Rauchbier

You were in Ypsilanti? Did we talk?

 

No, I had just gotten in from a long road trip, and was fighting a cold. I was worn out.

 

Shame.

 

I see that @grantcty beat me to the reply.

The fundamental challenge is that we consumers have zero insight into the date of when the beer was packaged in the tank.

Permit me to go further:

• The beer was packaged into the tank at the brewery.
• That tank was then trucked from the brewery to the port of departure
• The beer sat at the port of departure until the ship arrived
• The tank is shipped across the Atlantic
• The tank arrives at the US port where it waits for a truck to transport it to somewhere in CT
• Once the tank arrives to CT at some point in time that beer is packaged in cans. This is the date that appears on the top of the 4-pack plastic holder

How much time transpires in bulleted list above? Beat me.

But I agree that the above is 'better' than for the Schlenkerla bottles which have no dates at all.

Cheers!

 

I bought it on 4/26/18, so that was 10 days after it was canned. Regardless of when it was shipped here on the tanker, it's tasting phenomenal!

 

Smoke preserves meat, but too bad it doesn't preserve beer too. ☺️

 

Uhumm... Alaskan Smoked Porter goes some impressive distance. My last 2001 I drank in 2015 and it was phenomenal!

 

I have a leftover Luther from the Lakefront My Turn Series of a few years ago, maybe I should test that theory.

 

All the ado about Rauchbier age strikes me as ironic. If any beer can stand up to oxidation it's Rauchbier.

 

You realize the tank is constantly refrigerated, right?

 

Smoke is a preservative. Some/most of the smoke flavor is due to the phenol Guaiacol, which can readily oxidize.

Geoff Larson of Alaskan Brewing does say that Alaskan Smoked Porter will go through an “awkward phase” as it ages, but then later recovers. I have never tried to long term age a Rauchbier.

I have a homebrewer Rauchbier that is drinking very nice from the keg. Some might be put sloppily into a bottle, capped with air in the headspace, and then compared to beer from the keg after a week or two.

 

When will you be there? I'm headed over in October for bock bier season.

 

I too prefer a "campfire" quality over "bacon-y".

I suppose some folks prefer "meaty" in their Rauchbiers?

Cheers!

 

Does that really work the same with a smoked beer -- where the only ingredient that's really smoked is the malt? And that's (the grain) altered via the mashing, boiling, and fermenting process.

 

Just judged the Smoked beer category at the Greg Noonan Memorial competition (a real privilege) and here are my thoughts on Rauchbier (5 were entered). The best example had a deep and rich foundation, strongly remininscent of a Marzen. The smoke was COMPLIMENTARY at best and added a smoky, fruit/berry character that complimented the richness of the malt. None of the entries had an overwhelming smoked character though I have tried several commercial Rauchbiers that feature strong smoke! Balance, as always, is the key. Some degree of sourness was apparent in 3 out of 4 of the examples, which I can't just, on the law of averages, put down to poor process. Any thoughts?

 

The garden is crazy Smokey, I swear there is charcoal floating in it. The doppelbock and helles are dialed back for certain. The doppelbock is money.

 

Based solely on how Alaskan smoked porter ages, I would contend that the smoke has a preservative effect.

 

I think it depends. Some smoked beers last a long time without tasting stale, others not so much.