Licher Privatbrauerei - Licher Lager

This German brew pours a clear, straw-colored, pale yellow with a voluminous (from a fairly aggressive pour) pure white head that eventually recedes to a persistent collar. The nose is pure German pils, with lightly sweet pale malts underpinning a strong noble hop aroma. Look for floral and lemony notes, a hint of grape juice, and a subtle, almost aspirin-like impression. Licher delivers on the palate too, opening with very clean pale malt flavors that lend a fairly robust sweetness, while a prominent lemony hop acidic zing nicely counterbalances and keeps everything in order. Finishes a bit drier with a moderately bitter hop note. We enjoyed the way this pils feels quite round and soft in the mouth, which combined with the excellent balance makes for an extraordinarily drinkable brew that goes great with spring sunshine, warmer temperatures, and backyard barbecues. Prost!

The Licher Brewery is located in the town of Lich, in west-central Germany.  The most popular brewery in the state of Hesse (home to over six million people and whose largest city is Frankfurt), Licher is actually rather young compared to many German breweries, having been founded only as far back as 1854.  It was in that year that founder Johann Heinrich Ihring established his brewery, while four years later another brewery was begun by Christoph Jakob Melchior at a nearby inn.  Both breweries grew in popularity over the next several decades until they decided collaboration would serve them better than competition, and they merged permanently in 1922.

The brewery continued to grow, hitting the 100,000 hectoliter/yr mark (over 2.6 million gallons, or almost 63,000 barrels) by 1940.  However, the defeat in WWII five years later brought about some changes, notably thousands of thirsty American troops clamoring for good beer.  Brewing operations came under the control of the occupational forces, and the beer was brewed for the exclusive use of the US soldiers in Germany. Eventually the brewery returned to private control, although the popularity of Licher beer among American troops stationed in Hesse has remained high for decades.

Licher Brewery has remained committed to brewing with the utmost quality, and maintains tight controls over all their brewing ingredients, working only with barley and hops suppliers for whom they’ve established a close relationship.  The brewing water is drawn from a source deep within the volcanic basalt rock of the Vogelsberg Mountains, while the final ingredient, the yeast, is from their very own private culture that’s been maintained continuously for over 100 years!

To learn more (if you can read German), visit their website at www.licher.de.