Beer of the Weekend #150: Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen
Tonight is a BotW oddity.
It’s odd in the sense that this is a Sunday tasting. My personal alcohol rule stipulates that I can only drink on Friday and Saturday nights — which are for reasons personified by a few of my buddies in IC. We’ll get into that some other time. The reason for this odd circumstance is because I am sampling a few beers for a recommendation I’m writing for the Little Village, the IC area’s alternative monthly magazine. The LV is the predecessor of the Icon, which went belly-up sometime around ’01 or ’02.
About two weeks ago I sent the LV an essay idea: I wanted to write about leaving IC as a carnivore and returning as a vegetarian. The idea was seriously weak, but the editors gave me a few suggestions on how to move forward and asked if I did any other food writing. Nope. No food writing. But I did tell them about my weekly “food” blogging: BotW. I sent links to my recent tastings and pitched the idea of a monthly beer recommendation for IC’s beer drinking masses. Food, beer, and wine wise, Iowa City is very epicurean, and I think a “beer column” is a good fit for the readership. The managing editor was keen on the idea, so August 10 is the deadline for my first recommendation. I’m not exactly sure what the column will be called, but I have an idea I will send with my recommendation tomorrow.
The beer featured tonight is not what I will recommend LV readers to try in September. It was, though, what Heinie, one of the beer guru’s at Dirty John’s, said I should suggest: Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen, brewed by the Brauerei Heller of Bamberg, Germany.
The reason I will not be recommending “Schlenkerla,” as Heinie called it, is not only because I do not consider it my personal recommendation (it’s more like Heinie’s recommendation), but because it is likely some serious shit to lay on IC’s novice beer enthusiasts. I think it will turn out to be a good suggestion for us seasoned beer lovers — another notch for our brewing bedposts — but I am worried it is too intense, complex, and downright crazy for someone like my sister’s boyfriend, Saucy, who has a budding brew tooth and has graduated from frat house favorites to flavorful beers from Michelob. Beer truly is an acquired taste, and although that maturation process begins at different times and progresses at varying paces for each of us, I think is it is a relatively slow process. For someone like Saucy (who admitted to me yesterday that he likes “caramel malts”), the jump from Natty Light to Amber Bock to “Schlenkerla” may be a little too much. I could be mistaken, but I don’t think he’s ready. I don’t think IC’s novice beer lovers are ready, either. In time they will be, but for now I want to start my LV “beer column” with a flavorful and traditional märzen, which was one of my earlier tastings tonight. I definitely don’t want to be dismissed as a beer snob right off the bat.
All right. On to tonight’s tasting.
Serving type: One 16.9-ounce (500 ml) bottle. The labels are devoid of any freshness date. Shameful.
Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. I don’t have a mug (the suggested beerware), which is shameful, so the pint will have to do. The color is a dark brown with a ruby red tint. It is close to opaque, but light still passes through. My pour produced three fingers of thick, cappuccino colored head, which hung around for a few minutes before dissipating to leave a foamy lacing and ring around the edge.
Smell: Bacon. Thick and peppery bacon. Even after all these years as a vegetarian, the aroma is unmistakable. It is definitely unique and stands out prominently. It also has an autumn leaf burn pile or campfire smell to it. There’s really no getting past the bacon and smoked aromas. My eyes are almost burning. Yet, it is very enticing.
Taste: Follows the smell, but the smokiness is thankfully not as intense. It has a prominent smoked bacon or ham (I’m thinking smoked ham with bacon bits on it) flavor which gives way to, surprisingly, toasted coffee malts. It finishes very much like a dry stout in that sense.
Drinkability: This is damn good stuff. Very unique and very tasty. I was unsure how I would react to the smoky qualities and the bacon (and not because I’m a vegetarian), and I’m pleased to say I thoroughly enjoyed both.
Fun facts about ASRMä:
-Style: Although the bottle says it’s a märzen, BA lists it as Rauchbier:
-Price: $4.99/bottle at John’s Grocery in Iowa City. That’s another reason why I won’t be recommending it. In due time I will, but not right now.
-Serving temperature: BA suggests 50-55ºF. Beers of the World suggests an exact 48ºF.
-Alcohol content: 5.4 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: Beers of the World recommends smoked ham or sausage. You might as well listen to some Smokey Robinson while you eat, too.
-I’m going to be super lazy and just send ya’ll to this link for the rest of ASRMä fun facts: http://www.schlenkerla.de/rauchbier/beschreibunge.html. Schlenkerla’s website doesn’t look like it has been redesigned since 1999, but this page has some great information about the brewery’s smoked beer.
-Besides having tried an excellent beer, there was another benefit of this Sunday night (now Monday morning) sampling: I remembered my car windows were cracked. A storm front is moving through the state, and I was able to close my windows before it started raining.
The Quiet Man’s grade: A.
It’s odd in the sense that this is a Sunday tasting. My personal alcohol rule stipulates that I can only drink on Friday and Saturday nights — which are for reasons personified by a few of my buddies in IC. We’ll get into that some other time. The reason for this odd circumstance is because I am sampling a few beers for a recommendation I’m writing for the Little Village, the IC area’s alternative monthly magazine. The LV is the predecessor of the Icon, which went belly-up sometime around ’01 or ’02.
About two weeks ago I sent the LV an essay idea: I wanted to write about leaving IC as a carnivore and returning as a vegetarian. The idea was seriously weak, but the editors gave me a few suggestions on how to move forward and asked if I did any other food writing. Nope. No food writing. But I did tell them about my weekly “food” blogging: BotW. I sent links to my recent tastings and pitched the idea of a monthly beer recommendation for IC’s beer drinking masses. Food, beer, and wine wise, Iowa City is very epicurean, and I think a “beer column” is a good fit for the readership. The managing editor was keen on the idea, so August 10 is the deadline for my first recommendation. I’m not exactly sure what the column will be called, but I have an idea I will send with my recommendation tomorrow.
The beer featured tonight is not what I will recommend LV readers to try in September. It was, though, what Heinie, one of the beer guru’s at Dirty John’s, said I should suggest: Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen, brewed by the Brauerei Heller of Bamberg, Germany.
The reason I will not be recommending “Schlenkerla,” as Heinie called it, is not only because I do not consider it my personal recommendation (it’s more like Heinie’s recommendation), but because it is likely some serious shit to lay on IC’s novice beer enthusiasts. I think it will turn out to be a good suggestion for us seasoned beer lovers — another notch for our brewing bedposts — but I am worried it is too intense, complex, and downright crazy for someone like my sister’s boyfriend, Saucy, who has a budding brew tooth and has graduated from frat house favorites to flavorful beers from Michelob. Beer truly is an acquired taste, and although that maturation process begins at different times and progresses at varying paces for each of us, I think is it is a relatively slow process. For someone like Saucy (who admitted to me yesterday that he likes “caramel malts”), the jump from Natty Light to Amber Bock to “Schlenkerla” may be a little too much. I could be mistaken, but I don’t think he’s ready. I don’t think IC’s novice beer lovers are ready, either. In time they will be, but for now I want to start my LV “beer column” with a flavorful and traditional märzen, which was one of my earlier tastings tonight. I definitely don’t want to be dismissed as a beer snob right off the bat.
All right. On to tonight’s tasting.
Serving type: One 16.9-ounce (500 ml) bottle. The labels are devoid of any freshness date. Shameful.
Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. I don’t have a mug (the suggested beerware), which is shameful, so the pint will have to do. The color is a dark brown with a ruby red tint. It is close to opaque, but light still passes through. My pour produced three fingers of thick, cappuccino colored head, which hung around for a few minutes before dissipating to leave a foamy lacing and ring around the edge.
Smell: Bacon. Thick and peppery bacon. Even after all these years as a vegetarian, the aroma is unmistakable. It is definitely unique and stands out prominently. It also has an autumn leaf burn pile or campfire smell to it. There’s really no getting past the bacon and smoked aromas. My eyes are almost burning. Yet, it is very enticing.
Taste: Follows the smell, but the smokiness is thankfully not as intense. It has a prominent smoked bacon or ham (I’m thinking smoked ham with bacon bits on it) flavor which gives way to, surprisingly, toasted coffee malts. It finishes very much like a dry stout in that sense.
Drinkability: This is damn good stuff. Very unique and very tasty. I was unsure how I would react to the smoky qualities and the bacon (and not because I’m a vegetarian), and I’m pleased to say I thoroughly enjoyed both.
Fun facts about ASRMä:
-Style: Although the bottle says it’s a märzen, BA lists it as Rauchbier:
The Rauchbier style is an old German beer style, its origins go back to the 1500's and to the district of Franconia and the town of Bamberg. It's typically of dark colour and has similarities of the Oktoberfestbier. Green malts are literally dried over an open fire of beech wood, imparting a unique smokiness ("rauch" is German for smoke), the usage of which produces beers of an acquired taste. Imagine a smokiness so robust, so assertive, that it tastes of spiced, smoked meat.
-Price: $4.99/bottle at John’s Grocery in Iowa City. That’s another reason why I won’t be recommending it. In due time I will, but not right now.
-Serving temperature: BA suggests 50-55ºF. Beers of the World suggests an exact 48ºF.
-Alcohol content: 5.4 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: Beers of the World recommends smoked ham or sausage. You might as well listen to some Smokey Robinson while you eat, too.
-I’m going to be super lazy and just send ya’ll to this link for the rest of ASRMä fun facts: http://www.schlenkerla.de/rauchbier/beschreibunge.html. Schlenkerla’s website doesn’t look like it has been redesigned since 1999, but this page has some great information about the brewery’s smoked beer.
-Besides having tried an excellent beer, there was another benefit of this Sunday night (now Monday morning) sampling: I remembered my car windows were cracked. A storm front is moving through the state, and I was able to close my windows before it started raining.
The Quiet Man’s grade: A.
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