Trying to succeed as a uniquely hybridized curiosity and doing so for the most part, this ambitious German smoked beer combines its stylish beechwood sear with sweet chocolate malts and dark-toasted wheat sugaring. Hints of cured meat such as salami, sausage and spiced bacon ride alongside ashen campfire wisps. May lack body, but very sessionable as crossover fodder for dunkelweizen fans.
On tap at Pony Bar, approachable beechwood-smoked German moderation needs thicker malt smokiness and better cured meat spicing. Stylish Band-Aid astringency almost forsakes fading peat-smoked beechwood influence and damp campfire aromatics. Glazed ham and candied apple sweeten its soft-toned core.
Reclusive, loosely defined, wheat-smoked German lightweight goes for subtler stylistic approach and nearly works as a crossover. But its unspecific peat-smoked cedar char and seared meat niche succumb to wavering flavor profile. Warbled chocolate-spiced malting and nutty fruit sprucing hit a snag, never fully penetrating the surface. Sputtering pecan-buttered almond and chestnut undertones never fully integrate with dried-fruited stewed prune, pureed raisin and dried fig sedation (or tangy red cherry, red apple, navel orange and berry notions). Distant honey-glazed ham and banana nut cake nuances dry up.
Elaborate kiln-fired cherrywood and beechwood smokiness inundates outstanding grain-charred bock lager. Damp wood-burnt campfire aromatics surround brown-sugared chocolate malt roast, cured meat glaze and lemon Seltzer twist. Maple-sapped barbecued bacon sweetness and cedar-singed peat mossing deepen heavily smoked mocha finish. One of America’s best rauchbiers.
Astonishingly transformative reddish-browned lenten rauchbier betters tremendous competition with its distinct beechwood-kilned smoked malting, blanketed cured meat sear and peaty challah-breaded amber lagering. Molasses-honeyed bacon grease, glazed ham and salami illusions deeply penetrate the sooty campfire-singed hickory char gripping the backend. Stylistic Band-aid waft awaits.
Amazingly approachable Bamberg-styled smoked beer offers serene smoked beechwood pleasantry to sweet-spiced chocolate malts. Sooty campfire char deepens oncoming Canadian bacon and cured meat illusions. Sweeter than less defined rauchbiers that suffer from getting washed-out and losing initial smoked pleasantry.
For a quick second, jaunty beechwood smokiness really subsumes dry American-lagered German-styled rauchbier. Smoked salami, beef jerky, pastrami, and bacon illusions perk up front end over cedar-burnt hop char. But soap-stoned carbolic aridity obliterates freeze-dried cured meat façade, relegating latent cocoa bean rancor to mere affectation.
On tap, smoked helles lager efficiently re-creates German-styled rauchbier styling. Hop-charred beechwood-smoked cedar staining picks up soft mocha creaming above briny meat-cured salami, pastrami, and beef jerky wisps.
Seattle’s Pillagers Pub offered satiny fresh-watered beechwood-smoked kiln-malted German-styled moderation. Fizzy hop-pepped lemon twist underscores evaporative salami-smoked cedar-charred maple-cindered soot. But ‘baron’ smoky resilience upended by sudsy soapiness as the bottle drains. Too soft and unassuming, but never offensive. Crisp, clean springtime session beer may be under-whelming for true traditionalists, but eminently approachable to others.
Languid ’08 ‘dark ale with touch of smokiness’ (previously known as ‘Charlie’ and now a permanent seasonal release) needs deeper flavor insistence. Dry-hopped meat-cured beechwood-smoked frontage drops off quickly as tranquil cocoa-powdered tartness rises above tobacco-leafed vegetal nuance. Staid hickory-smoked molasses malting fades into nutty chocolate murk.
Pour slowly classy limited edition brown-bodied 9.2% alcohol-smitten smoked beer (to avoid over-carbonation). Whiskey malt sweetness, orange peel bittering, and subtle hop restraint develop better flavor profile if allowed to breathe in the glass. Pleasant barley strand emerges alongside medicinal backdrop where citrus-aided prune juice motif enjoins busy mix. Despite limited appeal for mainstream crowd, experienced pros will enjoy fascinatingly unpredictable splendor.
Dark amber-styled ‘rauch’ beer stays creamier than drier Aecht smoked beers. Beechwood-smoked peat malts gain hard salami slab absorbed by maple honey nut easement conveying heady sweetness. Sappy pine-combed hop toastiness bastes omnipresent wafting cedar-redwood sear. Strangley, at busy cured meat finish, hints of cherry rhubarb pie or tangelo detected.