Smoke 'em if you got 'em



Soaked barley roasting on
an open fire... sing it Nat...

This post is all about the style of beer known as rauchbier, or smoked beer if you speak English. I have beer-enlightened friends who have told me that they LOVE smoked beer and I have beer-enlightened friends who have told me that they HATE them. The flavor of smoked beer is, as the name would suggest, smoky, which for many people is different and takes a bit to get used to. It is also possible for a brewer to go overboard with the smoky notes and thus make the beer undrinkable.

The key to achieving smoky flavor in beer comes from drying the malted barley over an open flame, which causes the grain to retain some of the smoke from the fire. In the olden days, malt was dried out either using sunlight or over an open flame. Because using an open flame was quicker than dying the malt out in the sun, smoky beers were more common than they are today.

Schlenkerla Brewery's Rauchbier

Beginning in the 18^th century, kiln drying of malt became progressively more common and, by the mid-19^th century, had become the near-universal method for drying malted grain. Since the kiln method shunts the smoke away from the wet malt, a smoky flavor is not imparted to the grain, or to the subsequent beer. As a result, smoke flavor in beer became less and less common and eventually disappeared almost entirely from the brewing world.

Certain breweries, however, maintained the smoked beer tradition by continuing to use malt which had been dried over open flames. Two brewpubs in Bamberg, Germany, Schlenkerla and Spezial, have continued smoked beer production for nearly two centuries. Both are still in operation today and both dry their malt over fires made from beechwood logs, producing several varieties of Rauchbier.

The gold-standard for rauchbiers in America

Here in the States, there are several brewers who dabble in rauchbiers. Geoff Larson, founder and brew master of the Alaskan Brewing Company, made a smoked beer, Alaskan Smoked Porter, in 1988 influenced by the Rauchbiers of Bamberg. In 2008, New Glarus Brewing Company in Wisconsin produced Smoke on the Porter, a beer produced partially with Bamberg-smoked malts and partially with malts smoked at a neighboring smokehouse. Samuel Adams of Boston began brewing their Bonfire Rauchbier in 2011, making its premiere in Sam Adam's Harvest Collection alongside their well-known Oktoberfest and Pumpkin Ale. The Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas used to make a Helles style beer that used mesquite smoke for flavor called Shiner Smokehouse, but I believe they have discontinued it.

Another cool side-effect of smoking the malts is that rauchbiers pair extremely well with steak, burgers or any other grilled meat. The smoky notes of the beer will play off the smoky notes from the food, and you’ll be in smoky heaven (not actually a place).

So go get some rauchbier at your local beer store – and experience a delightful spin on what you’re used to.

Here’s to craft-brewed happiness… Cheers!