Smoked Beers

I've only ever been to one place that had the Schlenkerla Helles on tap and it was really good.

I just recently saw the cans in our store and bought a 4pack and I definitely enjoyed it as well. I'm not sure how similar or different the two times were I only had it once on draft about a year or so ago.

But I liked the cans a lot a solid Helles with some smokiness to give it more complexity.

When I was in Germany I never tried the Helles. I just stuck with the Märzen, Weizen, and Urbock.

 

I just checked their website and I don't see any of the Schlenkerla beers listed. Shrugs.

 

Doesn't look like it. It's a pretty tiny operation so I guess I should be surprised we ever got it in the first place. They still use a chalkboard to track their hotel guests and they only added TV's to the rooms a few years ago

 

Schlenkerla is brought in by B United. If I remember correctly, the Sheltons had Spezial.

 

Ahh..thanks!

 

The bottled and draft Schlenkerla Helles beers had a pleasing balance of malt and smoke flavors.

The canned beers were not pleasingly balanced in comparison.

Cheers!

 

Ain't no keyboard between that operator, bottle, and mug -- only error.

 

Same here, I ALMOST pulled the trigger on a recent fresh 4 pack of Schlenkerla Helles cans, but they're just too smoky compared to the draft/bottle.

I've had some sips from my brother's cans recently, and they're good, but just too smoky for what I expect in that beer.

 

It's probably worth reporting your dissatisfaction with the cans to B. United. They went through all sorts of trouble to produce those, so if they're missing the mark we should save them the trouble. After all, the bottles are basically fine.

 

Special is only about 5000 bbls/year, Schlenkerla is a little bigger.

I wonder if they got out of the contract with Shelton Bros?

 

The issue that @AlcahueteJ and @JackHorzempa have with those cans is B United's choice as to the beer they put in them rather than the vessel itself. I'm going to make an assumption that B United is behind the "unfiltered" concept for the Helles rather than it being an idea that originated from Schlenkerla.

On the other hand, my reaction to that product is different. In my personal experience, I don't think there was much of a difference in smoke level between the unfiltered cans and filtered bottles. I don't think the lack of filtering did the product any favors though. Also, people have talked about the varying smoke levels of that beer before it was ever canned. Unlike everyone else though, I do have my concerns about the canning process itself. I'm not at all convinced of this, but I have some concern that the canned beer just doesn't hold up as well. It's all anecdotal though and I can't make up my own mind until I've had more experiences with it.

 

I had a couple cans of Krausen and there were fairly obvious problems with one of the cans (slightly soured/spoiled/infected) but not the other. this leads me to believe, too, that something's going wrong in the packaging process

 

I had the same experience (emphasis on slightly but still noticeable). In my case though, the draft Krausen that I had when it first came over was repeatedly fantastic. The cans that I had a little later were great, but the one can that I had further down the road was problematic. I figured it was due to time in the can but it could have been a coincidence. Nonetheless, the beer wasn’t old enough for me to think it was an acceptable aspect due to age.

Before that experience, my take on the canned Helles was that it didn’t seem to hold up as well as the bottle (not that I knew the bottle dates, but one can make a reasonable assumption). At the time, I attributed this to the lack of filtering rather than the packaging, but the later Krausen experience made me wonder.

 

Definitely an interesting twist on a flavor profile. I was going to do a Carolina Smoked Rauch beer, any thoughts besides smoked grains in it?

 

https://www.beeradvocate.com/ratebeer/?path=/beer/wagner-braeu-kemmern-kuckuck/159123/

This is one I like, more of a smoked Helles, slightly stronger than Schlenkerla’s.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/ratebeer/?path=/beer/weiherer-rauch/36062/

I also like this one, again it’s more of a smoked Helles.

 

According to the zwanze day thread that beer this year will be smoked

 

You sound like you're talking more about BBQ than beer, so if you're going to brew it, add some Carolina BBQ sauce.

 

Triple Crossing out of Richmond, Va has been making some REALLY fantastic lagers of late to rival their already excellent hop program.

They have one in particular still available to go currently called Rekindled.

“Rekindled - Our latest oak conditioned blended lager returns in the form of Rekindled. We took the previous batch of Cinder which is our beloved smoked lager and laid it to rest within our previously used red wine barrels. After a long enough maturation, we then blended the now exquisitely soft smoked lager with a portion of fresh stainless conditioned lager. Pouring a deceptively translucent orange fading into copper, we notice sweet smoked honey tones, slight noble hop like orange oil and finishing out with a slight smoke derived dryness to balance out any residual sweetness. Where the once smoke character took center stage, the aging in oak coupled with the blending of fresher lager has tempered this thing into a legit grown-ups beer.”

 

Add me to the list of people that prefers the bottled Schlenkerla Helles to the unfiltered cans. It's not a knock on the cans at all, just a preference. I still think the cans are excellent. The smoke is little heavier and it doesn't finish as clean as the bottled version, but I still love it. And where else am I getting a Helles with smoke flavor?

 

I was thinking about it. Smoking some mustard seeds and some grains with the malt, combining like a bit of stout extract and amber extract, I am thinking Chinook would be the best hops for this flavoring. BBQ sauce is going in the boil because why the heck not?!?!?