Kaiserdom Rauchbier

That sounds like something that would be a lot of fun to open at a bottle share, just for the pure novelty and history of it.

P.S. I absolutely love these kinds of threads. Any time @jesskidden gets to show off his historic knowledge prowess is a treat. Thank you for sharing @HTX

 

I drank Kaiserdom once about 20 years ago. Tasted like a Budweiser that had liquid Smoke poured into it.

 

Good luck! And don't hold it against all smoked beers .

 

My advice is to try to keep an open mind when you do it.

 

Is it in a green bottle? If so put it back on the shelf and enjoy looking at it. Bottle seems to be in great shape. Go grab another one that better represents the style, invite some friends over and drink this: Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock and look at the old bottle and admire how well it held up on the outside.

 

Standard strength Rauchbier doesn't age well at all
That being said-
was Kaiserdom Rauchbier even a unique beer, or relabelled Schlenkerla for export to the US? I mean, I never heard of Kaiserdom making a Rauchbier, they certainly don't make one today, and I've never seen labels other than the us ones.

 

Hmmm... that's interesting. The US importer, Merchant du Vin, founded in the late 1970s by Charles Finkel (and inspired by M. Jackson's World Guide to Beer) had a history of having breweries "re-create" older styles for his company - other notable examples included Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout as well as their Porter, brewed specifically for the US market and not available in their home market.

MdV also acted as a sort of "master distributor" for some US then-local breweries like Cold Spring, Yuengling and August Schell, which brewed rarer styles (CS Export, Schell's Weiss and Pilsener, Yuengling Porter), in some cases creating separate MdV specific labels for them, heavy on nostalgia, like this one for Yuengling's then-flagship AAL (today called "Yuengling Premium").



Of course, the US has a long history of "imported" beers that were brewed specifically for the US market, notably St. Pauli Girl, brewed at Beck's Breman brewery but which had always been owned/imported by a company other than Beck's US importer, until ABInBev finally took over ownership of the brand in recent years.

 

Well... I would say don't drink it, if it's been around for that long and its only between 5 to 7% then I would just keep it as something to remember. Plus it might be worth money one day in its unopened form since collectors are always looking for things like that, especially since West Germany and East Germany divide no longer exists.

 

Thanks for all the info, very fascinating.
Off course, US only beers brewed by germans brewers were a pretty big thing back when I was ticking beers. But after having tasted Beck's and Warsteiner Dunkel and Beck's Oktoberfest, all I can say is, those beers are pretty bad, and can stay in the US for all I care.

 

Have some good craft beer handy to try to wash out the anticipated bad taste...perhaps a strong BBA stout.

 

Don't say we didn't warn you...

 

With a good degree of confidence, I can tell you that the Kaiserdom tasted nothing like any Schlenkerla I've ever tasted. The Kaiserdom was doubly more smoky and astringent than any of the Schlenkerla beers -- it was like they amped up the smokiness for effect.

 

For what it's worth, Jackson's Beer Companion (1997 edition) says that Kaiserdom's Rauchbier was brewed by Eltmann's. It also alludes that it was export only.

 

I remember that someone from around here once said Kaiserdom Rauchbier was made by Schlenkerla- turns out, I was right:

So while probably not exactly the same beer as Schlenkerla Märzen, they obviously likely made Kaiserdom Rauchbier as well

 

So, where does that leave Jackson's information? I'm betting that the original, for export by Merchant du Vin, was brewed by Eltmann and subsequent renditions were brewed by Schlenkerla -- but I'd also bet that version was never exported.

@herrburgess ?

 

Somehow, stuff like that is really interesting for me..
Any idea of the ABV of the Merchant du Vin version? At the "other" rating site, it is listed at 5.9%abv, which seems kinda high for something like that.. Then I found this picture https://untappd.akamaized.net/photo/2015_08_22/439b1ba71547a015940c0fce5f313544_640x640.jpg only 4.2%(abv?abw?not really clear ), and was this also ment for export, some "brewed and bottled by" on the label seems to indicate that for me. But yeah,weird- really weird!

 

Just know what Trum told me. I was surprised as well.

 

Looking at that label I'd interpreted it as ABV given that the letters VOL follows the 4.2%.

 

According to an old copy of Fred Eckhardt's The Essentials of Beer Style (1993 Edition), the Kaiserdom was 5.0ABV.

Considering that it hasn't been imported for years, I'm surprised they even have any sort of speculation.

That's a pretty crazy pic -- I wonder how old it is? But It's pretty clear that it's listing alcohol by volume.

Yeah, gotta wonder.