Aecht Schlenkerla Helles Lagerbier

Pours quite clear and golden with a big fluffy white head. Honey, malt, light smoke and floral hops in the aroma. Sweet malt and mellow smoke in the flavor. Strange way to make a smoked malt just from the house flavor and not actual rauch malt. Has a bit of oxidation and a metallic note. Could be a little bigger bodied. Still, a clean enough lager with a satisfying bitter finish.

Not a rauchbier really, altough it depends on your definition, but not a rauchbier. Gorgeous pale golden colour. Beautiful lightly smoked aroma with some lovely malt and a crisp, smoky, refeshing balanced flavour, excellent finish - nice and hoppy. Superb with fish (not the most delicate however) and sausages. Tends to oxidise fairly quickly in bottle in my experience so possibly not always accorded good enough score in the US. Would it not be better to try an rate a beer on it’s merits as opposed to rating it against something (ie Rauchbier Marzen or Urbock) that it really doesn’t share much in common, styilistically, other than a brewery name? Always got to put it in a box....

Light golden color with a medium white head. Aroma is malty, sweet, and lightly smoky. Flavor is of a medium bodied Helles with a nice hint of smokiness. Clean finish - good for a Helles, subpar for a Rauch.

Sparkling light gold, thin fizzy white head. Light smoke aromas with faint earthy citrus-like tones. Soft nutty earth and smoke flavors play out from start to finish. Thin, watery, with soft carbonation. A big disappointment when compared to the Urbock…

Mild smoke aroma. Gold color with some haze. The smoke is very light, which makes sense from the way it is made, but what is there is good in the aroma and flavor.

Bottle, pours a pale yellow with white head. Aroma of light smoke, maybe sausage. Not much to the flavor - mostly malts with a smoked meat overtone. Light bodied with a fizzy mouthfeel.

This was tons better than I was expecting. Pours hazy yellow with a light white head. The aroma thankfully only has a hint of smoke ~ it is mostly helles-like with pale malt, some corn and cream. Medium body with some underscored sharp, but gentle, carbonation. The flavor starts very helles with good solid maltiness, some spicy lightly grassy hops, some graininess and gentle smoke. A bit more smoke comes out on the finish, but nothing that ruins the beer for me.

[Bottle] Pours pale golden with a small white head. Aroma is mildly smoky--the most subdued of the AS beers that I’ve had, although this makes sense since I see that it is just smoke residue. Taste is boring, somewhat unpleasant sweet malt with the smoke most evident in the finish. Thin mouthfeel but the finish is pretty long. I really did not care for the taste or mouthfeel of this beer.