West of Eden Maerzen

It's time for a Maerzen! Maerzen style beer uses high gravity tolerant lager yeasts, and usually have a light to medium brown body with lots of malt flavor and some hints of caramel. It's what got people in the olden times across lent, the 4 weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter. This is the time where you are supposed to be fasting, but where also back breaking work had to be done in the fields, like plowing, seeding and so on. So people made the best out of it, drinking heavy beer during the day to keep the calorie intake in balance, while remaining devoted to traditional fasting. Co-incidentally a beer was created that also tastes very good! My take on this is a mixture of Dark Munich and Vienna Malts with a dash of roasted Caramel malt. Hoppiness is kept on the low side with pure Hallertau leaf hops, a low alpha hops from Southern Germany that yet holds lots of flavor.

BREW DATE: 01/23/2016

BOTTLING DATE: 03/05/2016

Plenty of malt to go into this beer

GRAIN BILL: 11lbs total

-4lbs Rahr 2-row Malt

-3lbs Dark Munich Malt

-3lbs Vienna Malt
- 1lb Caramunich III Malt

MASH-IN: 1 hr at 153F, Mash-out 10 min at 170F. Fly sparked with 175F water.

HOP SCHEDULE:

-60min 1oz German Hallertau leaf hops

-15min 1oz German Hallertau leaf hops

OG: Alcohol content should come out at 4.8%.

YEAST: Wyeast California Lager

TASTE NOTES: Decidedly malty, smooth flavor. Crisp and earthy undertones, subtle hops. Medium head retention. Pretty close to a Maerzen, I would say. Awesome when enjoyed on our porch overlooking the orchard in full spring colors!

West of Eden Maerzen!