smoke some white wheat to put into this recipe.

Once again the grist contained one third smoked malt, Goodbelly probiotic capsules provided the kettle souring and a German Ale yeast cleaned everything up. For this iteration I measured the pH at 24 hours and let the lacto continue up to 36 hours. At this point the pH had hit 3.2 and needed to stop.

The attention to detail and smoky work paid off with a third place showing at Bluebonnet Brew Off