Smoked beer tradition lingers

Matthias Trum looks awfully young to be the guardian of a 500-year-old brewing legacy. He's barely scraping 30 and is the sixth generation in his family to hold the position of brewmaster at the Schlenkerla Brewery Tavern in Bamberg, Germany.

"The official brewery name is not Schlenkerla, it's Heller Brau or Brewery Heller," Trum explains. "The name Heller dates back to the 17th century, and in that respect, I'm the 15th brewmaster of Heller."

The tavern, which dates to 1405, is adjacent to the cathedral in the medieval heart of Bamberg, a UNESCO world cultural heritage town in the Franconian region of Bavaria. In the vaulted main room of the tavern, Bambergers from all walks of life congregate to enjoy hearty fare and beers that even their brewer describe as "a little bit like dinosaurs." Drawn from wooden casks, these are Schlenkerla's rauchbiers, or smoked beers, and they form a living link to brewing traditions and beer profiles of centuries ago.

Smoked beers get their extraordinary flavor from their malt, the germinated and dried barley that is the backbone of beer. Explains Brewmaster Trum, "Smoked beers were common 500 to 600 years ago, because back then drying malt over an open fire was pretty much the only method. Later on, the English invented the technology by which they could dry malt with an indirect heating system, thereby avoiding the smoke. Since that was a more efficient way of drying malt -- and because not everybody likes smoked beers -- eventually all the smoked kilns worldwide went extinct, except here in Bamberg."

Of the city's 11 breweries, only two produce rauchbier, and Schlenkerla Rauchbier is the most powerfully flavored of all.

"The flavor is unique," Trum says. "Schlenkerla is not only a brewery, it is also a malt house. We still use beech wood logs for drying the malt. We have a direct system where the heat and smoke from an open fire penetrates the malt and thereby dries it. This turns the otherwise ordinary malt into a smoked malt.

"The beer brewed from a smoked malt has a very strong, smoky taste, almost like smoked ham. Someone who hasn't drunk smoked beer can relate to it easily by imagining liquid ham in his mouth," Trum says.

Before you dismiss the notion of smoke-flavored beer, recall that many whisky aficionados relish the phenolic notes that peat-smoked malt contributes to fine Scottish whisky. Abandon your preconceived notions of what beer "should" taste like, and rauchbier turns out to be delicious and surprisingly versatile.

There are five Schlenkerla beers -- all redolent of smoke. Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier (the original Schlenkerla Smokebeer) is a Märzen, or March beer, deep brown, meaty and aromatic, reminiscent of a campfire. The smoked Urbock, or strong bock beer, is a stronger smoked beer for unfiltered smokers. Both are available locally, season permitting. Check Sam's Quick Stop in Durham and the local Total Wine branches. Schlenkerla also brews a wheat beer, a lager and a strong Lent beer with all or part smoked malts -- but these require a trip to Bamberg.

Recently, I had the good luck to sit in the Schlenkerla tavern with pints of Urbock while I enjoyed an entree of Bamberg Onion: a large, hollowed onion filled with spiced pork, roasted and dressed with smoke beer sauce. This was a delicious and logical combination -- and the onion recipe is even on the Schlenkerla Web site www.schlenkerla.de/indexe.html.

But the pungent smoked beers are great companions for a range of foods. Barbecue is a natural. Here, finally, is a beer that can stand up to rich, slow-cooked pork. And any smoked meat or fish welcomes a beer this muscular. Some beer writers advocate the unconventional pairing of potent smoked beer with any cuisine whose spices carry a strong roasted or smoked note such as Mexican, Thai or Chinese, among others. I look forward to experimenting.

Quizzed about why the Bamberg brewers have hung onto such an archaic malting method and beer character, Trum cites the conservative nature of his townsmen, who would rather stick to an ancient brewing technique rather than adopt a method invented by foreigners. Of course, the other explanation is that they knew they had a great thing, and decided to hang onto it.