Mottzenboch Hailed as Intense Craft Beer

Tod Mott, the creator of the legendary Kate the Great beer, may have created another masterpiece with his new Mottzenboch beer.

Mott, owner of the new Tributary Brewing Co. In Kittery, Maine, and Andy Schwartz, the little brewer at Redhook Brewery, teamed up to brew Mottzenboch in November.

"Andy was kind enough to invite me to come and brew a beer with him and I hadn't brewed in a while," said Mott, who was the former head brewer at Portsmouth Brewery before he retired in May.

The new craft beer was also unveiled on the 80th anniversary of the repeal of the 21st Amendment that ended Prohibition.

Mott said his goal was to create a strong German Hefeweizen beer that he will also brew as a seasonal beer at his new brewery .

Mott and Schwarz tapped the new beer at Redhook on Thursday afternoon to the delight of their fellow craft beer aficionados.

Mott said he used German chocolate wheat and floor malted British crystal wheat to create Mottzenboch. He also used German Carafa malt and Melanoiden malt to make the beer. Mott said several other malts were used to brew the beer in 3 large barrels, which are 31 gallons each. Mott said this is enough to make 42 cases of the new craft beer.

To ferment the beer, Mott said they used a Bavarian Weissbier yeast that produces strong clove Phenolics, which is an aromatic byproduct yielded by the fermentation process.

A German lager yeast strain was then added to bring the beer through the six week cold conditioning process, Mott said.