Beer Style: Smoked Beer
Brewing Smoked Beers: Tips from the Pros
Digital and Plus Members OnlyExpert advice on brewing smoked beers and smoking your malt at home.
Classic Rauchbier
FREEThis is a Bamberg-style reddish lager, sweet and substantial like a Marzen, with the distinctive smokiness of a beechwood fire.
Peat Smoked Wee Heavy
Digital and Plus Members OnlyThis is a big, rich, malty and strong brew – the smoke, although present, seems restrained compared to all the other flavors.
Vermont Pub and Brewery’s Smoked Porter clone
Digital and Plus Members OnlyVermont Pub & Brewery smokes their own malts over apple, maple, and hickory woodchips to recreate this 17th century style robust ale. You can smoke your own malts, or buy rauchmalt as an alternative.
Hot Tips for Making Great Smoked Beers
Digital and Plus Members OnlyFrom using extract to smoking your own malt, here’s how to do it.
Smoked Wee Heavy
Digital and Plus Members OnlyLong, slow, and cool fermentation is a crucial element for this beer, which otherwise gets too fruity and bitter; the smoked malt can develop fusel and/or sulfury notes if overdone or if fermented too warm. Hop levels are deliberately low; this beer is all about malt.
Rauchbier
Digital and Plus Members OnlyI have had some memorable experiences with beer, and some of the best have been with my wife, Elizabeth: drinking bitter and playing gin rummy at Spinnaker’s (she cheats!); smuggling bottles of Ballard Bitter onto the inter-island ferry in the San Juans; and simply watching her expression when she takes the first taste of my