Smoked beer (“Rauchbier”)

Every enthusiast should try this typical Franconian beer specialty at least once in their life. And the verdict is usually rather black and white: you either love beer with a smoky aroma that tastes of smoked ham or you hate it. “Rauchbier” usually has an original wort of 13.5 percent, which corresponds to an alcohol content of around five percent. The beer’s dark, blackish – brown colour is usually accompanied by a slight bitter note and a piquant, slightly fruity taste. However, smoked beer is not – strictly speaking - a type of beer in the traditional sense. Nowadays, smoked beer is available as a smoked Lager, smoke wheat beer or as smoked “Märzen”, for instance. Incidentally, the two world-famous Franconian smoked beers are smoked “Märzen”: the “Schlenkerla” from Bamberg by the Heller brewery and the aforementioned brewery’s “Special”. And the name says it all – after two or three ”Seidla” (pints) of these beers you might literally move to and fro as the German word “schlenkern” means to swing or to stagger.

This is how the smoky aroma ends up in the beer

Franconian smoked beer is a very special beer and how the smoke aroma at “Hellers” and in the “Special” is created dates back to ancient tradition. So, what’s the secret? The malt. It is dried over an open beech wood fire. The smoke from the hardwood penetrates the malt before it mixes with the hops in the brew. Sounds easy? It’s actually not. Because this form of malting is proper manual work which isn’t just time-consuming but also relies on discernment in order for the smoke aroma to be well-balanced and not too intense. Today, it’s certainly possible to produce smoke-flavoured malt industrially by adding flavours. Yet, breweries in Bamberg and its surrounding region, where smoked beer is predominantly produced, devote themselves to the age-old tradition which makes Franconian smoked beer truly unique.