Diff'rent Smokes - Rauch Fest

Many PNW breweries are making Smoke Beers. I'm hopeful that the Midwest will catch the wave.

 

Bierstadt has a wonderful smoked helles out in cans right now. Dry Dock released one recently as well. Seems like people are starting to hype them a bit more locally.

 

Been over to Hammerheart in Minnesota yet? That's literally all they do.

EDIT: And I just saw they closed down, so, never mind. A shame, they did some good smoked beers.

 

Ditto for New England breweries!

 

I never got to try ONE of their beers. What a pity.

 

A small, local brewery, Root Down, recently brewed a smoked Helles they brand as Hel Shade. I have yet to try it but a good friend had and he stated this beer is very good. I will have to get over to Root Down and try this new beer from them.

“DESCRIPTION

Our Smoked Helles Lager with a light and delicate smoke profile, entirely from Beechwood Smoked Malt. Lending a slight smokey campfire vibe that anchors down the spicy hop character of this lager. Named after Hel, the partially charred Norse Goddess and Shade, after the light cigar leaf that smokes with a mild character.

TASTING NOTES

Notes: Campfire, bacon, earthy spice, mint, low bitterness, semi-dry finish.

Malt: German Pilsner, German Beechwood Smoked Malt, and German Melonoiden
Hops: Warrior, Saphir, Hersbrucker (all German varietals).”

I do enjoy drinking Smoked Beers that feature “campfire”. I am not a fan of those beers that turn out “meaty”.

Cheers!

P.S. I just got done bottling a homebrewed beer that I brand as Smoky & Spicy Brown Ale. I use Weyermann Smoked Malt (30% of the grist) and Rye Malt (20% of the grist) to brew that beer.

 

Allegedly they intend to reopen as a smaller contract-brewing operation. We shall see.

 

I'm going to need to try that.
I've been living in Denver for four months and I still haven't gotten around to trying Bierstadt yet!

 

Bruh. It's only THE most hyped brewery in denver!

 

And the fact that a Lagerhaus is the most hyped beer in Denver is an awesome concept for me.

In my area the hyped breweries tend to be the ones producing Juicy/Hazy hoppy beers.

Cheers to lagers!!!!!!!

 

Ain't that the truth! It's all hoppy/hazy and heavily fruited sour around here.

 

Well...that is indeed the situation for the hyped breweries.

But there are plenty of non-hyped breweries producing high quality lagers of various styles. A list of a few (there are others): Mainstay, Root Down, Von C, Workhorse, Troubles End, Sly Fox, Sterling Pig,...

We are by no means lacking a variety of very good lagers but folks like BA's will not be talking about them.

Cheers!

 

I might get to see what the hype is about soon.

 

Jeff, please report back.

I will be visiting my sister in New Braunfels soon (in a couple of weeks). It has been a while since I have been to Hill Country, TX because of the pandemic. It will be interesting to learn first hand whazzup there.

Cheers!

 

Hmmm I wonder why that is. Austin Lunn iirc literally studied how to brew in Norway and like literally does this. He has a band project he does but not enough to warrant a day job closure. Wonder what happened.

 

FWIW, I live literally a block away from Cerebral Brewing and apparently that's a pretty big deal.
But yeah, I really need to get on that Bierstadt hype train.

 

That's what I meant, the hyped ones. Apologies for not making my post clearer. I was actually at Workhorse and Von C last weekend. Von C's lagers in particular made me very happy. Their kolsch is dynamite and the schwarzbier is excellent as well.

 

I too was at Von C last weekend. I drank two glasses of the Italian Pilsner and a mug of the Vienna Lager (poured by a Lukr side-pull faucet/tap). I thought those beers were very good!

Cheers!

 

I used to get tattooed at Peter tattoo before the area was... well fuck it, gentrified. It's crazy how much that area changed.