German Brewing

First impression was faint smoky aroma mingled with the smell of the best Helles IT. One would think these two scents to be incompatible but in this beer it seems to work. Behind the subtle smoke flavor was bready malt with faint caramel and citrus. I don’t typically care for rauchbiers but this one is quite delicious and would make a great starter beer for people scared of smoke.

Remarkably, this beer doesn't use Rauchmalt. It just picks up ambient smoke from the brew house.

That's a serious hotbox contact high then because this beer was only slightly less smoky then a commercial grodziskie I tasted.

It definitely tastes smoky. I would believe the repitch story (I've gotten intense smoke from just a repitch before). But also, they use all the same equipment, hoses, etc.

Second the repitch story.

For those favoring the bold, I highly recommend replacing 100% of the Pima with rauchmalt. It's fantastic.

Having tried both Weyermann and Best rauchmalt with lodo, I can tell you that if you are chasing Schlenkerla, then you want the Best rauchmalt.