German Brewing

Nice article, didn't know that Weyerman served their own beers, pretty cool.

When I was there they had an IPA on! Also, a tasty Rauchbier. I noticed the recipe in a notebook they left lying open: 60% Munich I, 37% rauchmalt, 1.5% Carafa II Special, and 1.5% Sinamar. I was surprised because I thought Sinamar was just Carafa II Special extract. But the brewer there said Sinamar actually has less flavor. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

When I toured Weyermann, I had the IPA...they seemed to think, "American...he's going to want the IPA", or they were excited to have an American trying their IPA. Either way, whatever, I don't drink IPAs. But it was a cool tour.

Proud of American's trying their IPA, and we are trying to brew Franconian and Bavarian beers. The world is upside down

Interesting, I've made four lodo rauchbiers now, and they all have a different meat flavor with different amounts of rauchmalt. At 50%, it comes across as bacon, at 66% like smoked ham, at 75% like a smoked boston butt and at 90% it tastes like seared steak. The last one really surprised me, but so far a handful of people have come over to try it. With me suggesting any flavors, they all said it reminded them of steak. Based on the commercial beers we get here, I am curious if Schlenkerla brews lodo.

Anecdotally, I recently bought a smoker (just a small guy, not the fancy rigs) and there's a sufficient difference between meat in the smoker, fresh off the smoker, and after a day in the fridge. It still is tasty and becomes more of an integrated flavor component, but those immediate fresh smoke notes are fleeting.