My first sip of Kaiserdom Rauchbier nearly discouraged me from ever trying the style again. The burnt, ashy flavor lingered like a punishment. Why would anyone ever choose to mix smoke with malt?
A few years later, though, I toured Bavaria, and a friend insisted I make a side trip to Bamberg, the home of Rauchbier, to visit Brauerei Spezial and drink their smoked Märzen. Despite my misgivings, the first aromatic whiff made it clear that Spezial was the perfect name for that brewery. Their beers, and the offerings from Bamberg’s more well-known Schlenkerla brewery, taught me how sweet and savory could support one another and I fell in love with the delicious complexity. Where Kaiserdom was harsh and unpleasant, these beers were assertive but smooth. The rich sweetness softened the phenol away from associations such as cigars and house fires, instead suggesting perfectly browned bacon or a lightly aromatic campfire. It was like taking a bite of smoky Southern barbecue and rinsing it down with a fine malty Oktoberfest beer.
On the surface, brewing your own Rauchbier seems fairly straightforward: start with a Märzen or Oktoberfest base beer recipe and substitute a healthy percentage of German smoked malt. But there are complications. The first question is how big do you want to go: do you want a touch of smoke or do you want the full Bamberg experience? Then you need to choose your smoked malt, recognizing that they vary in intensity and flavor. Your homebrew supplier may have a number of choices—ignore the peat-smoked malt—but there are three widely available malts that work well.
The classic choice is Weyermann’s beechwood smoked malt, but it tends to be quite variable and relatively mild in recent years. If you’re just getting started with the style and want to stay in the shallower end of the smoke pool, this can still be a good choice, especially if you keep it to around 50 percent of your total grist. It’s fairly forgiving; you can easily use up to 70 percent or higher without it getting greasy or unpleasant.
Best Malz Rauch Malt is my current favorite. It’s both stronger than the Weyermann’s and more consistent. It has a bold but pleasant smoke character that takes me back to Bamberg. With its greater smoke intensity, 20 percent is a good starting point, but my standard recipe uses 30 percent, and even 50 percent is quite palatable.
If Best Malz is not available, Briess’s cherrywood smoked malt is a good alternative for a heavier smoke experience. Unlike the other two, it’s not beechwood, but it still works well in a Rauchbier setting. One drawback is that your recipe will require more body and sweetness to mask the cherrywood’s dry, acrid finish. You should keep it down to 20–25 percent of the grist for that reason.
Of course, you could smoke your own malt with beechwood, apple, or even hickory, but that deserves its own article.
Once you’ve selected your malt, it’s time to build a recipe around it. Rauchbier tends to be darker than a standard Märzen and should have a good malty backbone. The rauch malt is effectively a Vienna-style malt, but adding some more Vienna toastiness can fit nicely. Munich malt and melanoidin malt can add some welcome color and complexity as well. I usually mash at 156°F (69°C) to get the full body and residual sweetness needed to support the smoke. For the hops side of the recipe, follow the Märzen base style with understated levels of 20 IBUs or so and very low aroma or flavor hops additions. If you’re more used to IPAs, you may be tempted to scale up the hops. Resist that urge. Hops can add a pungency and bitterness that accentuate negative phenolic qualities of the smoke. Even with the low hopping rate, it’s best to stick with noble varieties such as Hallertauer Mittelfrüh or Spalt.
If you’ve got a recipe you already trust, dive right in with your favorite German lager yeast. On the other hand, finding the right level of smoke can take a few tries. You can short circuit the long turnaround time of lagered fermentation by using a clean ale yeast such as Wyeast 1007 German Ale or 2565 Kölsch while ironing out your recipe. Then, once you’ve found your preferred balance, you’ll be ready to move into production with a lager strain.
If you need some help getting started, here’s my recipe for Spassmacher Rauchbier Recipe that appeared in the October/November issue of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine®.
Good luck and savor the smoke.