Smoke Gets in Your Glass

Liquid bacon. That's how many neophytes describe their first swallow of German-style rauchbier.

"Rauch" is German for smoke, and this esoteric style harks back to beermaking of centuries ago, when most breweries used malt that had been dried over an open flame. The process scorched the grain, importing a sooty, smoky flavor to the resulting murky brown beer.

In 1817, an Englishman named Daniel Wheeler invented a process for kilning malt in a roasting drum that avoided direct contact with fire. But the old method survives in Bamberg, Germany, where a distinctive specialty malt is made from barley malt roasted over beechwood logs.

Bamberg is a small city of 70,000 in the Franconia region of upper Bavaria, yet it has the gift of 10 breweries. Only two of them offer a rauchbier: Heller Brauerei and Brauerei Spezial, both of which export to the United States.

A family named Trum runs Heller, which produces two smoky brews. The mahogany-colored Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen has an aroma somewhere between that of bacon and kielbasa. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Weizen, a cloudy brown German-style wheat ale, has a much more restrained smokiness; only the barley malt is smoked, not the wheat malt. It has hints of clove and bubble gum, and a phenolic, almost peaty finish.

Heller also makes Schlenkerla Helles Lagerbier, a golden lager that contains no smoked malt, or so the brewery claims. Nevertheless, the beer has a hint of charcoal in the finish, which might be a sign that smoke has so permeated the brewing vessels that the house flavor is impossible to avoid.

Bamberg's other Rauchbier producer, Brauerei Spezial, is actually an inn with a small brewery attached. Its smoked lager is a little lighter and sweeter than the Schlenkerla, with a less-pronounced smokiness.

Rauchbier is an acquired taste, and many tasters give up after a few mouthfuls. In November 2007, brewer Chris Rafferty of the Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery in Arlington tapped a smoked lager so authentic that you half-expected, after a few pints, to walk out of Ballston Common Mall and see Bamberg's Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint George looming in the distance.

A less-impressed companion of mine, however, sniffed that it was "like licking a skillet."

"It turned out to be one of those one-pint styles," says Rafferty, who wound up swapping a few kegs of the slow-moving brand for a different seasonal from another Rock Bottom location.

My advice to first-time drinkers: Stay with it. After a few sips, the bacon flavor subsides and falls into balance with the malt's sweetness. Rauchbier goes well with smoked meats (no surprise there), pork roast, ham and barbecue.

A few adventurous American breweries are making Rauchbiers as one-batch, experimental seasonals. The Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick has released a double-smoked lager as part of its Wild Dog series. Dog Schwarz clocks in at a formidable 7.8 percent alcohol by volume. The beer is brewed with 55 percent smoked malt from Weyermann Specialty Malting in Bamberg. "It's not a bacon beer," assures Matt Brophy, Flying Dog's vice president of brewing operations. Indeed, the smoked-meat aroma quickly fades, giving way to a depth of bittersweet chocolate flavor.

To make this beer even more eccentric, the Frederick brewers added a touch of rye and fermented the brew at warmer, alelike temperatures for a slight fruitiness. It might be fun to try with smoked nuts or dark chocolates.

Rauchfetzen ("wisps of smoke") is the latest entry in the 100 Barrel Series of small-batch beers from Boston's Harpoon Brewery. This one is a malt-accented pale ale with a German hops spiciness and subtle smokiness that emerges on the back of the palate.

Down in Charlottesville, Starr Hill Brewing teamed with Virginia homebrewer Lyle C. Brown to make a smoked maibock (a strong golden lager) that won the silver medal in the Pro Am category at the 2008 Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

The last keg of this beer, dubbed Smoke Out, was tapped at RFD on Dec. 19; it probably will be a fond memory by the time you read this. But Brown is hoping to land a professional brewing gig at a soon-to-open brew pub in Virginia.

"I do plan on brewing this beer again commercially," he says. "Probably at the pub, and possibly as a contract brew with a Virginia brewery."

He also has a batch lagering at home: "It's my own version of extreme brewing."

Greg Kitsock's Beer column appears every other week. He can be reached at http://food@washpost.com.