My wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in late June of this year, and celebrated by going to Europe for two weeks. Spent 3 days in Bamberg (home of most German Rauchbiers)… Went to Schlenkerla's brewpub twice. Love their beer!!!
I put together a recipe over a year ago to brew it myself and it turned out very well. It was influenced by Jami's recipe in the BCS book plus rauchbier recipes from others online. Tweaked it more this time - and it wound up even better!!! Increased the Weyermann Rauch Malt content to almost 70%, and that was a good call. (Last year was only 50%). Yeast was changed to Bavarian Lager Yeast this year so it did not attenuate so much (Bohemian Lager Yeast last year - too high of attenuation), and that was a good choice too.
My son & I did a taste test last weekend. Compared my 2017 Rauchbier bottle vs. 2018 Rauchbier on tap, vs. bottles of Schlenkerla Maerzen Rauchbier and Spezial Maerzen Rauchbier. All were good... Probably not fair on the bottled beer, as fresh beer on tap is always better. For the German beer I like Schlenkerla's Rauchbier. The malt is 100% rauch malt - even the Munich malt. Spezial probably just 50% and also less Munich, so if you don't like smoke as much as me - this might be a good call. Schlenkerla has more Munich and a stronger smoke flavor. It's great.
My Rauchbier has less smoke than Schlenkerla… No way to get there unless I can source smoked Munich malt along with the other malts. Guess I could smoke my own, but the smoke content would be hard to control... Of the four beers we evaluated my 2018 Rauchbier was our favorite. Thankfully it was fresh and didn't have to travel around the world!
Anyone interested in German style Rauchbier, I highly the recipe!
