174: Live Oak Turns Back the Clock with Historical Lagers and Smoked Beers
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\\u201cIf it\\u2019s a pain in the ass, we usually do it,\\u201d says Live Oak head brewer Dusan Kwiatkowski. Brewing the hard way has been a core tenet of the brewery since their start in the mid \\u201990s. While most breweries launched around the time focused on ales (to distinguish themselves from the \\u201cmacro\\u201d beer of the time), Live Oak committed to craft lager from its earliest days. Its Czech-inspired pale lager, Pilz, has been one of their core beers for more than two decades.
\\n\\nToday, Live Oak maintains that focus by pushing lager even further, through the pre-Prohibition-style pils they call Pre-War Pils, and by brewing and advocating for Grodziskie, which they brew as a lager with oak-smoked malt from a small Czech maltster.
\\n\\nIn this episode, Kwiatkowski discusses everything from the ways they\\u2019ve sourced ingredients for the Grodziskie to the process behind the cereal mash necessary with corn grits in the Pre-War Pils. Along the way, he discusses the impact of smoked malt in recipes, brewing Grodziskie as a lager rather than an ale, polishing pils so that it sparkles in the glass, spunding tanks for proper finishing, and more.
\\n\\nLive Oak is fond of referring to its Austin, Texas, location as \\u201cBamberg on the Colorado,\\u201d referencing the German city\\u2019s reputation for smoked beer from breweries such as Schlenkerla and Spezial. While smoked beer is a niche in today\\u2019s wider beer world, Live Oak\\u2019s passion and focus on the approach are second to none.
\\n\\n*This episode is brought to you by: *
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