Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier

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Price: £3.55

Description 5.1% 'Genuine gammy leg smoked beer' anyone? Most difficult beer in the Cat to pronounce and one of the more difficult to drink, 5.1% This beer originates in a small brewhaus in Bamberg where the original, owner is known to have a twisted walk: 'Schlenkerla' is slang for gammy leg. He is in a picture on the bottle. We get this beer from Kaiserdom. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier (original schlenkerla smoked beer) is a brand of beer produced by the Brauerei Heller that is almost universally known as Schlenkerla in Bamberg. Each variety has a smoky aroma and flavour, varying in intensity from one style to the next. There are three varieties: Urbock, Marzen and Rauchweizen. The brewery also brews a Helles beer which although not brewed with smoked malt picks up a smoky flavour from the brewing equipment. The beer we have on offer at the Devonshire Cat is the very popular Marzen. This beer is Smoked! Its overall taste is of bacon or sausages and it doesn't get any easier to drink as you get going. If given a chance this beer can refine the taste buds and a hoppy bitter finish can cut through the smoked cheese thick almost salty taste. The beer is smoked by kilning the barley malt over burning beachwood logs, a traditional method from early Franconian history that can be compared with the kilning over peat used to make Islay Whisky. This beer is a valuable remnant of this old beer style. The malt must be dried to stop its germination at just the right time. The modern technology now used to make Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier provides heat sources to dry the malt - however before this technology was available they would have dried the malt by sun, wind or above an open fire.  This beer is dark copper in colour with a light tan head, the aroma is really what makes this beer special: fantastic mixture of tobacco, smoked meats, campfires, woody notes make this a really memorable beer. This is a dark, aromatic, bottom fermentated beer and it tastes just like it smells, it is almost as if someone has managed to bottle a bbq - massive flavours in this beer include smoked meat, malts, woodchips, ground black pepper and slight chocolate characteristics - however the smokiness is more subdued in the taste and offset nicely by caramel sweetness. An excellent beer to have at a barbeque, this beers pairs well with smoked German and Austrian cheeses, babrecued foods, kippers, smoked hams etc... I also reckon this would be a fantastic beer to cook with! 50cl bottle.