Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock

Brewed by Brauerei Heller
Style: Smoked
Bamberg, Bayern, Germany

Holy Crap, that’s a strong smell! Like beef jerky and sharp cheddar, this beer is a clear dark blood red color and is really violent. It should be your last beer of the last beers of the night because that flavor and smell is hard to get rid. Palate is then and whispy, tho. Not hoppy, but a strong roasted barley bock flavor is present. A chock-loadof beer, but not yet to my taste. Bottle from Lucky Liquors, Miami.

50cl bottle. brown/beige head, aroma of bacon and smoked ham. Sweet finish. A favourite!

Unfiltered tap at Bavarian Lodge’s Oktoberfest Cask & Keg fest, Oct. 1. Stouty black, stiff brown head in an 11 oz. goblet. Smell of bacon, gouda, and burnt barbecue wood. Smoked beer: you either love or you… you’re not a man. Makes you feels like you’re drinking some primordial beer found in old clay bottles in the back corner of a cave, behind the drawings of the sabre-toothed deer hunt. Don’t know what the difference is between this and the filtered, bottled version, guess just some yeast filtered out that can’t make itself felt over the big smoky malt power punch.

500ml bottle. Pours a deep translucent walnut brown with a lovely 2 finger tan head. Mmmm...I love me some rauchbier. Nose is intoxicating with smokey goodness. Alder smoke, meaty, some type of roasty nut, touch of ash. Also when you get past the smoke I pick up some apple and caramel malts. Great carbonation some a bit heavier than medium body. Lovely smokey flavor with hints of malt and some bittering hops around the edges. Very quaffable. I really need to start planning a trip to Germany.

Poured dark reddish brown, salty smoked meats, roasted malts, wood, little tobacco.

Tap at Blind Tiger, NYC. An unfiltered version of the original. The aqroma is smoked meats, bacon, salt. Awesome. The appearance is a hazy brown color, lighter than a porter, tan head. The flavor follows the aroma, smoke, malts, bacon flavor. Amazing. The finish is mainly smoke, slight bittering. Excellent beer. The smokiness tends to dominate all other flavors and aromas, but it’s still a great beer. Nice thick mouthfeel as well.

Bottle, at Cardinal. It pours a slightly hazy brown body under a beige head. Caramel sweetness, bacon, some peat-like notes, woodfire and some hops in the aroma, but the smoked malts are pulling most of the load. The flavor continues what the aroma started, smoked, ham-like caramel malts with a good sweetness, and some bitterness trying to balance it. It’s not a very balanced beer, but there’s no need for it either. Full-bodied and slightly warming down the throath. The finish is sweet and smoked, with a little bitterness. I’ve been longing to taste this one for quite some time, and wasn’t disappointed at all. Now, bring me some fine sausages to enjoy with it. 090728

Bottle. Pop the cap and it smells like smoked almonds, but the flavor will prove to be more subtle. Appearance is like a schwarzbier or porter. Slightly light on the carbonation. Quite sweet with mellow smoke, but I don’t know how old my bottle is--perhaps it should be smokier. Sort of a BBQ sweet+smoke thing going on, where the smoke holds the sweetness in check.