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 encouraging with judges’ feedback suggesting a bit more tart bite. The 2026 iteration of the recipe went for more tartness.

Here is the malt bill. Instead of trying to source “oak smoked wheat” I use white wheat malt and fired up our smoker with white oak wood chunks. I misted the malt with water, like enhancing the bark on a brisket, and rolled smoked on aluminum pans of malt for about three hours.

Fermentables	%	Amount (lbs)
Oak Smoked Wheat	33	3
Pilsner (Weyerman)	33	3
Vienna	33	3

On brew day, I mashed the grains at 152f for 60 minutes and mashed out at 170f.

Once the collected wort cooled to 105f I added 3 Goodbelly capsules to start the kettle souring. I wrapped the glass lid with plastic film and flowed CO2 into the kettle headspace. The wort incubated at 105f for 24 hours before taking a pH reading.

I was looking for a pH of 3.2, but the Lacto brevis had dropped the wort to 3.8. I waited another 12 hours before taking a follow-up reading. At 36 hours, the pH had reached 3.2. Time to bring the wort to a boil to kill off the Lactobacillus and introduce some hop character.

Lichtenhainer is neither hoppy nor bitter. Only 1 ounce of Hallertau Mittelfrü achieved the 5 IBU required for this style.

I chilled the wort to 67f and pitched a freshly started batch of German Ale yeast.

Measurement	Value
OG	1.042
FG	1.005
ABV	4.7%
IBU	5.4

The second try was the charm for us and scored a silver medal at the National Homebrew Competition 🍻😁