The German city of Bamberg is famous as the origin of a unique beer style known as rauchbier (“smoked beer”). This is simply beer brewed with malt that has been smoke-dried over a hardwood fire, and it can add the unique flavors of the wood unlike any other beer style can.
Smoked beers run the entire gamut of combinations: They can be light or dark, ales or lagers, strongly smoked or just a hint. Traditionally, German rauchbiers are lagers (closely associated with bocks) and with flavors that may be described as anything between “mild campfire” to “liquid bacon.”
I have long been an advocate of smoked beers for Texas, as it just seems an obvious given yet to be exploited (BBQ + beer = rauchbier). So I was quite excited when I first heard that Spoetzl had a smoked beer in the works, the Shiner Smokehaus, brewed with malt smoked over a fire using local mesquite.
The base of the Smokehaus is a traditional helles style, most likely the same as their Shiner 99 anniversary beer of a few years ago. The flavor is rich and malty, a little heavier than the Shiner 99, but the smokiness falls short. One can taste something there in the background, and if you squint and wish real hard it might come through as a gentile “smoke” flavor, but it is far from obvious. If you drink more than one in a row, a semi-smoky flavor does build—but not much.
Overall, I am slightly disappointed with Spoetzl’s efforts. Granted, making a rauchbier is not easy as a little smoke goes a long way, and too much smoke can easily turn the beer chemical and phenolic. I have had German smoked helles beers in which the smoke is very apparent and quite pleasing, but I fear the Smokehaus does not measure up.
Not that this is a bad beer—I very much enjoy it as a helles, and it’s even an improvement over the Shiner 99. At just under 5% ABV, it is a welcome summer quaffer, with or without the intended impact, and I dearly hope it inspires other local brewers to follow suit.
Availability: Bottles are found almost everywhere, as it is a Spoetzl product. No taps spotted yet but I wouldn’t be surprised if they showed up later this summer.
Other beers by Spoetzl: Shiner 100 (Commemorator)
Cheers!
Comments
I'm a big supporter of Spoetzl and wish all their speciality releases made it to Northern California. (The closest I got was a 6er of 100 down in San Diego). I love rauchbiers but not so much Helleses, so this makes me less bummed. How was their "Cheers" w/ local peaches and pecans at least?
Brian
SF Craft Beer Examiner
PS: Captcha below: BER !
Shiner's Holiday Cheer was very hit-or-miss with some significant batch problems. Some bottles were mildly flavored, subtle and fantastic, other bottles were terribly cloying and chemical.
I enjoyed Spoetzl's anniversary series, as it looked like they might be stretching their brewing arms a little. I believe they have the talent but, like the Smokehaus, they really need to play less conservatively if they want to make truly great beer.
I'm beginning to wonder if there wasn't different batches of the Smokehause as well. I picked up a sixpack and couldn't taste *any* smoke at all, yet others have noted that it was actually pretty strong. I still have some bottles left and I'd love to compare my batch with a bottle from someone who says they could really taste the smoke in it.
I think Steve may be right. I bought a six-pack of it here in Houston to go with some steaks I was grilling over mesquite and the batch I had was very smoky. I guess Spoetzl needs to run a bit of quality control.
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