BetterBeerBlog

It is almost inevitable that I will forgot to prep accordingly for The Session. I vaguely remember that it happens on the first Friday of each month. It’s probably not until late Thursday night, or in my case early Friday morning, that I finally remember. This month, Lew Bryson of Seen Through a Glass is hosting The Session #26: Smoke ‘Em if you Got ‘Em. As the title might imply, the focus this month will be on smoked beers.

So far, my quest to fulfill this blog post isn’t go very well. Here in the South Bay, getting good beers is a Sissyphean quest unto itself. The BevMo is my local go-to source for beers but, despite their size, their selection is limited by all the wine they carry. I know for sure they have Alaskan Smoked Porter and a few bottles of Rauchbier but other than those offerings, nothing I haven’t already tried.

I gave my local brew pubs a try as well but my initial online searches haven’t yielded any results. Gordon Biersch, Firehouse, Tied House, Faultline, Rock Bottom, El Toro, and BJs all resulted in a negative for smoked beers. The handful of South Bay bars I thought that might’ve stocked something worthwhile wasn’t much better. I’m starting to think that if I want to drink an interesting smoked beer, I’d have to put an interesting beer in my hookah pipe and smoke some malts through it (Hmm… maybe I should… nah, nah. That’s just too crazy, too crazy. Or is it?).

What are smoked beers?

As the name would imply, smoked beers are beers that have a strong smoke component to its flavor profile. This is usually achieved by smoking your specialty brewing malts, not unlike they way you would smoke some salmon or pork or beef, and then brewing with it. The original smoked beers came from Germany and are called Rauchbiers. The classic Rauchbier is a märzen/Oktoberfest that is brewed with a German Rauchmalz (beechwood-smoked Vienna-type malt) that makes up anywhere between 20%-100% of the grain bill. As you can probably guess, the more smoked malt you use, the greater the smoke flavor and aroma.

Homebrewers and American craft brewers started to get into the smoked beer scene as well. One of the most recognizable smoked beers on the market today is Alaskan Brewing Company’s Smoked Porter. Developed in 1988, this beer was the result of a collaboration between Alaskan Brewing Company and the Taku Smokeries who happened to be located within walking distance of the brewery. The difference between the Alaskan Smoked Porter and the classic Rauchbier is the use of alder wood, instead of beechwood, to smoke the brewing malts. As a result, Alaskan Smoked Porter is highly reminiscent of smoked salmon because alder wood is used to smoke both the salmon and the brewing malts used in this beer.

As with anything else, the key to a good beer is balance. With smoked beers, there should be a good balance between the smoke flavor and the base beer style. In the case of a smoked porter, the smoked porter flavors and characteristics should still be noticeable while the smoke flavors and aromas become a balanced part of the mix and not dominant.

Imperial Smoked Porter, Sierra Nevada, 7.5% ABV

This beer pours out very, very dark brown, with a tan head. There is a definite smoke component to the aroma that is reminiscent of smoked salmon. I can also pick up the deep roasted, pretty much burnt, malt aromas as well as a slight sweetness. Like the aroma, the flavor has a medium/medium-high smoke component to it. It is like smoked salmon but I can also taste a deep roasted malt flavor that has chocolate undertones and an overall sweet flavor. The hop bitterness is enough to balance the malt character but definitely plays second fiddle in this beer. I am surprised at how full-bodied this beer is; it is thick and creamy, almost cloying. As the beer warms up, the sweetness becomes more apparent and manifests itself as molasses-like in character. Even though this beer weighed in at 7.5% ABV, I couldn’t really detect the alcohol quality amongst the other flavors and aromas. It kinda warmed up my tummy but this beer had no noticeable alcohol warmth going down.

Wow, what a big beer. Big aroma, big flavors, big bodied. This beer isn’t fat, it’s just big boned. Frankly, I was not in the mood to drink a smoked beer tonight. Smoked beers are definitely and acquired taste and can be overwhelming. It took me a while to put this one back. Overall, I think this was a decent smoked beer. It had a good amount of smoke character but the only drawback I found was that it was heavy, really full-bodied. This is definitely a hearty, cold weather beer and in California’s mild winter climate, perhaps a little too big. Then again, had I been camping and hanging around the campfire, this would’ve been the perfect beer to have in hand.

Rose & Crown, 547 Emerson Avenue • Palo Alto, CA map

Rose & Crown (R&C) is an English-style pub located in Palo Alto off of University Avenue in Palo Alto. I have to mention R&C because this is where I picked up the beer. I didn’t want any smoked beers that I already had and lucky for me, R&C had something new. For those familiar with the area, it’s a little past Pizza My Heart. R&C is not really visible from the street but you can see it from the parking lot directly in front of it. By the time Sammy and I arrive at Palo Alto, it is past 10pm and the lot in front of R&C is already full. We find parking a block away.

R&C is a tiny, tiny place. They have a small “patio” area outside (it’s more like an outside hallway) while the inside has a few tables, a few seats at the bar and a pair of dart boards. R&C has quite the draught board, about 21 beers on tap, and a good bottled beer selection. From what I’ve heard, the addition of Belgian ales was a relatively new thing but it’s great to see them stocking some personal favorites.

R&C is crowded by the time we arrive. There are no tables available and the bar is full. Sammy and I end up standing directly across the bar at a ledger that doubles as a “table” of sorts. We picked the suckiest place to be as we get all the foot traffic of people coming in or leaving or going to use the restroom. R&C was packed and I enjoyed the diversity of the people there. Some were older, others college aged, all there for good times and good beer. I’m glad we were able to stop in and check the place out but we both wished we were there on a less busy evening.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 9:57 am and is filed under Beer Bars, Beer in Review, Craft Beer, Reviews, Spotlight On, The Session. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.