Fumée de L'amère
L'Amère à Boire

Appearance: A deep dark brown body that shows highlights of crimson as it is put up to the light. Poured with a thumb's worth of head that produced the barest of lace, but sadly didn't stick around.

Smell: Smoke, but it's much more a dry neutral wood (birch minus the bark I guess if you want to get technical) campfire kind of smoke, as opposed to the more common smoked meat sort of experience. A bit of molasses note in the background to go with it. Warming helps it out tremendously.

Taste: That fairly generic smoke starts with turns to a taste that reminds me of baked beans, it starts like molasses beans when it's cool and as it warms it's more like pork and beans, so I highly recommend letting it warm up. Ends with an earthy snap which doesn't get out of control.

Mouthfeel: The transitioning is good, and the aftertaste is predominantly smoke, carbonation is decent. The smoke adds a unique dryness, that doesn't incentivize drinking more and doesn't get out of control.

Drinkability: On the heavier side of medium body, but doesn't quite cross over into stout thick territory. Definitely drinks like a meal though as it sit down in your stomach, heavily but without complaint.

Final Thoughts: I had this offering earlier in the year, and I seem to recall it fared a bit better then this can. That said, it was still a solid beer, but you have to let it warm up, do not drink it right out of the fridge. While it's not dethroning Schlenkerla, it's still a worthy Rauch that is worth your time.