Smoked beer: Difference between revisions

Smoked beer (German: Rauchbier) is a type of beer with a distinctive smoke flavour imparted by using malted barley dried over an open flame.^[1] The Rauchbiers of Bamberg in Germany, Schlenkerla in particular, are the best-known of the smoked beers.

Drying malt over an open flame may impart a smoky character to the malt. This character may carry over to beers brewed with the smoked malt. Prior to the modern era, drying malted barley in direct sunlight was used in addition to drying over flames. Even though kiln drying of malt, using indirect heat, did not enter into widespread usage until the industrial era, the method was known as early as the first century BC. Also, there have been various methods over the years of preparing cereal grains for brewing, including making beer from bread, so smoked beer was not universal.

Beginning in the 18th century, kiln drying of malt became progressively more common and, by the mid-19th century, had become the near-universal method for drying malted grain. Since the kiln method shunts the smoke away from the wet malt, a smoky flavour is not imparted to the grain, nor to the subsequent beer. As a result, smoke flavour in beer became less and less common, and eventually disappeared almost entirely from the brewing world.

Certain breweries maintained the smoked beer tradition by continuing to use malt which had been dried over open flames. Two brewpubs in Bamberg, Germany—Schlenkerla and Spezial—have continued smoked beer production for centuries. Both are still in operation today, alongside seven other breweries in the same town. Both dry their malt over fires made from beechwood logs, and produce several varieties of Rauchbier ("smoke beer" in German). And since the rauchbier tradition was only continuously preserved in Bamberg, the beer style is marketed as Bamberg Rauchbier.

Due to the craft beer revolution in recent years, industrially made, smoke-flavoured malts became available, and so the style has a renaissance worldwide and even in its heartland Franconia and Bamberg. Schlenkerla and Spezial, however, use a traditional, elaborate way of smoke malting. In 2017 Slow Food included these two traditional rauchbiers into their Ark of Taste.^[2]

Grodziskie or Grätzer are similar, traditional smoked beers from Poland, but made from wheat and highly carbonated, and with a perhaps older history, although they saw a period of no production in the late 1990s.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

In Australia, the Feral Brewing Company, in Western Australia, makes a smoked porter. In addition Gulf Brewery, in South Australia, make a "Smoke Stack" rauchbier.^[9]

In Belgium, the Dupont Brewery produces Triomfbier Vooruit, a saison produced with smoked malt.

In Brazil, Eisenbahn produces a smoked beer called Eisenbahn Rauchbier, using malts imported from Bamberg.

In Canada, Les Trois Mousquetaires makes a smoked beer, and Half Pints Brewing Company the seasonal Smoktoberfest. Also, Church-Key brewing of Campbellford, Ontario produces a peat smoked Scotch ale called Holy Smoke. Cameron's brewing in Oakville, Ontario produces Bamburg smoked ale. Moosehead Breweries Small Batch label now produces a rauchbier smoked lager using magnum hops.

In Chile, Cervecería La Montaña produces Yuta, a smoked Munich dunkel (5,6% abv) with traditional German ingredients, although it doesn't follow the classic base beer styles from Bamberg's rauchbiers.

In the Netherlands, Emelisse produces a traditional German-style rauchbier, as well as a smoked porter and a peated imperial Russian stout. Brouwerij De Molen has several different smoked beers, such as Bloed, Zweet & Tranen and Rook & Vuur. Othmar also produces a traditional smoked beer, named Rauchbier.

In New Zealand, Yeastie Boys produce a heavily-peated single malt golden ale called Rex Attitude (7%) and a stronger single malt barley wine, using the same malt, called xeRRex.

In Norway, Haandbryggeriet produces a smoked, juniper-flavoured beer called Norwegian Wood.^[10]

In Italy, Birrificio Lambrate make two smoked stout beers, the draught or bottled Ghisa (5% ABV) and the bottled Imperial Ghisa (8.5%).^[11]

In the United States, the Alaskan Brewing Company, Caldera Brewing Company, 49th State Brewing, Great Basin Brewing Company,^[12] New Glarus Brewing Company, Revolution Brewing, Surly Brewing Company, Jack's Abby, Red Rock Brewing, Samuel Adams and Queen City Brewery make and distribute smoked beers influenced by the Rauchbiere of Bamberg. Victory Brewing Company makes a marzen-style labelled Scarlet Fire at its Downingtown, Pennsylvania brewery.^[13] Tomfoolery Brewing in Hammonton, NJ has a cherry wood smoked lager called Rauchbier.^[14] The New Paltz Brewing Company (Pfälzerbräu) in the Hudson Valley, NY makes both a rauchbier lager and a rauchweizen (smoked wheat beer).^[15]

In Lithuania, Dundulis brewery produces a smoked beer called "Juodvarnių".

In the United Kingdom, Meantime Brewery produces Winter Time, a smoked old ale, and Kelham Island Brewery in Sheffield a Brooklyn smoked porter in association with Brooklyn Brewery. Adnams bottles a smoked ruby (4.7% ABV) using cherry wood and has brewed a similar, limited edition, '1659 Smoked Ruby Ale' to commemorate the 1659 fire of Southwold.^[16] Beavertown brews a smoked porter called Smog Rocket.^[17]

• Grätzer
• List of beer styles
• List of smoked foods

• Brewery Schlenkerla
• Brewery Spezial (in German)
• Bambergs brewing tradition
• Braucommune Freistadt (in German)
• Cervejaria Eisenbahn (in Portuguese)
• Chuckanut Brewery featured Brewery
• BJCP style guidelines for smoked beer