Rauchbier

This was not the first new beer that I brewed at Blue Pants, but this is possibly the one that I was the most excited for so far. Rauchbiers as a whole are largely misunderstood by beer drinkers in America. It is hard to describe the smoky flavors to somebody that has never experienced smokiness in beer, and inevitably, the rauchbiers wind up being described as having a taste similar to bacon. Unfortunately, this really shouldn't be the case and as a result, rauchbiers have kind of taken on a bad rep in America.
When I went to Bamberg, I was under the impression that the beers were very smoky and, like many people, I thought they tasted like liquid bacon. I think this has a lot to do with American brewers trying to brew a style of beer that they have not experienced firsthand, but rather have read descriptions of the beer and try to brew to a beer that fits a poorly written description (I'm looking at you BJCP style guidelines). In Bamberg, I was surprised by the subtleties of the smoky flavor. While I was at the Weyermann malting facility, I decided that I wanted to introduce Alabama to the rauchbier style and that I would attempt to recreate the flavor that you might find in a classic example of the style.
So while our class was eating a great Franconian buffet dinner, I had the opportunity to talk to one of Weyermann's maltsters, who just happened to be a master beer sommelier (If this is not a title you are familiar with, I highly suggest checking out the documentary Somm, which can be viewed on Netflix). I jotted down a recipe and asked him for a critique. What he told me took me by surprise... In his thick German accent he said "This is stupid." I looked at him blankly for a second and he explained to me that I had too much smoked malt in my recipe (I think my original recipe called for about 60% of the grist to be beechwood smoked malt). He told me I needed to cut the amount of smoked malt down to 27% for a good smoky flavor. We had a brief discussion about using less than 27% and he was adamant that anything less than 27% wouldn't be detectable and anything more would be overpowering... No grey area with him.
So I came back to Blue Pants with this recipe and I am very pleased with the results. The beer has a rich, sweet malt character which compliments the subtle beech smoke flavors very well. A very clean, smooth bitterness backs up the maltiness and melds very well with our house lager yeast strain, which has a very clean flavor, slightly estery in comparison to many lager strains, and a very distinctive crisp finish. At 5.2% ABV, it is very easily drinkable and nothing about it is too overpowering. If you have been under the impression that smoky flavors don't belong in beer, I urge you to give our Rauchbier a shot, I think what you find just might surprise you. Prost!