Kaiserdom Rauchbier

Mid- to Late-80s, based on this ad from their importer at the time, Merchant du Vin. Likely that label was created specifically for the US market, at the request of MdV. The rear label for the California Redemption Value might have simply been used in CA, and other bottles sold in mandatory deposit states got other rear labels.

 

Does it state the ABV anywhere? Lower alcohol beers wouldn't survive the aging but if it were on the high side it might be an interesting beer to at least sample. If you're just going to toss it then you have nothing to lose by at least sampling a small amount.

Then again, the reviews weren't very good for it when it was fresh:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2222/6300/

 

I have a full can of Henninger Kaiser Pilsner (https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3923/15962/) that has the old ring pull-top opener that was outlawed in the US in the 1970s(?), and there is no way that I'll drink that beer. (And it has nothing to do with collectible value, which is probably nil anyway.) That's my recommendation to you too. Your curiosity to drink it probably won't kill you, but I doubt that even a small sip would be enjoyable.

 

If it were me, I'd probably put it on display alongside my bottle of Buffalo Wing Soda (which will never be opened).

 

When the Berlin Wall came down! Good grief!

 

I wouldn't drink it, and I certainly won't expect it to be good at this point. It probably makes a better keepsake unopened anyway.

I do remember that beer all too well .
It put me off of rauchbiers for a good while, too (and they are probably my favorite style nowadays ). I'm sure it was in bad condition, maybe even a few years old at the time, but it was harsh, thin and unpleasant, back in the late 80s. The chances that the additional time has been an improvement are really slim, I'm sorry to say.

 

The history is just a little more complicated than that -- the wall fell in November of 1989 and Reunification was finalized nearly a year later in October, 1990. Who knows when they actually stopped using pre-printed West (or East) Germany labels.

 

Very true. But I doubt the length of time was different enough to make any difference in the beer either way.

Unfortunately back then, as you no doubt recall, the real oddball imports (like this one) were regularly neglected and/or mistreated.

 

Oh yeah -- I wasn't commenting on how good the beer might be, just that Reunification wasn't automatic with the fall of Communism.

I definitely agree to not open that beer -- as you said, it was a pretty scary drink when it was fresh. I got to try it at a beer tasting held by the regional sales rep for Merchant du Vin back in the mid-80s, so I'm sure it was fresh... but it was just a bit too smoky for me. I was afraid to visit Bamberg because of that beer -- fortunately it isn't a good representative of the Franconian specialty.

 

You've been a member since 2003, but waited until now for your first post... you should drop by more often.

 

The fact that rauchbiers could be found stateside in the late 80s shocks me.

The fact that you were drinking them then? Not shocking at all.

 

Yeah, I recall that I bought a sixpack of the beer (with an earlier label/light brown/green stubby bottle, as below) in the early 1980s - probably based on it being a MdV import and/or mentioned in M. Jackson's World Guide to Beer. The last few bottles stayed on the back of the bottom shelf of the refrigerator so long the caps started to rust. For a long time, the only beers I couldn't (well, "wouldn't") finish and probably "drain poured" into the compost pile when I moved in '83.

Some compared the flavor to smoked ham or sausage (a friend of mine who served in Germany in the US Army in the early '60s said it tasted like "...drinking beer and smoking a cigarette at the same time!") but my first reactions was:
"Liquid Smoked Fish!"

According to MdV articles, it was being imported into the US by 1980 - below an ad from a NJ chain from that period (and, possibly, where I purchased mine).

 

At least I only had a single bottle to contend with . I remember the place, too - it was at the Peculiar Pub in Greenwich Village, one of those bars that featured over 100 "beers of the world" and encouraged you to try them all. So there was that, plus the Beer Hunter episode that made smoked beers seem so interesting. I just picked the wrong one to start with.

A few years later, Rauchenfels and Alaskan Smoked Porter set me straight. Also, didn't the original Samuel Adams Scotch Ale have a smoked malt component?

 

I purchased a very fresh six of Samuel Adams Scotch Ale in 1995 shortly after it came out. The smoked taste was in the background and was lovely. I tied another six a few months later (perhaps the same batch) and it was horrible. I guess that this is one of those beers which you have to have very, very fresh.

 

Gotta be honest.I'd try it.Isn't smoke an anti-bacterial agent? + the alcohol.
Beer isnt whisky.Youre never gonna make thousands of $ of a bottle of beer