German Brewing

Haha yeah I definitely find Rauchbiers to be incredibly polarizing...I think I'm on the same pole as Brandon! To this day, my all-time favorite beer/food pairing was a nice stein of Schlenkerla served with a warmed loaf of sourdough bread and smoked gouda cheese....so damned good! Add some smoked meats somewhere in there....oh boy.

Try it with one of the obatzda recipes elsewhere on this forum. But if you want the true Schlenkerla experience, you can't beat the .

Yup! Missed that one didn't I!

Ancient Abbey, do you use Weyermann or Best Rauchmalt?

Speaking of smoking the whole grain bill, has anyone tried smoking their own malt? I have several times, but the results have never been good. I've tried hot-smoking, cold-smoking, wetting it first, leaving it dry, letting the smoked grain rest for a few weeks, not letting it rest at all, etc. I've used beechwood burning on its own and with the assistance of an electric element. Whatever I do, I tend to end up with more of a harsh, campfire like character.

So far it has just been Weyermann, but I recently sourced a sac of Best. I tracked the lot and it's a year old already, so I'm gonna hold off judgment until I can get a fresh one.

I'm sure you have read Ray Daniels by now. Sounds like the key to true German rauchmalt is that low, fine, blue-gray smoke, which is really difficult to control. It's that faint smoke that comes off the glowing red edge of completely charred beachwood. Big, billowing smoke is really bad for malt, will give you harsh, nasty flavors and generates more NOx products. I haven't tried making any myself for most of the reasons above. Plus, there are so many variables to investigate that introducing my own the malting, drying, kilning and smoking variables aren't really on my radar. Even most of the Bavarians let the professionals do what they do best