#224: Rauchbier – Baron Brewing, Seattle, Washington I’m finally trying a rauchbier that hasn’t been made by a German brewer (if you exclude my friend Jon’s home-brewed rauchbier, which was pretty tasty). So let’s fix that statement: I’m finally trying a rauchbier that hasn’t been made by a German brewer and can be purchased by people visiting this web site. Today’s example comes from Baron Brewing, which was opened by Mike Baker and Jeff Smiley in 2003 after the two discovered their love of German beer during a trip there. It checks in at 5.0% ABV, and 80% of the malt is smoked with beechwood. Bring on the bacon. Well, first things first. What a dreadfully unclean glass I poured this beer into. Apologies. I don’t recall the sequence of events, but it’s safe to say this is all my fault. I’m sorry, Baron Brewing, for not doing your beer the aesthetic justice it deserves. It’s a bit impressive though, that even with the assortment of bubbles clinging to the side of an oily, unclean glass, the head performed quite well. Also, the color gets me excited, in all of its slightly burnt orangey glory. Not nearly excited, though, as the aroma. Beer is a very subjective experience. Flavor compounds, some barely noticeable by the nose, can trigger any number of memories, thoughts and occurrences that we can somehow associate with beer, making the experience better or worse. For me, rauchbier (particularly this one), takes me right back to my family’s trips to Vermont when I was a young fellow. We would all be sitting in our cabin, the smell of burning, scorched wood from the fireplace permeating the house, while watching a movie we rented and eating bagged popcorn. Then you would go outside and smell the cold, crisp air, filled with that same smoky scent, coming from other houses. That’s what this beer smells like. Tastes like that, too, but the beer’s smokiness turns up a few notches, which was rather unexpected. I’m happy about it, though. First impressions: lovely body. Filled with ample carbonation, but not too much, keeping the mouthfeel crisp and the beer flowing with ease. I wouldn’t call the beer deeply bready, but there’s considerable breadiness there and it makes for a nice, full body of flavor. It’s the smokiness, though, that is the star of the production. I was really hoping for bacon/smoked meat flavor, and that’s certainly evident on the palate. Again, I’m pulled right back to Vermont. However smoky, crisp air tastes, it must taste like this beer does. I’m sorry if I’m a little all over the place with this review, I’m just excited. It’s pleasant to be drawn back in time, while having the ability to say that the flavor of flaming meat is tucked into the beer your drinking. Yeah, I dig it. I certainly wasn’t disappointed in my first American-made rauchbier. It has everything I love about the style, but tempered down just a tad, which isn’t really a bad thing. Score: 3.5/5.0

#224: Rauchbier – Baron Brewing, Seattle, Washington

I’m finally trying a rauchbier that hasn’t been made by a German brewer (if you exclude my friend Jon’s home-brewed rauchbier, which was pretty tasty). So let’s fix that statement: I’m finally trying a rauchbier that hasn’t been made by a German brewer and can be purchased by people visiting this web site. Today’s example comes from Baron Brewing, which was opened by Mike Baker and Jeff Smiley in 2003 after the two discovered their love of German beer during a trip there. It checks in at 5.0% ABV, and 80% of the malt is smoked with beechwood. Bring on the bacon.

Well, first things first. What a dreadfully unclean glass I poured this beer into. Apologies. I don’t recall the sequence of events, but it’s safe to say this is all my fault. I’m sorry, Baron Brewing, for not doing your beer the aesthetic justice it deserves. It’s a bit impressive though, that even with the assortment of bubbles clinging to the side of an oily, unclean glass, the head performed quite well. Also, the color gets me excited, in all of its slightly burnt orangey glory. Not nearly excited, though, as the aroma. Beer is a very subjective experience. Flavor compounds, some barely noticeable by the nose, can trigger any number of memories, thoughts and occurrences that we can somehow associate with beer, making the experience better or worse. For me, rauchbier (particularly this one), takes me right back to my family’s trips to Vermont when I was a young fellow. We would all be sitting in our cabin, the smell of burning, scorched wood from the fireplace permeating the house, while watching a movie we rented and eating bagged popcorn. Then you would go outside and smell the cold, crisp air, filled with that same smoky scent, coming from other houses. That’s what this beer smells like.

Tastes like that, too, but the beer’s smokiness turns up a few notches, which was rather unexpected. I’m happy about it, though. First impressions: lovely body. Filled with ample carbonation, but not too much, keeping the mouthfeel crisp and the beer flowing with ease. I wouldn’t call the beer deeply bready, but there’s considerable breadiness there and it makes for a nice, full body of flavor. It’s the smokiness, though, that is the star of the production. I was really hoping for bacon/smoked meat flavor, and that’s certainly evident on the palate. Again, I’m pulled right back to Vermont. However smoky, crisp air tastes, it must taste like this beer does. I’m sorry if I’m a little all over the place with this review, I’m just excited. It’s pleasant to be drawn back in time, while having the ability to say that the flavor of flaming meat is tucked into the beer your drinking.

Yeah, I dig it. I certainly wasn’t disappointed in my first American-made rauchbier. It has everything I love about the style, but tempered down just a tad, which isn’t really a bad thing.

Score: 3.5/5.0

#174: Spezial Rauchbier Märzen – Brauerei Spezial, Bamberg, Germany Germany is home to quite a few towns that specialize in a particular beer style. Düsseldorf? Altbier. Köln? Kölsch. Dortmund? Dortmunder. You get the idea. But one town in particular holds a large chunk of my heart because it’s home to one of my favorite beer styles. The town, of course, is Bamberg, and the style is the incomparable rauchbier. So far, I’ve taken a look at only one of the Bamberg rauchbier breweries, but there’s certainly more than one brewery there making great beer. So today we’ll take a look at Spezial Rauchbier, brewed by Brauerei Spezial, which dates back to 1536. If you need a refresher on the Rauchbier style, you can go allllll the way back to Whosisbrew’s very first post. But if you want the quick synopsis, I can provide that as well. “Rauchbier” translates to “Smoke Beer” in English. It refers to the process of using beechwood to smoke the malt, which gives the beer a distinct smoky, meaty aroma and flavor. The beer poured with a large, frothy, creamy off-white head, which displayed superb retention and left patches of lacing behind. The color was a dark red/copper, with a bit of brown apparent in the thicker part of the body and plenty of small carbonation streams making their way to the top in an organized manner. The aroma makes me smile in a “I can’t believe beer can smell this way” kind of way. I mean, it smells quite literally of Slim Jims. Smoky, salty pork and bacon, with a molasses-like sweetness and woody undertones. I usually don’t geek out in a blunt manner when I get into the taste, but the beer is just God damn glorious. For a beer with some potent, unusual aromas, it’s remarkably creamy and smooth on the palate, while still maintaining the intrigue found in the nose. The flavor still has its meat-like component, with hammy, fatty bacon flavors, but the smokiness really assumes control as far as the flavor is concerned. It tastes of wood, smoke and earthiness, with a big, fat medium-rare steak on top. What makes this beer so wonderful, though, is that all of these flavors are balanced flawlessly. I know they probably sound bold and a little challenging, but I can’t begin to describe how easy this beer is to drink and how friendly the flavors are. It’s just awesome, really. The finish gets a little bigger, with an assertive smokiness taking over, but the linger is short-lived and the throat feels wiped clean for more. Rauchbier, especially when it’s made by a Bamberg brewery, is one of the most uniquely flavored, in-your-pretty-face beer styles around. Yet somehow, it maintains a pleasant smoothness that tempers the flavors and makes it a very approachable beer. If you’ve never tried one, you might want to start with this one. It’s one of the finest examples of the style, and if you find yourself in front of a plate filled with sausage, smoked ham and schnitzel, it can make the perfect complementary beverage. Score: 9.5/10.0

#174: Spezial Rauchbier Märzen – Brauerei Spezial, Bamberg, Germany

Germany is home to quite a few towns that specialize in a particular beer style. Düsseldorf? Altbier. Köln? Kölsch. Dortmund? Dortmunder. You get the idea. But one town in particular holds a large chunk of my heart because it’s home to one of my favorite beer styles. The town, of course, is Bamberg, and the style is the incomparable rauchbier. So far, I’ve taken a look at only one of the Bamberg rauchbier breweries, but there’s certainly more than one brewery there making great beer. So today we’ll take a look at Spezial Rauchbier, brewed by Brauerei Spezial, which dates back to 1536. If you need a refresher on the Rauchbier style, you can go allllll the way back to Whosisbrew’s very first post. But if you want the quick synopsis, I can provide that as well. “Rauchbier” translates to “Smoke Beer” in English. It refers to the process of using beechwood to smoke the malt, which gives the beer a distinct smoky, meaty aroma and flavor.

The beer poured with a large, frothy, creamy off-white head, which displayed superb retention and left patches of lacing behind. The color was a dark red/copper, with a bit of brown apparent in the thicker part of the body and plenty of small carbonation streams making their way to the top in an organized manner. The aroma makes me smile in a “I can’t believe beer can smell this way” kind of way. I mean, it smells quite literally of Slim Jims. Smoky, salty pork and bacon, with a molasses-like sweetness and woody undertones.

I usually don’t geek out in a blunt manner when I get into the taste, but the beer is just God damn glorious. For a beer with some potent, unusual aromas, it’s remarkably creamy and smooth on the palate, while still maintaining the intrigue found in the nose. The flavor still has its meat-like component, with hammy, fatty bacon flavors, but the smokiness really assumes control as far as the flavor is concerned. It tastes of wood, smoke and earthiness, with a big, fat medium-rare steak on top. What makes this beer so wonderful, though, is that all of these flavors are balanced flawlessly. I know they probably sound bold and a little challenging, but I can’t begin to describe how easy this beer is to drink and how friendly the flavors are. It’s just awesome, really. The finish gets a little bigger, with an assertive smokiness taking over, but the linger is short-lived and the throat feels wiped clean for more.

Rauchbier, especially when it’s made by a Bamberg brewery, is one of the most uniquely flavored, in-your-pretty-face beer styles around. Yet somehow, it maintains a pleasant smoothness that tempers the flavors and makes it a very approachable beer. If you’ve never tried one, you might want to start with this one. It’s one of the finest examples of the style, and if you find yourself in front of a plate filled with sausage, smoked ham and schnitzel, it can make the perfect complementary beverage.

Score: 9.5/10.0

#31: Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche - Brauerei Heller, Bamberg, Germany Guess what I’m doing in approximately one hour? Bowling. Needless to say, I’m a little excited. I also feel that having an opportunity to wear the coolest shoes this side of the Mississippi calls for the appropriate celebratory beer. If you’ve been with Whosisbrew since the beginning, you might recall that the first beer I ever reviewed was Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, which is brewed by Brauerei Heller. To give you a quick synopsis of how it’s made, the brewery kilns (or dries) their malt by exposing it to beechwood, which gives the beer an intensely smokey, spicy and meat-like flavor/aroma. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier is brewed in the Marzen (Oktoberfest) style, but the beer we’ll look at today has its differences from the one we encountered. For starters, Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche is brewed in the doppelbock style, which we looked at when we tried the Celebrator Doppelbock a little while ago. Also, instead of kilning the malt with beechwood, this malt is kilned by exposing it to an oak wood fire. This all sounds rather agreeable to me so I’m going to shut up and drink the beer now. You + Me = Beer The beer poured with a medium-sized off-white head, which receded quickly but left a thin rim at the top. The color is a beautiful transparent dark amber/copper, and you should definitely hold this one to the light to see the color’s subtle complexities. At first, the aroma smells much like that of the marzen, but I quickly noticed that the aroma didn’t have the overwhelming scent of spiced meat or bacon, as I found with the other beer. This beer has more of a pure smoke smell, similar to that of smelling chimney smoke while being outside in crisp, cold air. I was also able to pick up on a little caramel, making this one very enticing. The taste certainly justifies the smokiness present in the aroma, as flavors of smoke and mild spice hit you right away. But after the initial hit, delicious malt sweetness joined the stage as well, providing flavors of caramel, brown sugar and (call me crazy) I was also able to taste the flavor of a slightly burnt pie crust. I find medium hop presence here, adding a little spice and bitterness to combat the otherwise sweet flavor. The medium body and mouthfeel give way to an interesting finish, as mild hop bitterness and a slight coating of alcohol linger in your throat for just a few moments. I find that this beer has a bit of a cleaner taste than the Marzen, as the smokiness is still very much evident but it doesn’t dictate the range of flavor. The use of oak smoke might have something to do with this, but it also might have to do with the presence of more malt sweetness as a result of it being brewed in the doppelbock style. This is another intriguing, intensely flavorful beer from Brauerei Heller. For those who might find the marzen to be an acquired taste, this might be a little more suitable for you. It has less of the spiced meat/bacon taste and more of the malt sweetness, yet it still retains that famous smokey flavor. It tastes like a cozy, middle-of-nowhere campfire, and it makes for one of the best winter seasonals around. Score: 9.5/10.0

#31: Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche - Brauerei Heller, Bamberg, Germany

Guess what I’m doing in approximately one hour? Bowling. Needless to say, I’m a little excited. I also feel that having an opportunity to wear the coolest shoes this side of the Mississippi calls for the appropriate celebratory beer.

If you’ve been with Whosisbrew since the beginning, you might recall that the first beer I ever reviewed was Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, which is brewed by Brauerei Heller. To give you a quick synopsis of how it’s made, the brewery kilns (or dries) their malt by exposing it to beechwood, which gives the beer an intensely smokey, spicy and meat-like flavor/aroma. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier is brewed in the Marzen (Oktoberfest) style, but the beer we’ll look at today has its differences from the one we encountered. For starters, Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche is brewed in the doppelbock style, which we looked at when we tried the Celebrator Doppelbock a little while ago. Also, instead of kilning the malt with beechwood, this malt is kilned by exposing it to an oak wood fire. This all sounds rather agreeable to me so I’m going to shut up and drink the beer now.

You + Me = Beer

The beer poured with a medium-sized off-white head, which receded quickly but left a thin rim at the top. The color is a beautiful transparent dark amber/copper, and you should definitely hold this one to the light to see the color’s subtle complexities. At first, the aroma smells much like that of the marzen, but I quickly noticed that the aroma didn’t have the overwhelming scent of spiced meat or bacon, as I found with the other beer. This beer has more of a pure smoke smell, similar to that of smelling chimney smoke while being outside in crisp, cold air. I was also able to pick up on a little caramel, making this one very enticing.

The taste certainly justifies the smokiness present in the aroma, as flavors of smoke and mild spice hit you right away. But after the initial hit, delicious malt sweetness joined the stage as well, providing flavors of caramel, brown sugar and (call me crazy) I was also able to taste the flavor of a slightly burnt pie crust. I find medium hop presence here, adding a little spice and bitterness to combat the otherwise sweet flavor. The medium body and mouthfeel give way to an interesting finish, as mild hop bitterness and a slight coating of alcohol linger in your throat for just a few moments. I find that this beer has a bit of a cleaner taste than the Marzen, as the smokiness is still very much evident but it doesn’t dictate the range of flavor. The use of oak smoke might have something to do with this, but it also might have to do with the presence of more malt sweetness as a result of it being brewed in the doppelbock style.

This is another intriguing, intensely flavorful beer from Brauerei Heller. For those who might find the marzen to be an acquired taste, this might be a little more suitable for you. It has less of the spiced meat/bacon taste and more of the malt sweetness, yet it still retains that famous smokey flavor. It tastes like a cozy, middle-of-nowhere campfire, and it makes for one of the best winter seasonals around.

Score: 9.5/10.0