Session #26: Schlenkerla Rauchbier Weizen

The SessionThis is my contribution to The Session: Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em, hosted by Lew Bryson. Check out his blog for links to other posts and the recap.

Last night we sampled a variety of smoked meat at Cooper’s Old Time Pit Barbecue in Llano, Texas. What makes barbecue different in Llano is that pitmasters burn their mesquite down to coals before stoking the pits — then cook it directly over the coals, “cowboy style.” Well, maybe. It seems there’s some question about how Cooper’s really cooks food for us, but I’ll leave the barbecue exposes to others. Point it is that we had a dang fine meal, and if you say Texas barbecue to me, I think “smoke.”

And if you say Bamberg and beer and I think “smoke.” So for today’s Session I’ve picked Schlenkerla Rauchbier Weizen, not as smoky as Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen or Urbock, but a reminder that Schlenkerla beers are first of all about smoke.

Matthias TrumWhen I was in Bamberg in December it had not been long since Matthias Trum, who in charge of operations at Schlenkerla and is pictured on the left, attended a beer festival in Copenhagen with friends. He said he knew he was near the smoked beer section before he even saw a sign. “I could smell them (smoked beers) from 15 meters way,” Trum said. “It was a homey smell.”

Of course his home isn’t quite like ours. As five generations of Trums before him, he lives above the famous tavern. And he oversees daily operations at the Heller Bräu brewery up the hill, which smokes its own malt for the Schlenkerla beers. The recipe for Rauchbier Märzen calls for 100 percent smoked malt. That’s 50 percent to 90 percent more than most breweries use.

Schlenkerla brews the Weizen with 50 percent of the malt it smokes over beechwood and 50 percent (unsmoked) wheat malt. In contrast, Spezial Weizen — Spezial is the other Bamberg brewery that still smokes its own malt — contains 12 percent smoked malt.

In their book “Smoked Beers” authors Ray Daniels and Geoff Larson write that Schlenkerla Weizen doesn’t leave a particularly strong impression of smoke. Trum agrees. “It starts to fade after a few sips,” he said. I took another and told him I wasn’t quite as sure. “Two or three glasses,” he answered. “That’s what Franconians call a couple of sips.”

The first aroma is clearly smoke, not quite like from a campfire but also different than the barbecue pits we’ve been hanging around recently, fired by mesquite, oak, hickory or pecan. Soon traditional a fruity-banana notes of hefeweizen also appear, followed by spicy clove character. Smoke and banana flavors blend on the tongue, balanced by more cloves. After a few sips, I must admit, the scales tip toward the weizen flavors.

Sure wish they sold this beer at Cooper’s.

Smoked, smoked and more smoked

Bamberb OnionFine Living Television features the beers and food of Germany this weekend. Germany: Prost! To German Beer! airs first at 10:30 p.m. EST on Friday, and repeats twice.

Schlenkerla Tavern, Heller Brewery and Rauchbier from Bamberg and Beck’s will be highlighted, and the Fine Living website has a recipe for the Bamberg Onion.

Just a thought. There’s time to track down some Schlenkerla Urbock (a beer that tastes bigger than its 6.5% abv), and make yourself a Bamberg Onion (be warned, the recipe is for four so you might invite a few friends over) – an onion stuffed with smoked pork and topped with a slab of smoked bacon – before the show starts.

Schlenkerla Helles Lagerbier

The Potable Curmudgeon Roger Baylor gives us more than one beer to think about when he posts on Schlenkerla Helles Lagerbier.

The beer – just now available in the United States and not well known outside of its Bamberg home – is a delight, brimming with flavor beyond what you’d expect in a 4.3% abv beer, in part because of a sly smoky notes.

Matthias TrumMatthais Trum (pictured here giving a tour of the brewery) points out that the lager contains none of the smoked malt that Schlenkerla uses in its the Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier-Märzen or the Urbock, but hints of smoke because it is fermented in the same old copper kettles and fermented with the same yeast.

Quite frankly, you might find it more of a hint of smoke, perhaps because of its underlying rustic character – a plus, I think – and just he right dose of local hops. It is a particularly versatile food beer. It would go quite nicely with something as simple as a tossed salad topped with bits of smoked bacon. Perhaps halibut on the grill, marinaded with a curry and coconut sauce. Or something bold like salmon with in a chipotle barbecue sauce.

But back to a bigger point that Baylor makes:

Franconian beers aren’t always as squeaky clean and technically flawless as similar styles brewed elsewhere in Bavaria. This is not intended as an insult, and it is not to imply that they are deficient or flawed.

Rather, it is to suggest that they bear the delightfully quirky imprint of their geographical origins.

In a region where the countryside is never far away from the heart of the largest city, and a hundred breweries, most of them small, operate within a morning’s leisurely drive of Bamberg, the aromas and flavors experienced in a half-liter of solid Franconian lager can be redolent of all things pre-industrial – woodsy and full, smoky and firm, hoppy and dry, sometimes crisp like the lazy autumn evenings imbibing outdoors, and other times mellow and cool as the summer mornings right after opening time when the town elders gather at the Stammtisch to begin another day’s session.

That’s beer in context.