Breweries Are Reviving a Historic Method for Making Smoky Beer

The main ingredients of beer are water, yeast, hops, and malted grain. Otherwise known as malt, the sweet grain must be dried after it’s malted so it doesn’t grow into a plant. For a time, drying malt typically involved an open flame, lending a distinct smokiness that carried through the beer-brewing process. Technological advances nearly wiped out smoked beer, but it has persisted, thanks to a few stalwart bearers of the flame, and is having a resurgence as craft brewers eager to innovate revive historical techniques.

What is Rauchbier?

Just like the peat-smoked malted grains that give Scotch whisky its characteristic smoky flavor, malts smoked with fuels like wood used to be commonplace in beer brewing, until a kiln using indirect heat was invented in the 1600s. When it became possible to eliminate the pungent smokiness from beer, most brewers shifted to using roasted but unsmoked malts for the more delicately flavored, smoke-free beers we know today. Not all brewers though.

Most notably, two breweries in the UNESCO World Heritage City of Bamberg, Germany, preserved the tradition of using smoked malts to brew smoked beer, now often called by its German name, Rauchbier. Because any beer could technically be made with some or all smoked malts, the U.S. Brewers Association Beer Style Guidelines have a broad Smoke Beer category as well as a handful of subcategories based upon regional precedents, including Bamberg-Style Weiss, Helles, Maerzen, and Bock Rauchbier.

Where can you drink Rauchbier?

Thanks to the preservation efforts of two world-class brewpubs that never stopped smoking their own malts — HellerBräu Trum KG, better known as Schlenkerla, which dates back to 1405, and Brauerei Spezial, established in 1536 — the Franconian city of Bamberg is now the home of Rauchbier. At its brewery and tavern not far from the train station and its scenic biergarten and cellar on one of Bamberg’s many hills, Spezial serves several smoked beers, including the classic amber-colored flagship simply called Spezial Lager and a stronger, richer Märzen.

Schlenkerla serves an even wider range of smoked beers in the heart of Bamberg’s gorgeous Altstadt (old city), versions whose malts are kilned over oak, cherrywood, or alderwood instead of the typical beechwood. With flavors ranging from a subtle whisper of char to distinct notes of bacon, Rauchbier is something of an acquired taste, but a gentle intro is Schlenkerla’s Hansla. It’s a “small beer,” brewed with second-use malts that have subdued flavors and less sugar, leading to lower alcohol content — 0.9% ABV, in this case.

Bamberg has many other breweries that play with Rauchbier too, including Hopfengarten, one of the newest and smallest. Fourth-generation gardener Kris Emmerling added a brewery to his nursery in the city, where he smokes some of the hops he grows on-site to make an understated Rauchbier with a surprising fruitiness.

Other smoked-beer traditions exist, including Polish Grodziskie, made with oak-smoked wheat malt. Look for the brand Browar Grodzisk at specialty beer stores. Because of the connection to Scotch whisky, Scotch ales and other Scottish styles sometimes use peat-smoked malt as well.

In the U.S., many brewers make Rauchbier at least periodically. Fox Farm Brewery in Salem, Connecticut, for example, uses smoked malt for The Camp, inspired by Bamberg Rauchbier, and Allfort, based on a style called Adambier from the German city of Dortmund and partially aged in apple brandy and bourbon barrels. Some even sell smoked beer year-round — in Chicago, Dovetail Brewery’s roasty, chocolatey Rauchbier is a beloved staple.

Because of its smoky claim to fame, Bamberg is home to many foods featuring smoked malts or Rauchbier. At Schlenkerla, smoked malts flavor the bratwurst and a flaky vegetarian pastry, while Rauchbier sauce accompanies a large onion stuffed with minced pork. Next door, the excellent bakery Hofbäckerei Seel makes a Rauchbier rye bread and a Rauchbier baguette; around the corner, you might find a Rauchbier truffle at Café am Dom, while the wine bar Edelfrei Vinothek has been known to serve a Rauchbier salami.