Smoked Beers

Thanks - I didn't know about the one at Greifenklau - must have been there too late in the spring. Been to Goeller as well, but don't remember anything smokey (or anything else, for that matter!).

 

Fat Head's here in Cleveland does smoked beers fairly regularly.

Smoked Porters and Bocks, Rauchbier, Smoked Helles... Always top notch!

Also, Noble Beast here did a smoked Kellerbier (a German inspired brewery here in CLE, does solid stuff).

So for me, basically for my Rauch fix I either drink what Fat Head's has, brew my own which I do commonly, or pick up bottles of Schlenkerla which is easy to find here in Cleveland.


@Ozzylizard

Just in Bamberg and had Rauchbier at Spezial and Schlenkerla of course, but also Klosterbrau which was phenomenal, as well as Weyermann and Brauerei Kundmuller (20min outside of Bamberg).

 

That's why I said "C'mon man..."

Then again, it's really an old school I.T. thing that we used to say out loud more than spell, "Oh -- ee." Right up there with the I.D.10-T error.

 

I imagine that all of the German-inspired breweries here in the US will brew a smoked beer. My local brewery, Territorial Brewing, has their version on tap now. It's called Red Headed Rauchstar because of their use of ginger in the beer. I'm not a ginger fan, so I don't enjoy the beer. I've never asked the brewer if the use of ginger has some German tradition to it, or if it's his invention. Anybody seen ginger in a rauchbier before?

 

I had no idea there were that man. What is your impression of them? I know you're a big Schlenkerla fan - are any comparable?

 

Greifenklau sounds like a house in Harry Potter.

Easy to find yes, easy to find fresh, not so much.

At least that's how the Schlenkerla bottles in my area are...at least the cans are dated now.

 

I prefer PBKAC... Problem Between Keyboard And Chair

 

most are pretty good. they all use -- I assume -- the weyermann rauchmalz (since schlenkerla and spezial are the only two with their own maltings). so most end up tasting a bit sweet from use of a mix of rauch and munich (and pilsner) malts. i do prefer, as you mention, the dryness and ashen finish of schlenkerla. spezial is my second favorite. greifenklau's is good, but a bit muddled being unfiltered. goeller not really my thing. barnikel's is quite good, may be the most comparable to schlenkerla. as is rittmayer's. wagner introduced one in the past few years that is nice, as did honig. then you have friedel and a few others that have been around longer but can be hard to find.

 

If this were the US you'd have to stand in line for cans of Schlenkerla.

 

With only a handful of beers available and hardly any new beers in several years, how could they even possibly hope to survive past a month's worth of can releases? By week 5 the people queing up would be on to them and realize that they have nothing new to offer, and that place might as well shut its doors. Good riddance .

 

Ha, true true.

People would have to actually GO TO THE BREWERY AND ENJOY THEMSELVES, rather than stand in line. And drink the beer on draft.

 

I suspect beers using heavily smoked malts are too challenging, polarizing, and strange to produce much queuing in the United States in 2019. The vast majority of lines these days seem to be for highly accessible beers. Breweries need to draw from a wide audience to generate sufficient buzz to exploit artificial scarcity for marketing purposes. I've talked to local brewers who have produced some smoke beers, and they've told me that they simply don't sell well; that's why there are so few.

 

My comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek, and was mostly because in @herrburgess 's comment was implying Schlenkerla is the best (and they probably are!), so people would "seek it out".

Clearly that's not the case. Otherwise Schlenkerla cans would have flown off the shelves here in the US.

 

I agree with all of that, however I think the niche market of smoked beers could have one or two other competitors besides Schlenkerla, which is effectively the only brewer filling that niche for the majority of the US market. I think Schlenkerla's super-premium pricing reflects their dominance in that niche (with good reason - they are awesome), but it could be an open door for some US-based competition. However, I think to compete with Schlenkerla you can't just be a "normal" brewer who makes a few good smoke beers too. They would have to specialize in only smoke beers, have wide distribution, market their specialty product, and build a reputation for the style that people will always connect with "smoke" or "rauch" beer, i.e. just like Schlenkerla is. If only I had a few million dollars laying around to do it myself...

 

I purchased one 4-pack of the canned Schlenkerla Helles (a beer that I really enjoyed in the past on draft and bottled) but those beers were not properly balanced IMO. I have not purchased those canned beers ever again (and I am unlikely to ever do so).

Cheers!

 

Jack, you probably already know this, but the canned Helles beer was not filtered (unlike the bottles).

 

Yup, well aware.

Why the lack of filtering yielded such a drastic difference in product is somewhat perplexing to me. Regardless this canned beer is not for me.

Cheers!

 

Can you describe the differences in your experiences?

 

I haven't tried the Schlenkerla cans, but the bottles and kegs still taste fine. The bottles do seem to concentrate the smoky notes, but not so much that I find them offputting. I think they're just a little more pungent. The recent Krausen kegs that came over were great, IMO. Maybe not quite Bamberg-fresh/good, but definitely in the ballpark. For what it's worth, all of the cans that made it to Denver sold pretty quickly. Only a few places got them, but they were gone inside 48 hours. I'm convinced that anything in a hand-labeled 16oz can will sell well these days though.

Anyone know if Spezial still sends bottles to the US? They definitely did for a bit around 2010, but I have seen nothing in years.

 

I think that stream dried up a long time ago. I don't think Spezial is currently on the Shelton Brothers website.