BeerBorg

Fascinating, especially since I recently experimented with smoking my grains (yes, I know you can buy smoked malts, but where's the fun in that?). I made an amber ale, the base recipe for which is great as a stand-alone ale, and the next batch I smoked the grains with hickory for 45 minutes. It's a great-tasting beer; not too much smoke flavor to impede the sweetness and other flavors from the malt, but it's definitely there in the aroma and throughout the trip from lips to belly.

This makes perfect sense and something that once you read you say "well, of course it did". It just isn't something I would have thought of on my own.

Hey Borgolinians, I was actually stationed in Bamberg for a year. I recall tasting Rauchbier,but recall not liking it. But I was 21 and drank cheap PX beer to get drunk.Now,maybe I'd like it.Maybe I can find some, I'll and give it another chance. Our unit took a 10 mile march culminating with a tour of this small brewery. We sampled what they brewed. Don't know what it was. I think I liked what I tasted,but my taste buds were ruined from all the rotgut we drank,so it could have been the best beer brewed in the world,but I wouldn't have known. Cheers.

This is why I add some smoked malt to all my reconstructionist beers.

Note that even if you don't like strong smoke flavored beers (I'm not a big fan of Rauchbier either) you can play with some types without fear.

IE, I use Weyermann oak smoked wheat which has a mellower and a "sweeter" smokey flavor then the other types of smoked malt.

I liked the result of up to 1# of that in a 2.5 gallon batch just fine. It was a nice enhancement to those 10th century Belgian reconstructionist gruit beers I made, as well as a New Nordic "Viking" beer. Added some nice complexity.

If anyone is interested in brewing a really really good smoked beer I recommend Sue Smoked Porter from Yazoo. The cherry smoked malt along with the Porter style puts the smoke just right and not overpowering. In fact all the Yazoo recipes in that thread are quite delicious. I brewed Gerst first and used about 2 cups of the yeast cake to ferment Sue. There might be a dedicated Sue thread here, but I can't find it.