On the contrary, there are quite a few. However, the smoke component tends to be fairly mild, at least in comparison to Schlenkerla. A lot of consumers find that amount of smoke flavor off putting (not me - in fact I'm wearing my Schlenkerla hoodie as I type this), so most producers out here try to make a lightly smoked beer that almost anyone can tolerate.
My place has varied their intensity depending on the style they're brewing. That said, the Rauchbier I enjoyed fresh in Bamberg was much more mellow than the import bottles I've consumed.
John, when you were living on the East Coast did you ever make it to the annual (well annual for a while) Smoked beer event at Yards in Philly? I posted in a thread in 2019: “Yards Brewing used to have a Smoked Beer event every September but they have not had one lately (last year or the year prior). By my reckoning the last one was in 2015? I posted in a past thread about the 2015 event: “I attended the 7th Annual Smoke’em if yous got em beer festival at Yard’s Brewing Company. I have not been to all seven events; I would guess the last four events. They had 34 beers listed for this event.” At another beer event I had a long conversation with Tom Kehoe (owner of Yards Brewing Co.) and during that conversation lamented that he no longer held the Smoked beer events. As part of the event, they would have a pig cooking on a spit and he claimed that he got push back from the city (Philadelphia Health Department?) about the pig roast aspect and decided to just stop having the event. Cheers!
Never did unfortunately. I don't think I was aware of it. 2012 was the last year I lived in Baltimore... did it take place prior to then?
Well, from my above post the 2015 event was year 7 so the first Smoked beer event would have been 2008 I reckon. Cheers!
Nishi, a German Pilsner from Godspeed Brewery From a 355ml can packaged on Feb 19 2026. Poured into a Pilsner glass. a three finger white head on a clear gold. Good head retention. A solid layer sticks around. Lots of bubbly lacing. Clean grain smells. The taste follows the nose. with some floral hops. A hoppy finish. A medium/light body with good carbonation. Overall a clean, hoppy pilsner. 3.77/5 rDev -1.6% look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
Brewers are getting "creative" with naming, but here at BA we still need to shoehorn beers into BA recognized styles.
There was a thread on this recently. Brewers name beer to sell, so lots of times there is a variation between the description and the beer. In the case of Nishi, the brewers website calls it a Geman Pils with IPA qualities. Pretty accurate.
Wow. That's pretty honest, but it doesn't make me want to buy their beer. I have enough IPA choices and too few good German Pilsner choices.
They make some awesome beers. But this isn't their finest effort. I am not an IPA guy, so it just wasn't my thing. They just released an Italian Pilsner. I might give that a try. They are better known for East European Lager styles.
Totally agree! We've gotten some irregular drops of their beers down where in GA and I've enjoyed everything they make (Volksgarten is my favorite of theirs btw). Anyone looking for well crafted German styles they can get fresh and have access to Schilling is fortunate.
Like the brewery's name sounds, Archival Brewing brews some historical beer recipes. One is a Kottbusser, and that's what I'm picturing here. I think the brewery notes for this beer say that many people think it's closest in taste to a Kolsch, hence it's in that style category here because there is no 'historical' or Kottbusser style listing. I think it's closer in taste to a Helles, but it doesn't matter as long as it's a tasty beer.
This is exactly my opinion of every beer. Style adherence is valuable for many reasons, and only slightly valuable to the overall experience.
