Gr(e)atzer!

After picking up a 6-pack of last years Sam Adams Longshot, I was introduced to my first Gratzer. Brewed by Cesar Marron, it was a very enjoyable session-able beer that filled your mouth with the pleasantries of wheat, smoke and hop spice from the Saaz hops. It was a beer that I truly enjoyed (best out of the 6-pack) and wanted to reproduce.

One of the great things about being in a homebrew club is the ability to combine resources to produce a beer that would have otherwise been difficult to make solo. I would not have been able to make this beer if it weren't for a friend with a smoker who could smoke enough wheat malt for myself and a fellow brewer. A traditional Gratzer is brewed with 100% oak smoked wheat malt; the oak imparts a softer smoke character than the traditional rauch smoked malts which can tend to be "hammy". In order to keep this as traditional as possible, I used Lublin hops which are a Polish hop variety. They are very close in nature to Saaz hops (they are actually bred from Saaz hops) and tend to be spicy with noble hop aromatics.

Gratzer

6 lb - White Oak Smoked Wheat Malt
1 lb - Rice Rulls
2 oz - Lublin Hops [3.8%] @ 60 min
1 oz - Lublin Hops [3.8%] @ 15 min

Mash-in @ 120F for 20 minutes
Raise temperature to 148F for 90 minutes to ensure full conversion

Boil for 90 minutes.

Fermented at 70F.

OG 1.028
FG 1.003 (Yikes!)

About the FG, I initially pitched a vial of WLP029 (German Ale/Kolsch) but after ~36 hours of no activity, I began to worry about the viability since I did not make a started to test the yeast. Being paranoid, I pitched a WLP001 yeast cake into the Gratzer and let it fly. Within 4 hours, there was very vigorous activity. I believe this is why the FG was so low.

Tasting notes:

Absolutely beautiful beer; one of my favorite brews ever actually...

Aroma: Smoke... Reminds me of sitting around a camp fire but without the eye watering sensation of smoke in your eyes. The hops cut through the smoke with a sharpness to remind you that this is going to be a bitter beer. Spicy, earthy, and full of smoke phenolics, it attacks your senses immediately.

Appearance: Beautiful straw color and very hazy. Large and long standing head that produces lacing around glass as it falls.

Taste: I imagine this is what bread would taste like if baked in an oak fired oven. Big bread notes with bitter oak phenols. Hop flavor is spicy/grassy but isn't as pronounced as the aroma; still firmly bitter. Very dry beer which I think the smoke is lending to the dryness.