Mild malt is a British base malt, and it is not the grain most breweries reach for when they sit down to build a Marzen. Black Lung Brewing has made it the foundation of this one.

Oktoberfest Lager Bier returns Friday, September 18, at 5.8 percent ABV. The brewery lists Proximity mild malt and caramel malts in the grain bill. It says the beer is fermented with a blend of two yeasts, an Oktoberfest strain and a Lager I strain. Black Lung describes caramel and nutty notes driven by the malt bill, finishing very clean.

The mild malt is the detail that explains the tasting notes. Mild malt is kilned a step past standard pale malt, which leaves it with more bready depth and a distinctly nutty edge before any specialty grain is added. That is the same nuttiness the brewery credits to its grain bill. Caramel malts then fill in the color and the toffee sweetness that a Marzen is expected to carry.

The two-yeast approach is the less common choice. Most lagers are fermented with a single strain. A dedicated Oktoberfest yeast is generally picked for the malt-forward, slightly fuller character it leaves behind, while a general-purpose lager strain is picked to attenuate steadily and get out of the way. Running both is a reasonable way to chase a beer that reads rich but still finishes dry, which is roughly how the brewery describes the result.

This is an established annual release rather than a new recipe. The same newsletter carries an Untappd Community Awards badge from 2023, where the brewery's Oktoberfest placed third in the amber and red lager category in Illinois with a 3.909 rating.

The beer lands in the middle of a three-day Oktoberfest at the Grayslake taproom, running Friday through Sunday with German food, live music and the brewery's Bier-Lympics. Friday night pairs the release with a polka set from The Internationals, 8 to 10:30 p.m.

Editor’s Take

Every brewery has to call its fermenters something. Most settle for numbers. The adventurous ones get as far as letters. Black Lung named its tanks after guitar heroes, which means the Oktoberfest arriving Friday spent its formative weeks inside a vessel called Tony Iommi.

I have no evidence whatsoever that this affects the beer. A Marzen fermented in Tony Iommi presumably tastes exactly like a Marzen fermented in a stainless cylinder with a number stencilled on the side. But there is something quietly correct about a malt-driven amber lager, built for a weekend of polka and sausage, emerging from the tank named after the man who more or less invented the heavy riff. The brewery also runs a Jimmy Page, a Randy Rhoads, a Dimebag and a Tom Morello. Somewhere in that list is a tasting flight you could order strictly by decade.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

Oktoberfest Lager Bier Runs on Mild Malt and a Yeast Blend

Black Lung's annual Marzen comes back Friday on a base of mild malt and caramel malts, fermented with two lager yeasts at once. The brewery credits the grain bill for the caramel and nutty character.

Source & Editorial