Lew Bryson has posted the roundup for Session #26, which turned into a rauchbier education for several bloggers.
I was very pleased that a fair number of people either tried a smoked beer for the first time or enjoyed one for the first time — one of the things I was hoping for when I suggested this topic.
Some drinkers loved ’em, some didn’t and it appears some are stilling deciding.
This 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.
When 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.
John has posted the roundup for The Session #25: Lager Love, for the first time grading the various efforts. Sometimes it’s hard to tell how much real love bloggers have for lager . . .
Meanwhile, Lew Bryson has picked the topic for Session #26: Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em. Rauch it up. Be there.
More lagers? Not necessary at all, as Lew points out.
A few hours ago John tweeted his roundup for The Session #25: Lager Love is about half finished. Meanwhile he directs us to the reluctant scooper’s tome on the topic.
Why? Here’s one paragraph: “Let’s be honest: lager is shit. It’s a pitiful excuse for alcohol. Drunk from tins, drank by neds, sold in slabs, made in labs. It may have a rich history but it’s been forcibly abducted by the English and had up the chuffer. There are amoeboids avoiding osmosis with passing cells just in case it involves this fizzy pizz of stuff.”
This guy just got added to my feed reader.
Memo to Greg Koch: Here’s a fizzy yellow lager you can cuddle up to. Not all that yellow, I guess, and not necessarily that fizzy. But definitely a lager, a puny 3.7% abv beer in the Munich Helles tradition.
A beer I last enjoyed about six months ago, but I remember well enough to feature as my contribution to The Session #25: Lager Love. And since I won’t be around today to keep up with how this plays out on Twitter, I’ll give you a series of thoughts, all less than 140 characters.
– Surtaler Leichter Typ is light colored, although I don’t know I’d use the word yellow. But when your host asks you have to do your best to oblige.
– Private Landbrauerei Schönram in the German village of Schönram-Petting near Salzburg, Austria, brews the beer.
– It earned a silver medal as a European Light Lager in the European Beer Star competition.
– Yes, it’s a light version of the brewery’s best selling helles (65 percent of sales – a dang nice beer at 5.4% abv).
– You can drink this all night, well maybe 5 liters, and maybe blow .04 on a breathalyzer (the brewer and owner did this to make sure).
– A great beer to shift to after several “big” ones. Because you can still taste it. This isn’t water.
– Smooth (lagered for a silly amount of time), bready, grassy, lots of noble hops.
– Goes well with conversation.
– It says 3.4% on the label, it’s really 3.7% and it tastes twice as big as a 4.2% American light.
– I want this beer brewed close to my home. Not a beer meant to travel, so don’t try it more than 20 kilometers from the brewery.
– Twitter pretty much sucks when it comes to describing the pleasure of drinking this beer.