Rauchbier
Rauchbier: Bamberg's smoked Märzen, a malty amber lager brewed with beechwood-smoked malt, as at Schlenkerla. Strength, smoke, glass and classic examples.
Rauchbier means smoke beer. It pours deep amber to coppery brown, very clear, under a large, creamy, tan head. The smell and taste join the toasty malt of a Märzen with smoke from beechwood, which can be gentle or intense; the two support each other, and the finish runs medium-dry to dry, the smoke adding to the dryness.
Where it comes from
It is the old speciality of Bamberg, in Franconia. Smoked beers were brewed long before, but this style, a Märzen made with smoked malt, must have come after the Märzen itself. The best-known version is Schlenkerla’s, poured from oak casks in its tavern below Bamberg cathedral.
Brewers start from a Märzen grist and add a large share of Rauchmalz, a Vienna-type malt dried over beechwood smoke; some breweries smoke their own malt. German lager yeast and German or Czech hops complete it.
How to serve it
Pour it at 7–13 °C into a nonic pint. It goes with grilled vegetables, Parmesan or gingerbread.
Next to its neighbours
Think of a Märzen with a sweet, smoky aroma and flavour and a slightly darker colour.
Rauchbier in numbers
- Classic examples
- Schlenkerla, Birrificio del Ducato
- Original gravity
- 1.050–1.057
- Final gravity
- 1.012–1.016
- Name means
- smoke beer
- Food
- Grilled vegetables; Parmesan; gingerbread
- Classic examples
- Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen; Spezial Rauchbier Märzen; Göller Rauchbier; Rittmayer Rauchbier; Cervejaria Bamberg Rauchbier
- BJCP style
- 6B Rauchbier
Sources
Checked .
- 6B. Rauchbier, 2021 Beer Style Guidelines — Beer Judge Certification Program
- Smoke Beer — CraftBeer.com, Brewers Association
