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

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RoaringBrewer

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Well - technically Duncansville, PA, but its about 2.75 miles from the hotel I'll be staying at next week on business.

I've never been there before. What say those who have been there? Yay? Nay? Good beer? Good food? At least it's a little different from other central PA micros in that it's a 'pizzeria'. Looks interesting and definitely will be trying it, but just curious to see what others think of the place...

http://www.marzonis.com/beerselections.html
 
Hijack in progress: Speaking of middle PA, either of you guys ever sample Otto's brews? A buddy brought back some Double D IPA and it was pretty tasty stuff.

http://ratebeer.com/brewers/ottos-pub-&-brewery/3060/

Otto's is OK. I'd put them middle of the road. I've been to brewpubs with better beers, and I've been to brewpubs with worse beer. The Double D is good, they have some decent stouts (the brewer's mom's favorite style). My favorite is their Red Mo ale. I find their pale beers a little lackluster. My wife likes their apricot wheat. They tap a firkin every Friday. I think the best I ever had there was their seasonal Oktoberfest. Parking can be problematic. After business hours you can park at the bank across the busy street, do not park at the tire store.
 
Hijack in progress: Speaking of middle PA, either of you guys ever sample Otto's brews? A buddy brought back some Double D IPA and it was pretty tasty stuff.

http://ratebeer.com/brewers/ottos-pub-&-brewery/3060/

I worked in State College, PA for about 18 months cumulative (6 mo. for 3 years) in recent years and spent a lot of time (1-2 visits per week) @ Otto's. It's one of my favorite brewpubs in PA. Maybe b/c it got me through those long stints out of town with my sanity, maybe b/c the food is pretty solid, or maybe b/c the beers are pretty darn good too. Not all of their beers are on the top of my list, but they make some decent beers. As already mentioned, the Double D IPA was my favorite, brewed with palisades, nugget, and amarillo if I recall. Sumatra Stout pretty solid. Red Mo ale pretty darn good too. They had an Amarillo Pale on for limited offering a few times that was great for an American APA (if you like Amarillo). Their limited offering Tripel is pretty good too. I could also quaff their lagers (spring creek and vienna) if spending a longer evening there.

Pretty solid place overall, in my book. Sit on the patio in summer right under the hop garden! :)

The parking not so much so, but that's the only big drawback I can see.

They started bottling some stuff a little while back, but not sure it gets distributed yet or just buy on premises. I think you could buy the Double D in bombers... (and others as well)
 
Did you get into Marzoni's yet?

Didn't work yesterday so I just got to Altoona this morning... I will probably be working until 8-9PM tonight, so looks like tomorrow or the next evening is more like it, even though I'll be working late those evenings too. I will find time to get there, they are open until 11PM and I don't anticipate working quite that late... although maybe I should and I might get out of Saturday work. We'll have to see...
 
Otto's is pretty good, the problem they had (and they are getting much better at) is their demand shot up so high, the consistency of the product fell dramatically. That and the wait staff/bartenders seem to have a high turnover (possibly mostly college students that move on?) which for a friend of mine was the reason he doesn't go there often anymore. He likes a familiar face at the bar. They have put out some really good Ales, the WeizenBock and Elderberry Stout come to mind, and then some others that I really didn't care for. The menu seems to be better than most places I have been to of the type.
 
I live near the Marzoni's in Allison Park, PA and have been there several times. Both the food and beers are decent.
 
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...
 
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."
 
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:

somerandomwebpage said:
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...
 
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