Aecht Schlenkerla Weichsel - Rotbier (i.e. red lager)

I've had a lot less consistency in Schlenkerla products canned in Connecticut than I have in their bottles. I've also had some absolutely atrocious cans of JW Lee's Harvest Ale from Connecticut.

I share @zid 's leeriness and would much prefer to find this in a bottle room Bamberg

 

As I said I have had the opposite experience.

This is actually a great idea for a side by side...the battle of the Rauchbier formats.

 

That would be awesome

 

Ha. I wasn't thinking of "rot-beer." When you are familiar with a term you can have a blind spot to other interpretations. The Beatles phenomenon probably put a pause on people thinking of a pool of liver when hearing the word Liverpool. (I know that's not the origin of the name)

I wish I had your luck then. I don't think any advantages from a can are going to have a significant impact compared to the potential QC pitfalls inherent in a process... and I imagine the tanker to can process is wide open to such potentials. I've done various side by sides in the past with CT cans and imported bottles... and the differences can be huge. Such differences could be a product of the advantages in the tanker-to-can process... and/or the disadvantages. I did this multiple times with Schlenkerla products. Comparing them can be very tricky due to unknown age differences and differences with filtering and pasteurization. The one time I compared the canned and bottled Märzen obtained directly from B United, I enjoyed the canned beer more. On the other hand, I've had enough canned product (from the various brewers involved including Schlenkerla) that clearly felt out of spec... usually with regard to acidity or carbonation levels (and that's not counting the unfortunate realities when they are intentionally aiming for a lower carbonation than the bottled product). The nicer product can be a case-by-case situation, but I'm going to want to put my money where the odds seem best.

I'm sorry for not being clear enough. I'm saying this because it comes across as a beer built around a theme. Craft brewers will add coffee or coconut to a cream ale. When they do so, is it because they've done test batches with a Kolsch, American lager, cream ale, and Helles and found the cream ale to be the best vehicle for these additions out of the four options... or is it because of the word play with cream ale? People can call me a cynic, but my money is on the word play. I'm not suggesting that's bad.

If the people at Schlenkerla are letting historical recipes fully guide them here, then I obviously take back what I'm saying. They wanted to experiment with cherry wood. They didn't decide on a Dunkel, Schwarzbier or Bock with the cherry wood dried malt, they picked a Nuremberg Rotbier / red-beer and they named the beer after cherries. Anything could have driven those choices, but it comes across like a beer built around a cherry-red theme rather than putting flavor as the main driver in that choice making. Am I suggesting that they weren't concerned with flavor when building the beer? Of course not. I'm not even criticizing them for going down the theme road (if that even was the case). I'm just thinking about this beer and what it is. They are one of my favorite brewers.

 

Ah interesting, that's a perspective that totally evaded me. I can see that impression though for sure. I have a hard time assessing where a beer like this fits into the whole spectrum of central European smoke beers since I don't know much about their history and I have zero experience with a rotbier/red lager.

Considering it from that perspective though, I'm not sure how I feel. I really enjoy the beers I've had from schlenkerla, despite them likely being older than ideal. And I'm interested to see what a bit of experimentation from them would look like as long as it feels authentic and not like a desperate attempt to get shelf space in the states or something.

And to me, this beer sounds like it fits that bill. It reads like it's not too far of a deviation from a traditional style from their region of the world, but I get the impression there is some effort to meet modern craft beer drinkers part way with a choice of a softer smoke and modern aroma hops.

It's an interesting beer any way you look at it. Perhaps it's a genuine effort to recreate a dying style as it would have been made a century ago, perhaps a very old and traditional brewery dipping their toe into a modern beer paradigm that's a world apart from their typical milieu. Either way, it's probably the beer release I've been most interested in for a long time and I hope that it makes it to my area. If not I'd probably be willing to make an order for shipping to satisfy my curiosity

 

@zid I also for the most part stopped buying the B. United cans. I might grab a single here or there though.

The lack of dating makes it even worse now.

Specifically with Schlenkerla the beers were far smokier. Especially the Helles. On draft/in bottles the smoke character is definitely there, but it's far more subtle. It allows the malt character to come through nicely.

With the cans the malt character was overshadowed.

 

Where? Will be in town this weekend and would love to get my hands on some.

 

I've seen that take from you and others in the past. Personally, I never had that reaction. Here are some half-baked theories as to why the intensity might be different:

Given the nature of how the Helles gets the smoke flavor (from contaminated yeast essentially), any differences in intensity might actually be a product of batch variation that coincidentally lined up with the different packaging.

The canned product is unfiltered and the typical bottled product is filtered (although unfiltered versions are produced). Perhaps the unfiltered version is smokier by nature.

In either of the theories above, such differences would be due to the nature of the beer rather than a product of the tanker-to-can process.

Another theory is that the differences can be due to the beer mellowing with age. In this case, the tanker-to-can process might be preserving the character of the beer more... or everything might be coming down to the unknown ages of the beers and things coincidentally lining up with the packaging.

My last theory is - Who knows? I've encountered some weird differences between the two that make little sense to me.

You mentioned kegs and that's a wild card in the discussion, because who knows how those kegs are getting filled. Perhaps B United is filling kegs in CT with the same beer going into cans.

Man, now I really want some Schlenkerla after typing all this.

 

B United is definitely filling some kegs in Connecticut. I know that I've had some draughts Harvest Ale that got special treatment stateside (one that I specifically recall was aged on Muscadine grapes by B United).

I'm not certain they're doing it with Schlenkerla as well, but they do have a tank->keg program going so it's a possibility.

 

one of the beer shops by my work just got some in I already placed my order.

 

Figures. Any idea where they went?

 

It's an interesting take, and it does make sense.

That being said, I drank a lot of the Helles specifically well before cans (I loved the beer and it's sessionable at 4.3%), both in bottle and draft. I don't recall ever noticing that level of smoke in it. I even recently had a draft about a month ago, definitely wasn't overly smoky. Maybe I should grab a bottle somewhere, regardless of age?

I think @herrburgess stated something similar, and he's had more Schlenkerla over the years than most if I had to guess!

 

So there may be some selection bias at work here as I only live half an hour from where the beer is canned and my local packy has a good working relationship with OEC and B.united usually getting the product the week it is canned. So my good luck with cans may come down to the lessened chance of handling issues damaging the beer.

 

if the smokiness comes from the yeast, it's logical that the unfiltered helles would be smokier. that's what i think is happening.

 

Very nice moderate level of smoke and a hint of fruit. Finishes with a slight bitterness that is quite enjoyable. I’d say this is my new favorite aecht schlenkerla beer.

 

I will be joining you Frank, grabbed a can while on vacation last week. See you this weekend

 

Interesting that we're seeing both cans and bottles.