Marzoni's Brick Oven & Brewing Co. - Altoona, PA - Page 2

fermenator · 05-27-2008, 09:09 PM

I live near the Marzoni's in Allison Park, PA and have been there several times. Both the food and beers are decent.

RoaringBrewer · 06-02-2008, 03:31 PM

Forgot to update this post, so taking a break from my work (in Altoona again) to update y'all.

Me and two coworkers hit Marzoni's last Wednesday. Despite being late (8:30PM or so), the wait-staff took a little while to get us menus or our drinks (could be b/c we ordered 3 samplers) and our bill when we were done, but the beer was decent and the food was pretty darn good IMO.

I had lasagna with some sausage and meatballs and it was solid. The sampler scored a 75% with the IPA being my favorite. Their seasonal Maibock was decent too even though its not my favorite style. Their APA, etc. were all on par. Was not a fan of their light lager (3.2% of something), but go figure.

They also had a weird seasonal called lichtenslager or something?! It was a cloudy, light beer, which I'm guessing was lagered. I think it had some wheat in it and it had a distinct, I can only term it "smoky" flavor. I recall seeing some discussion of a beer of this type somewhere on the board before (maybe it was called gratzer?), but not sure at all if this is what I was drinking. All I know is that it was weird for me and not my favorite. A little too smoky for how light it was, but it was drinkable... just not overly so.

The atmosphere was... decent. Even if it wasn't very 'cool' (the dining room was kind of plain), it was different than other brewpubs I've been to, so that made it kind of cool. The brick oven area (which I think you could sit and eat at kind of a bar, at least I saw some people doing it), a huge u/o-shaped bar, etc. were neat and different...

Might go back again some night this week, but we'll see. I've been to better brewpubs, but for Altoona I guess you can't ask for much.

Back to work...

zoebisch01 · 06-02-2008, 05:24 PM

Hey cool, thanks for the update.

fermenator · 06-03-2008, 04:46 PM

Lichtenhainer is the first of the two collab-a-brews from the
Marzoni's and East End Brewing partnership.

"Outside of a tiny little brewpub in a town in Germany where you'll probably never go, there are only three places where you can get a taste of this rare beer style: Marzoni's in Allison Park, Marzoni's in Ducansville, and
of course right here at East End Brewing during Growler Hours."

RoaringBrewer · 06-03-2008, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fermenator

Lichtenhainer is the first of the two collab-a-brews from the
Marzoni's and East End Brewing partnership.

"Outside of a tiny little brewpub in a town in Germany where you'll probably never go, there are only three places where you can get a taste of this rare beer style: Marzoni's in Allison Park, Marzoni's in Ducansville, and
of course right here at East End Brewing during Growler Hours."

Wow, I was right on the money... after doing some research:

Quote:

Originally Posted by somerandomwebpage

This quote from Dr Max Delbrück's Brauerei-Lexicon of 1910 makes it much clearer when Lichtenhainer is exposed to the bugs:

"Lichtenhainer is made from smoked barley malt alone, it acquires its sourish taste not during primary fermentation, as does Berliner Weisse, but only through a later developing infection with lactic acid bacteria. . . ."

In "Moderne Braumethoden" by J Ohlberg (1927) it says of Lichtenhainer:

"To make this type of beer one third wheat and two-thirds barley malt are used. The wheat malt is ground fine, the barley coarse, to help filtering. The mashing procedure is brief, a kettle mash or a thick mash. The hopping rate is one pound [half kilo] per zentner [100 kg] of malt, boil time 90 minutes. It's pitched with top-fermenting yeast, one lier per zentner. Fermentation temperature 22º C , barrel fermentation. Primary then bottich (vat? tub?) fermentation is rarer; pitching temperature usually 15º C. The gravity of the wort is between 8 and 10º [Plato]. They are highly-attenuated, highly carbonated and wholesome and are regarded as special beers."

EDIT: I didn't pick up too much 'sour' in the Marzoni's beer, but it was definitely smoky and different... maybe it was a SLIGHT bit sour in hindsight, but nothing like BW...