Lancaster Brewing Company - Lancaster Strawberry Wheat Beer

The strawberry aroma is unmistakable on this one, but it sits nicely in the overall beery flavor profile, without feeling artificial or extract-like. Along with the fruit aroma, expect some faint bubblegum and cidery, champagne-like scents. It can be challenging to separate from the prominent strawberry notes, but as you sample the beer, look for a hefty dose of cereal grains. We found the flavor profile quite interesting; it does not develop like you might expect a wheat beer supplemented by some strawberry flavors would. Instead, it’s gives hefty strawberry notes (dare we say strawBEERy?) that are gently cradled by a big, luscious body with an almost creamy feel, providing almost savory notes evocative of flavored ChapStick. There are some sweetish notes of corn, cereals, and distinctive impressions of champagne. Look for this beer to finish with a wheat twang & tartness that is gently suppressed by the prominent strawberry sweetness, and to present some final faint chocolate notes in the fade. A very interesting, unusual beer that we enjoyed far more than we thought we would. Try using it to deglaze a pan used in the preparation of a cranberry reduction for braising duck breast.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, was at one point responsible for producing seven percent of all beer brewed in the United States. The brewing tradition in the region was spurred by innkeepers who brewed beer in back rooms, but by the late 18th century, English and Scottish immigrants had become brewers on much larger scales. In the 1840s, German lagers came to town along with German immigrants who brought with them "new" brewing techniques and expanded the repertoire from English and Scottish ales to German lager beers (which ultimately supplanted the former). During this period, Lancaster's newspaper, The Daily Intelligencer, dubbed the city the “Munich of the United States.” Even at the height of Prohibition, many brewers in Lancaster refused to stop brewing. Some did it right out in the open until forced to shut down, others set up hidden 'breweries within breweries' in order to keep the beer flowing. But all local beer production stopped in 1956, when the last of Lancaster's Pre-Prohibition breweries shut down. The town wouldn't see another until nearly 40 years later, when The Lancaster Malt Brewing Company opened its doors in April of 1995. For the past 13 years it's been continuously operating as a restaurant and brewery, although ownership, and the brewery name, changed in 2002. Master Brewer Christian Heim has been with the brewery since it opened in 1995; his great respect for the brewing traditions of old Lancaster, coupled with his modern know-how, are largely responsible for the solid reputation LBC's beers have built. For more information about the Brewery or their restaurant (the Walnut Street Grille), give them a call at (717) 391-6258.