Live Oak Brewing in Austin has a reputation for traditional Czech- and German-style beers—including plenty of lagers and wheat beers—and several are smoked. Courtesy of owner Chip McElroy and head brewer Dusan Kwiatkowski, here is a homebrew-scale recipe for their smoked schwarzbier.
“With balanced, roasted malt flavor, this beer prominently features a beechwood smoke,” the brewers say. “This smokiness mingles with layers of darker malt flavors, braced by Noble hop character. Fermented cold and clean with our German lager yeast, this beer highlights the complexity that smoke adds to traditional dark lagers.”
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.012
IBUs: 25
ABV: 4.8%
