Most German beers are brewed with bottom fermenting yeasts that make them lagers. These yeast types prefer cooler temperatures than their ale yeast counterpart. After fermentation is complete, it is appropriate to serve lagers at the same cooler temperatures they fermented at, 36 to 44 Degrees Fahrenheit. Instead, smoked beer is made with malt that has been dried in wood-fired kilns. This malt absorbs the flavor of the burning wood smoke, which is transferred into beer during the mashing process. Even if the brew tastes somewhat strange at the first swallow, do not stop, because soon you will realize that your thirst will not decrease and your pleasure will visibly increase." Ales, like the Bavarian Weiss beers, are fruitier and benefit from warming to between 45 to 55 degrees F.

Szmelich, Wiktor (1994). "O historii i sposobie wytwarzania unikalnego piwa grodziskiego [The history and unique manufacturing method of Grodzisk beer]" (PDF). Przemysł Fermentacyjny I Owocowo-Warzywny (in Polish): 7–10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016 . Retrieved 22 October 2015. 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. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] In Chile, Cervecería La Montaña produces Yuta, a smoked Munich dunkel (5.6% abv) with traditional German ingredients, although it does not follow the classic base beer styles from Bamberg's Rauchbiere. In doing so, they became the keepers of the oldest continually-made smoked beers. Historical Rauchbier in a Craft Beer World? By the way: As it is almost the last traditionally made smoked beer in the world (worldwide there are only 2 producers left: Spezial and Schlenkerla), Schlenkerla has been named passenger of the Ark of Taste by Slow Food®.In 1818, listed under the title “Improved Method of Drying and Preparing Malt,” Daniel Wheeler patented his new invention and everything changed. Emmerling is very creative when it comes to the composition of his creations. For example, there is the Himbu, the Brombi, Zitronic, Chillilero, Gurki, Ginger Hit, Koriandro, Kürbis King, Rausch König, Miraculix and Tomaten Joe.

Even if the brew tastes somewhat strange at the first swallow, do not stop, because soon you will realize that your thirst will not decrease and your pleasure will visibly increase.” How to brew Smoked BeerSmoked malt is usually malted barley, but smoked wheat malt is also fairly common. Malt can be smoked with any type of wood, but the most commonly available are:

In Italy, Birrificio Lambrate make two smoked stout beers, the draught or bottled Ghisa (5% ABV) and the bottled Imperial Ghisa (8.5%). [14] It would seem the obvious place to go with a rauchbier would be smoked meats, but this might be too overwhelming for many. Smoke on smoke just makes a deeper stronger smoke profile without really adding anything to the experience.

Schlenkerla Rauchbier in Bamberg

That is prudent advice, and I tend to give the same kind of advice for other ingredients—but not for smoked malt. Why not? Because getting a beer that tastes overly smoky is not especially correlated to having a large percentage of smoked malt in the grist. Instead, it is more directly a function of intensity and quality of the smokiness of the malt.

Kris Emmerling grows his own hops. More than 20 different species can be found here. The freshly harvested hops are also processed in a small beer manufactory. Emmerling and his team still bottle the beer by hand. The smoke profile can range in strength from only a whisper to quite strong and can have a bacon-like, smoky, or woody character to it. Alright, so let’s fast forward in the history text books to the Middle Ages, where beer was often one of the safest drinks to consume. After all, there were no water treatment plants and we all know how diseases ran rampant through villages. Many people were making their own beers in medieval Europe because it was safer to drink alcohol than water. But then came the monks. What I got was an unrounded, unfiltered beer (5.2% alcohol) with a yeasty cloudiness and a round, malty taste. Unsparkling beer is mainly found in Franconia. The so-called bunghole is located on the top of a beer barrel. It serves to equalise the pressure during fermentation so that the resulting carbon dioxide can escape. If the wooden spigot does not close the hole, the result is a beer with a low carbon dioxide content – unbundled beer. But first a little clarification for all non-Franconians. In Bamberg, you go “on the cellar”. That sounds confusing, because a cellar is downstairs and you tend to go to a cellar. But I have learned something.Join me on a Bamberg walking tour taking in all the UNESCO highlights (and a glass or two of smoked beer!). For our Aecht Schlenkerla Weichsel Rotbier, we dry the malt over fire with high-quality cherry wood (not over beech wood fire as with classic smoked beer). In contrast to the spicy beech-smoked malt, the cherry wood smoked malt has a fruity, almost sweet smoke aroma and provides a copper-red color in the glass. The finest aroma hops add berry notes to the multi-layered smoke flavor. With 4.6% abv, Aecht Schlenkerla Weichsel is a full-bodied, pleasantly quaffable beer. Rotbier (i.e. red lager) used to be common in Franconia. The city of Nuremberg in particular was known for its Rotbier. Since its production was extremely laborious, Rotbier was replaced in the 19th century by Braunbier (i.e. brown lager) which was produced using modern, simpler brewing methods. It was not until 1997 that the beer style was revived.