Brewing smoked beer takes experimentation and an ambitious brewing spirit. Using smoked malt, you need to be willing to accept that the beer might come out a little “too much” or “not enough”. The more you brew with smoked malt, the more consistent you’ll be able to design recipes. In the world of German brewing, Kräusen refers to the intense proliferation of bubbles and foam formed during fermentation of a young or “green” beer. And Aufkräusen (literally to kräusen it up), refers to a historic brewing technique in which some green beer is added to a fully-matured lager. This is a very old and very typically German tradition, and today even English-speaking brewers refer to this technique as krausening. Krausening brings the vibrant freshness of young beer to the more refined, austere flavors of a fully-matured lager.

But first a little clarification for all non-Franconians. In Bamberg, you go “on the cellar”. That sounds confusing, because a cellar is downstairs and you tend to go to a cellar. But I have learned something. It’s all a bit confusing. It looks like a dark beer, but it won’t actually taste like one. Even the foam on the top is darker in color than a typical lager due to the smoke. Smoked beer will never regain its widespread dominance in the brewing world. Let’s face it, smoky flavors aren’t for everyone. That said, the dedicated smoked beer enthusiasts will ensure it’s always available. As homebrewers, we can keep the tradition alive while pushing the boundaries of flavor and style. The BJCP classifies the style under category number 6, “Amber Malty European Lager” and it can be found in the guidelines as sub-category (6B). In 1818, listed under the title “Improved Method of Drying and Preparing Malt,” Daniel Wheeler patented his new invention and everything changed.

Books about beer and Germany

Not far from Bamberg’s main railway station is the Fässla brewery. They have been brewing here since 1649 and I decided to drink the “real Bamberg Zwergla”.

In doing so, they became the keepers of the oldest continually-made smoked beers. Historical Rauchbier in a Craft Beer World? The guest room is like you would find in many breweries – dark rustic furniture, traditional and quaint. To counter this, Yazoo works with Riverbend Malting in Asheville, NC, to smoke smaller malt batches for them. As Hall puts it, this lets them “dial in the smoke more consistently.” It’s all about control, the element that brewers have the least influence over when brewing with smoke.

UNESCO Bamberg walking tour

Smoked Porter– A classic. Alaskan Brewing’s Smoked Porter is one of the first of its kind in the American craft beer market. A staple they’ve brewed since 1988, Alaskan Brewing’s Smoked Porter is one of the best smoked beers in the entire country. Again, the smoke blends with the other ingredients instead of stomping on them, with charred chocolate notes defining the beer as a whole. The best place to start when planning your own smoked beer is with the food of the American South: Barbeque. The relationship between the practices isn’t lost on Linus Hall, Founder and Brewmaster of Yazoo Brewing in Madison, TN. For the brewery’s own take on a smoked beer called Sue, Hall took inspiration from local pitmasters, Pat Martin of Martin’s BBQ and Carey Bringle of Peg Leg Porker from Nashville, TN. “Hearing them talk about the subtleties of smoking, the different types of wood, how to treat smoke as an ingredient and not overwhelm the meat – that got me to thinking about smoking malt for beer, and trying it at home,” says Hall.

I just spent nearly two hours travelling north to Bamberg on a train from Munich. They know how to brew decent beer in Bavaria’s state capital too. But I want to sample Schlenkerla Rauchbier in the historic tavern that bears the brewery’s name. Sign for the Altstadt tavern serving Schlenkerla Rauchbier in Bamberg, Germany. If you enjoyed this post why not sign up for the free Go Eat Do newsletter ? It’s a hassle-free way of getting links to posts on a monthly basis. Now that we know a little of what to expect in how a smoked beer tastes, let’s dive into the history of it, where to find a traditional, German Rauchbier and more. The First Beers Made Yup, you figured it out. It’s highly, highly probable that some of the first beers ever consumed were actually on some spectrum of a smoked beer. After all, when they dried the malt by fire, the smoke inadvertently would flavor the malt, which would then affect the final taste of the beer. The most important lesson at this stage is you don’t need to take a potentially aggressive phenolic flavor—that is, smoke—and work into a riotous flavor monster of a beer.Grodziskie traditionally contain 2.7–3.7% alcohol by volume with little to no hop flavor or aroma, and medium-low to medium bitterness. [6] Typical coloration is straw to gold. [6] Smoked beers outside Germany and Poland [ edit ]

Bamberg is a 230-kilometre drive north along the A9 from Munich, the location of Munich Airport. Germany’s Inter-City Express (ICE) trains represent an efficient and relaxing way of travelling between the two cities. The oldest record of the Schlenkerla brewery dates from 1678, but it’s likely it was founded even before then.Nothing quite matches tasting a beer in the place it is brewed. To do that, I’ve come to the Schlenkerla brewery tavern, a half-timbered building in Dominikanerstrasse, in the heart of the city.