Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

What Is Rauchbier? A Guide to Smoked Beer

J. Fergus
By

The first time I had a rauchbier, or smoked beer, I strolled into Angel City Brewery with the intention of going for something new. A quintessential Los Angeles bartender asked if I wanted to try it first, the only hint that it might be a niche experience, but I went all-in.

The first few sips of a rauchbier taste like a terrible mistake. Then, you experience the sensation of drinking sausage. Finally, you either fall in love or ask for your money back.

Recommended Videos

What Is Smoked Beer?

Smoked beers, traditionally made in Germany, are lagers brewed with malted barley that has been dried over an open flame, imparting varying levels of a rich, smoky flavor to the beer base (usually a Märzen). The origins go back to the 16th and 17th century when it was simply easier to dry and malt barley over a fire. The resulting heartiness plays well with flavorful meats, especially barbecue, and an underlying sweetness keeps the pairing balanced. By the 1700s, this powerful flavor profile met its match with newer brewing methods that moved away from overpowering smoky notes.

Related

I talked to Dan Shapiro, Marketing Specialist for Angel City Brewery and Certified Cicerone®, about their limited edition Rauchbier and whether or not they have plans to bring it back. Angel City’s Head Brewer, Layton Cutler, studied brewing techniques in Germany, so rauchbier was a natural fit for their 2017 limited release lineup.

Shapiro admits it was a polarizing beer to have on tap, but they only make one batch for limited releases, so they haven’t stopped making rauchbier and may return to it in the future. In the meantime, an upcoming bacon avocado ale plays on rauchbier’s meaty, peaty profile for the millennial brunch crowd.

Liz LaBrocca spoke with Mike Schilling, beer buyer of Northampton, Massachusetts’ Provisions, a fine wine, craft beer, and specialty food store that’s known for stocking the unusual and the sought after. Schilling, a skilled home brewer, made sure to point out that smoked porters are often left out of the rauchbier conversation, but their dessert notes deserve as much acclaim for uniqueness.

Between Schilling and our growing knowledge of rauchbiers, here are a few to try out with your next meat-heavy meal.

Smoked Beers to Try

Aecht Schlenkerla Original Rauchbier Märzen

Aecht Schlenkerla Original Rauchbier Märzen
Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you just want to see what all the fuss about, this rauchbier is the best place to start. Brewed for nearly two centuries, Aecht Schlenkerla’s Original Rauchbier gives you authenticity, smokiness, but a little maltiness to take the edge off.

Brett Peat Daydream

Brett Peat Daydream
Image used with permission by copyright holder

A Schilling recommendation for the more adventurous, this rauchbier from Italy’s Birrificio de Ducato is a blend of three beers: a peated barley wine, a rauch märzen aged in Scotch barrels, and Brett ale aged for six months. The Brett Peat Daydream is pretty funky, so try it solo or with some mild goat cheese.

The Wild Beer Smoke N’ Barrel

The Wild Beer Smoke N’ Barrel
Image used with permission by copyright holder

This English rauchbier from The Wild Beer Co. uses sherry butts to impart cherry wood notes into this lager. Rosemary and sage also join the smoking party, adding an earthy, herbaceous flavor that works with the sweetness to temper the overall taste.

Ommegang Bourbon Barrel Vanilla Smoked Porter

Ommegang Bourbon Barrel Vanilla Smoked Porter
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Ommegang continues its run of limited release smoked porters for the third year in a row and they seem to be getting the hang of it. This smoked porter is aged in bourbon barrels for six months with Madagascar vanilla beans to produce a vanilla-forward dessert beer. For year-round smoked porter enjoyment, Stone Brewing still puts out the baseline for smoked porters everywhere.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
J. Fergus
J. Fergus
Former Digital Trends Contributor
J. loves writing about the vices of life — decadent food, strong drinks, potent cannabis, and increasingly invasive…
A guide to making a Rob Roy, the Scotch lover’s classic
Add this drink to you home bar menu for your next gathering
Rob Roy cocktail with cherry garnish

Of the many classic cocktails worthy of your time, the Rob Roy may have the best name. The title itself is friendly and hard to forget, not unlike the drink itself. The hypnotic hue of the drink as it shrinks into the base of a Nick and Nora glass is reason enough to adore the Rob Roy, but there are many more merits to this mixed beverage.

Essentially a Manhattan with Scotch whisky, the Rob Roy cocktail was born in 1894. Inherently classy, the drink was devised in the iconic Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The Manhattan came first, concocted a couple of decades earlier. With the name of its home borough already taken, the creators opted to honor the Broadway premiere of an operetta released at the time about the legendary Scottish outlaw and folk hero Robert Roy MacGregor.

Read more
Dark beer vs light beer: The difference explained
What's the difference between dark beer and light beer?
Dark beer vs light beer

Even if you’re not an avid beer drinker, you’ve likely noticed that (even though there are countless beer styles) there are two types of beer: dark beer and light beer. When it comes to light beer options, you have the likes of pilsners, IPAs, Kolsch-style beers, wheat beers, and beyond. When it comes to dark beers, you have porters, stouts, Scotch ales, barleywines, dark lagers, black IPAs, and more.

This leads us to a few critical questions. First and foremost, what are the differences between dark and light beers? Secondly, what makes a beer light, and what makes a beer dark (ingredients, brewing processes, etc.)? Lastly, what do they taste like? Dark beer vs light beer, Let's go!
What are the differences between dark and light beers?

Read more
Forget wine — Beer and cheese is an unbeatable combination
Put the corkscrew away and crack open a cold one
Beer and cheese

When one hears the term cheese pairings, wine is the beverage that most often comes to mind, we'd wager. Because, of course, it is. The pairing of wine and cheese is as classic a coupling as peanut butter and jelly, bacon and eggs, or chocolate and strawberries. They're meant to be together. But that certainly doesn't mean that wine is the only adult beverage that can dance an alluring tango alongside everyone's favorite dairy product. Beer, as humble as its reputation can be, is also a beautiful balance to cheese's immense offering of flavors. While some may think of beer as not being as multi-dimensional and varied in its palate-pleasing capabilities as wine, this is not the case - especially now that we live in a world with so many exquisite craft beers, stouts, and lagers.
Of course, another classic accompaniment to cheese is bread or crackers. Why might that be, one might ask. Is it because we're simply in need of a starchy vessel to usher the cheese into our mouths? The answer is actually a bit deeper than that. Starches like bread and crackers are made from the same yeasty ingredients as beer, so their pairing makes perfect culinary sense.
This isn't to say, though, that one can simply pick up a hunk of cheddar and crack open a Budweiser and expect culinary artistry. The science is a bit more nuanced than that, so we're here to help you find the best pairings for your favorite beers and cheeses.

How to pair beer and cheese

Read more