First I see a Gratzer on the menu at Burnside Brewing in Portland, then I hear of this bottled version from Dr. Fritz Briem…
Here is the description for us newcomers to this revived style: “Grodziskie or Gratzer is a Sour Smoked Wheat Ale that was brewed in the 1900x in East Prussian and dates back to as as the 15th century. It was named after the Polish town of Grodzisk Wielkopolski or Gratz in German. Our historic version is brewed according to the German Purity Law with air-dried barley malt and beech smoked wheat malt and hopped with Perle and Saaz. A sour mash is created using the old and forgotten technique called “Digerieren.” Finally a three month aging and maturation process creates a complex sour, smoky and heavily hopped wheat ale.”