Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen

Brewed by Brauerei Heller
Style: Smoked
Bamberg, Germany

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Stein

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Pours amber with a tan head. Aroma is sweet smoke. Like a brown sugar cured ham. Flavor is similar. Starts very sweet, caramel and honey. Strong smoke flavor follows. It took about a quarter of the bottle to get used to the smoke. Then I could appreciate the contrasting flavors. The swwet dominated the start of every taste while the smoke was equally dominate in the finish. Very strange, but nice.

UPDATED: NOV 19, 2005 Nice dark brown in color... Like Lapsang Souchong tea? Well I do, and it smells just like it... FANTASTIC smoked scent that I wish they made Yankee Candles of. Taste... ahh that is Lapsang Souchong. Gorgeous. Smooth, mellow, refreshing, and rich. This is it folks... this is the taste I have been longing for. Damn good beer.

Bottle. Chestnut brown with an enveloping aroma of beechwood smoke. Full and malty, with a pervasive smokiness and earthy dryness that lingers on the palate. Some people like this beer right away. It took me several bottles. Once you get acquainted with its unique character, though, you’ll say to yourself: “Damn this is a good beer.”

Bottle from The Offie, Leicester. This is so special it really should be my 200th beer, but hey ho! that's the way it goes. Big charcoal aroma. Dark chestnut colour, with a quickly receding head, which leaves a patchy residue on top, and spidery lacing. Huge initial meat flavour, but with the odd speck of sugar. Malt and watery taste at the end, once the bar-b-q flavour has subsided some. This is like a meal - I wouldn't be able to drink much of it in a single session, but it is a delicious speciality, and still surpisingly crisp, due to it's thinnish mouthfeel. Nice lingering taste too.

UPDATED: OCT 11, 2006 October 2005 - Dark brown body with a small beige head. Massive smokey, nitratey, sweet smoked meat like note. Smoke is mildly less prominent than aroma, similar character throughout. I can’t really get too far past the smoke to the underlying beer. Dry finish. Average palate. Just really does not do it for me. 4/3/3/3/12 - 2.5 <P> January 2004 - Extremely smokey aroma emminates from the dark burnt amber bodies brew like the campfire smell that invades your clothing after a long camping trip. Flavour is malty with smoke sausage like qualities, with a long lingering aftertaste. Don’t like it... Smoked is not for me, four guys couldn’t finish this bottle. 4/3/3/3/5 - 1.8

Man I know this beer is highly rated but I just can't get past the whole campfire stompin's in my mouth taste. I swear though I could almost taste an okay beer underneath it all. It did look ok in the glass.

The Mother of all smoked beers, just taste the fine balance between malt flavour

Dark umber with a quickly dissipating, frothy, offwhite head. Aromas of a smouldering campfire accompanied by subdued malt and the faint sting of alcohol. The taste of smoke is surprisingly subtle with malt sweetness coming to the forefront followed closely by a balancing bitterness. Lingering malt sweetness is accentuated by a fine carbonation which makes for a refreshing mouthfeel. Thoroughly enjoyable after playing with the kids in the snow.

UPDATED: MAY 17, 2007 2003 bottle. Good ruddy, red-brown pour with some lighter oranges as well. Big creamy light-mocha colored head that sticks on top for most of the beer. Lots of lacing. Smells of sweet malt, slight smoked woodiness. No sediment of any sort and mostly clear, or I would have given it a 5 for appearance. Taste starts out with a semi-sweet, ultra balanced marzen flavor; light honey, good nutty hops, caramel malt. The smokiness comes on in the middle and slowly builds into a wonderful finish of smoke, smoke and more smoke. Like smoking a nice cuban while eating a bacon, and smoked gouda sandwich on brown bread (ok no one actually does that, but you get the point). Smoke is not subtle, but I did enjoy the fact that the flavors were layered and the marzen flavor was there at the start. Medium body, didnt get any thinning. Light carbonation, good stuff.

UPDATED: AUG 29, 2008 Deep maroon under a tan cream. Smoky, tarry aroma, softly coniferous with thick malts and spicy caraway. Dark chocolate before the sweetness of oily rye bread; bitter spices fade into a lingering tobacco aftertaste and building smokiness. Velvety—almost oily—good attenuation, pinpoint carbonation.

Satisfying and continually refreshing; a quaffable contemplative pint.

50 cl bottle, best before November 2008.

Rerated on 11 January ’08. Much different than my experience many beers ago. Sure, there’s still plenty of smoke -- rich and sultry -- but refined, bready malts can easily be detected behind the glowing, ashy remnants of a previous evening’s campfire. Light mineral presence in the aroma along with barely noticeable earthy hops. Rich, light brown hue with a medium, frothy, khaki head. The flavor is smoky and dry throughout with a malty, almost toffee-like, sweetness in the background. Feels a bit acidic, or perhaps it’s just the smoke playing tricks on my tongue. Iodine and Bakelite notes emerge with some warmth. I still get a little bit of fruitiness from this one, but it seems more like pears this time around. A bit of smoothness is gained from a little more warmth. Medium bodied with an oily texture and moderate carbonation. A little experience has gone a long way in my enjoyment of this beer. Previous score of 7,4,7,3,14=3.5.

50 cL bottle, goblet. No real Märzen qualities show themselves in the aroma. There’s lots of smoke, but nothing nasty like liquid smoke. Even though it’s absurdly over the top, it’s quality. A thick, creamy, white head is short and sits on a deep maroon body. Moderately sweet, lightly acidic flavor becomes a moderately sweet, lightly bitter, lightly astringent finish. There’s actually some nice caramel-apple Märzen flavors under the smokiness. Hard to tell too much about it though. Medium body, watery texture, soft carbonation. The bottom line is: it’s good, but do I have to like it?