7.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle. Color: Hazy pale golden, huge but fast diminishing white head. Aroma: Malty, smoky, hints of smoked meat. Taste: Smoky, malty, wheat, some salty smoked fish, minerals. Light to moderate sweet and tart. Medium body, high carbonation. Quite smooth mouthfeel. Nice one.

6

Heerlijke geur van gerookte ham. In de smaak ook lekker aanwezig. Ik merk wel dat ik rooksmaak liever combineer met zoet dan met zuur. Veel koolzuur.

7.5

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8

Bottle from Geers. Clear yellow, huge, frothy, white head. Aroma of smoked & cooked ham, herring, yellow apple, pear, lemongrass, kiwi, cucumber, wheat, sourdough, soap. Taste has sourish apple, kiwi & cucumber wrapped in a wheaty-soapy profile with a touch of lemon; tangible bready maltiness leaning towards sourdough, accent of toasted wheat too thanks to the smokiness which remains very vaguely 'meaty'. Tart, fruity, wheaty finish, very low grassy hops, lingering apple, kiwi & smoke. Medium body, slick texture, lively carbonation - mineral effect. All in all, a bright, light, refreshing beer with a 'crafty' twist - extra point for resuscitating this style!

7.4

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

03-12-20 // 330ml bottle. Not gushing but highly carbonated, poured almost only foam. Light smoked malts in the nose. fizzy sparkling. Light citrus aromas and a mild smoked sourness. easy and pleasant. More Lichtenhainer please.

7.9

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8.5

Galea near Antwerp apparently gets the honour of brewing the first Lichtenhainer in Belgium: an old pale German beer style, often brewed with malted wheat but not necessarily so, combining lactic sourness (though typically softer than in e.g. Berliner Weisse or Gose) with smokiness. This underexposed historical style went extinct in 1983 when its last producer (Barfüss) discontinued its version, but was resurrected from the dead in 1997 as Wöllnitzer Weissbier, after which it has received some limited attention from other craft brewers, most notably Freigeist, also in Germany. It has not received a lot of attention elsewhere, though some American craft brewers (Westbrook is one) have made attempts; the combo of sour and smoked being a notoriously difficult one, this should not come as a surprise perhaps, but still I think one of the craft beer revolution's core concerns should be to keep reviving lost or nearly lost beer styles and elaborating on them - so Lichtenhainer probably still has a lot of potential in that respect. This Antwerpian example opens with an ominous hiss, but does not gush (at least not mine - apparently some other tasters did have gushing experiences with it). Towering high, crackling, egg-white, very dense and pillowy, very stable head remaining thick and closed for a long time, over a misty pure golden beer with somewhat greenish tinge and strong visible sparkling sustaining the head; deeper hazy and more ochre-ish with sediment. Aroma indeed very smoky, impressions of smoked bacon and smoked eel, but leaving room for aspects of raw rhubarb, sourdough, white bread pulp, Granny Smith apple, unripe banana, fresh lemonbalm, cucumber, soap, gypsum. Fruity, very crisp onset, very 'pointy' lactic sourness, almost lemony, surrounding a softer core of unripe banana and green apple fruitiness, lots of lively carbonation - stingy even, thereby amplifying the sourness; a strong minerality on the edge of the tongue, as in vividly sparkling mineral water, accompanies a supple, bit soapy (wheat!) body. The wheatiness, with a white bready character turned into sourdough thanks to the lactic sourness, prevails over barley breadiness, which I think was not so much the case in historical Lichtenhainer (in fact, many were brewed with pale barley malt alone and omitted the wheat), but the whole remains perfectly balanced when the smokiness sets in, not overruling everything but still coming on quite strong in the end, where green banana, cucumber peel, green apple, raw rhubarb, sourdough and gypsum flavours linger. The 'green-fruity' lactic sourness has a drying effect but not harshly so, and makes everything very refreshing; hops remain very limited, never truly adding any bitterness, as befits this style. Chalky notes too, very similar to what I am used to in Berliner Weisse. I was not drinking Lichtenhainer before 1983, but from what I read about this style and from the very few examples I tasted before, it seems to me that this particular example is just a tad too sharply sour for the style - this one has the degree of sourness of a Berliner Weisse, which by most accounts was notably more sour than Lichtenhainer; it could also be interesting to decrease the wheat portion or even brew it with only barley malt, if only to compare what the result would be. Generally speaking, though, this is an impressive feat, given that there is very little frame of reference in this style internationally - and none at all in Belgium. I think Galea managed to convey the Lichtenhainer character in a convincing way, but as said, I think it needs a bit less lactic sourness and less 'wheatiness'. In any case, a beer like this will be very inaccessible to the average Belgian beer lover, so clearly this one is for the geeks - but then, many of Galea's other beers are equally inaccessible (or at least unusual) to the traditional Belgian palate, and frankly, who cares... Impressive, in all!

6.8

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Clear blond colour with massive foaming head. Aroma has a meaty smokey note. Flavour starts with a sour tang and has a light smokiness too.

7

Licht gerookt, gaat over in een aangenaam zuurtje. Voor de rest weinig bombarie, maar de binaire eenvoud siert. Stevige schuimontwikkeling, wel.

7.1

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

11/XI/20 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ home, BB: 26/VI/22 (2020-1050)

Clear blond to yellow beer, huge fizzy aery crackling off-white head, unstable, non adhesive, falls down quickly. Aroma: saline, smoky, a bit fishy, peated touch, some lemon notes. MF: very lively carbon, medium to light body. Taste: nice acidity, lemony, pretty fruity, bit salty, bit of vinegar, some orange peel. Aftertaste: dry, nice acidity, smoky touch, malty, grains, hint of yoghurt, bit peated, more smoke on warming up.

7.3

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5

Pours very foamy , clear blonde (with of course a huge, white head ) . Scent is smokey ( think of Polish style smoked cheese) some wheat and even a citrussy note. Taste is full, wheat, mildly tart, very dry. Smoke is mild. The beer strongly refermented, as it's far more dry than when I first had it, and is now to me overcarbed. The fleshy finish (smoke, wheat) is quite nice. It needs to be stated to anyone reading this that doesn't know me personally, that I really dislike smoke. However, i'm more than enthousiastic about this beer. The idea, innovative character, artwork, skillfull brewing technique... And yes, I even enjoy the flavors and aroma's, since the smoke is very light. mild tartness. Very refreshing.

Nie umiem ocenic, bo takie dziwne. Ale ma swoj ewidentny urk :) takie grodziskie troche