Where there's smoke...there's Yards

On September 23rd, I have a private tasting in Lancaster. It's a two hour drive. But I'm not going to miss The Third Annual Smoke ‘Em if Yous Got ‘Em that afternoon at Yards. Shmokey beers? Shmokey foods? Shmokin' hot music? Shmokin' ceegars? Iron Hill brewer Larry Horwitz in a bacon suit, chased by a pack of wild dogs? 

You damn betcha I'm gonna be there, cuz there was some awesome good beers there last year (and check out those breweries!). Come on down and join me!

Yards Brewing Company is hosting Smoke ‘Em if Yous Got ‘Em on Friday, September 23, 2011 from 2 to 6:30 pm. And this year’s event is going to be smokier than ever.

With Smoked Beers From

• Allentown/Bethlehem Brew Works
• Ballast Point
• BrewDog
• Brooklyn Brewery
• Caldera Brewing
• Dark Horse
• De Dochtor Van Korenaar
• Emeliesse
• Evil Twin
• Iron Hill
• Ithaca Beer Co.
• Sixpoint
• Sly Fox
• Stoudts
• Victory Brewing Co.
• Yards Brewing Co.

Smoked Foods from Amateurs and Professionals Alike

Including Brauhaus Schmitz, Percy St. BBQ and The Smoke Truck

Music By

Brad Hinton Band and Keystone Mountain Boys
And other surprises.
Tickets are $50 in advance and include food, beer samples and commemorative glassware. Procrastinators will pay $60 for the same privileges, and well, Designated Drivers will pay $25 for food, music, water and hopefully future favors from your friends.
Purchase Tickets

Otto: smoked dubbel? Really?

Just got a press release from Victory Brewing about a new beer they are calling Otto, a bottle-conditioned dubbel...made with German hops (no big surprise there!), Trappist yeast (and they've crossed those streams before too), Munich malt, Belgian caramel malt (yeah...and...), and smoked malt. A smoked dubbel, which they believe is unique. 

“The complimentary flavors of smoked malt and Belgian yeast seemed like an obvious combination,” said Bill Covaleski. “As far as we know, no one has bothered to put them together until now.”

I tend to be very cautious about the use of the word "unique" with beers anymore; been burned too many times. But it's certainly not a common idea. Victory's done this kind of thing before, though; they've tipped a little rauchmalz into the mashtun for St. Victorious doublebock, which gave it a subtle depth that didn't even always come through as smokey. I'm looking forward to this.

Otto will be out on October 15, in 750 ml corked-and-caged bottles, at a solid 8.1% ABV. Put it on your calendars. Oh, and it's "Otto" because of St. Otto of Bamberg, the town where brewery founders Ron Barchet and Bill Covaleski first had smoked beers in 1987, and where they get their smoked malt to make this beer. Nice.

Where There's Smoke, there's Lew

Wanted to get in a plug for an event I really thought would cut through the noise of Philly Beer Week, if only because so many people being repulsed by it: Scoats and I, with chef Kevin McDevitt, are putting on an all-smoked dinner at Hop Angel Brauhaus tomorrow night. The menu is below, and you'll notice: everything is smoked, even the dessert. I know a lot of you don't like smoked beers, but for those of you that do...this is smokin', baby. Please note the seafood course, where we have a beer that is technically not smoked (Schlenkerla Helles uses no smoked malt, but picks up smoke hints from the brewing system that otherwise does exclusively smoked beers), and the return of Unibroue Raftman, the best peat-smoked beer I know of. We've got some beauts here, and if you've never had Bruder Basil cheese...you're in for a treat.
Come out tomorrow night. PAYG starts at 5, we'll have a more formal served dinner at 7 for $50 that includes all the beers and all the foods (at a significant savings).

Smoked Beer Dinner with Lew Bryson

1st

Three smoked cheese plate served with apple and raison compote and lingonberries

paired with: Roy Pitz Ludwig's Revenge, Sly Fox Rauchbier

2nd

Smoked mussels and Trout salad

paired with: Schlenkerla Helles, Unibroue Raftman

3rd

Choice of Hungarian and smoked whip with an onion gravy and sauerkraut or rolled Roulade with gravy and mashed potatoes

paired with: Stone Smoked Porter, Victory Scarlet Fire

4th

Carmel covered vanilla bean ice cream and a smoked salt

paired with: Schlenkerla Oak Smoke

Shiner Smokehaus

Shiner sent me some samples of their new "Sommer bier," Shiner Smokehaus, a helles-style lager made with malt smoked over local mesquite. And it was smoked locally, too: the pictures show two Shiner employees smoking the malt out back of the brewery, loading 50 lbs. of malt in each tray in the smoker (the smoker's in the back of a truck; this is Texas, and you never know where you might need to smoke some meat). The firebox is juiced with wet, aged mesquite and started with propane, then the propane's turned off and the mesquite smolders smoke up through the trays.

As you might know, I'm a big fan of Schlenkerla Helles. Light smoke goes great with this kind of beer. The Shiner Smokehaus is more than light smoke, but it didn't overpower the beer; maybe it's the mesquite, maybe it's the solid malt quality of the beer, but it was juicy-good and fantastic with grilled beef.

This is not a big bear of a beer like Schlenkerla Märzen. It's summer-weight, and very drinkable. It's going to be a love-it-hate-it thing with people because of the smoke (getting panned in some newspaper columns by sunny-day "beer experts" who don't get smoke...risks of stretching the paradigm), but you can put me down in the love-it camp. If you're in a Shiner distribution area, get some of this before it's gone.

And...One Year of Memphis

Funny how that is: the same day I started my anti-PLCB blog, Brendan and Leigh opened the Memphis Taproom. You could argue that they were more constructive, I guess.

Cathy and I went down to Memphis for their anniversary celebration tonight. It was jamming, but we managed to wedge our way in and grab a Bear Republic Racer X (rocking hopper, and I expected nothing less) and a Schlenkerla Fastenbier (smoky, light, and...tart? Not sure about the condition of this one...). It was an awesome line-up of drafts. About then, Leigh came busting in, holding high a sampler of meatball sandwich chunks: delish.

We slowly slipped into the dining room (past Nodding Head's Curt Decker, who was "just going to stand here and drink cask Fuller's ESB till my eyes bleed," which didn't seem like a bad idea at all (Curt's wife Paula is Brendan's second partner in Memphis, and the third, Ken Correll, can be seen in the pic just over the tray Brendan's holding)), and found, to our surprise and delight, an empty table for two. We grabbed it, and tasted some other stuff: ham and onions on rye, a buffalo wing, some chicken liver mousse with dried fruit soaked in JW Lee's Harvest (awesome, BTW), and blueberry soup. Cathy got a Sly Fox Instigator (sweet and delicious, dark, rich), I got some of that ESB (smoother than silk, not as intrusive as the bottled ESB) and then I had another.

Then I had an Uerige Doppelstike, and it was one of the very best beers I've had in months. I may go back to Memphis tomorrow just to get more. Wow. Malty-dry (Germans are geniuses with that), hoppy, big, but not boozy, holy crap. Excellent beer. Then I tried Taras Boulba again... I don't get it. It's citrus peel-pith bitter, shallow, with just a bit of fruit character. Didn't do it for me when I had it the first time, after WhiskyFest NY at dba last year. Low alcohol, session beer, yeah, but it didn't make it for me this time either.

And then...we went home. Happy birthday, Memphis!

The Session #26: Smoke Ring

I always liked the round-ups on The Session, and now I get to do my own. Next month's Session is on beer cocktails, and will be hosted on May Day by Joe & Jasmine @ Beer At Joe's.

I was very pleased that a fair number of people either tried a smoked beer for the first time or enjoyed one for the first time -- one of the things I was hoping for when I suggested this topic -- so I'm going to list them first. And yeah...a lot of us wound up with Schlenkerla; hell, so did I!


Hey, Not Bad!
Dean at Eat, Drink, Run, Live hadn't even heard of the stuff before: "RAUCHBIER? What the fuck is that?" But he got his Schlenkerla -- uh-huh -- and he liked it.

Al at Hop Talk admitted smoked beer wasn't his favorite, but found one that wasn't bad: Weyerbacher Fireside. And Ron, the other Hop Talker, doesn't like porter or smoked beer, but liked Stone Smoked Porter. Good day, guys!

Put Nemsis in the "Convinced" category; the first rauchbier was so good, a second one had to follow. That's success!

Edmond at MMMM...Beer isn't quite in the smoked beer virgins category: he'd finally found one he liked, and decided to get a full bottle for The Session.


Not everyone liked it...they never do, that's okay. It's rauchbier, right?

Not So Much...
Beer Sagas' experience was just not so great; well, that happens. He decided to file it as a learning experience, though!

The Reluctant Scooper isn't convinced, even though he gives convincing you otherwise a game try.

Matt C. liked his Alaskan Smoked Porter, but doesn't get the whole idea of smoked beers...and doesn't like most of them (that's right; at A World of Brews you get two posts for The Session!).


But most of you? You love this stuff.

Bring It On!
Andrew Cooper, The Beer Adventurer, got me drooling with his food-pairing enthusiasm.

Rob Cannon jumps on the new Smoked Bock at Goose Island Clybourn and finds it wonderful with the pulled pork sandwich (I'd expect nothing less from a blog called Sophisticated Brews and Sustenance in the Windy City).

Mario at Brewed For Thought was ready, willing, and able, and got lucky with a cask of Sierra Nevada Imperial Smoked Porter (got some of that myself in Chicago on Tuesday; damned nice!).

John Duffy at The Beer Nut loves smoked beer, but found Mikkellr's Barrel Aged Smoke A Ciggy to be over the top, and was going home to soothe his palate with a Schlenkerla.

Except for mistaking Hamburg for Bamberg (sounds a lot alike!), Ted's got a real nice entry on his Barley Vine blog, although he'd rather have a Schlenkerla than the Stone Smoked Porter he got.

Steve Herberger started a smoky thread at RealBeer, and it may just go on and on...

Velky Al meant well, and was ready for smokin', but he Fuggled up and left his post at home...where he has no Internet. Luckily, he had pictures and memories.

Ray Daniels blogs behind a wall -- don't ask -- so you can read his account of an experimental smoked bock here.

My man The American Don did a post on his Beer Brotha blog back in November all about smoked beer and smoke-filled rooms, and decided it was too good to waste.

Barry Masterson -- Adeptus at The Bitten Bullet -- loves the stuff, but found introducing it to friends was not such an easy proposition.

Stephen Beaumont at World of Beer recalled a shared smoky experience we had in Germany a few years back that involved a smoky beer that had no smoked malt; a real beauty, and the beer I'd have done for The Session if only I could have found one. Prost, baby!

Brian Yaeger at Red, White, and Brew dove in headfirst with four smoked beers: Einenbahn Defumada, Alaskan Smoked Porter, Stone Smoked Porter, and Schlenkerla Urbock. And then his buddy Chris homebrewed a smoked beer as well.

Mark Andersen (In Search of Beer Paradise) is a seasoned smoked beer veteran, and has some great pix of Bamberg to boot.

Paul found some cool wordplay (what would you expect from a guy who calls his blog A Flowery Song?) and some second-hand smoke in his entry.

The entry at Hump's Brewing is about Joshua Humphrie's comparison of Weyerbacher Fireside and his own Maple Smoked Stout.

Jon (The Brew Site) chose a classic beer -- Alaskan Smoked Porter -- and a classic format: the structured tasting note.

Jimmy comes up with some interesting ideas at HopWild for adding smoke to beers -- not saying they're good ideas! -- and drinks two smokers: Stone Smoked Porter and Schlenkerla Weizen ("I like it - but it just seems wrong.").

Tom Cizauskas not only drank some Schlenkerla Fastenbier -- the lucky dog -- but he posted photographic evidence on Yours For Good Fermentables that he had it on Friday.

Our man at A Good Beer Blog, Alan Macleod, didn't just have a Spezial, he had ribs soaked in barrel-aged beer for double woody goodness.

Tim joined us for the first time, and -- understandably -- got confused a little by a post called The Session on my blog: his thinkingbrew post is about a session-strength rauchbier. Extra credit, Tim!


And Some Are Different...
Mark Dredge did a nice Bert & Ernie story you'll never see on Sesame Street, pointing up how smoke beers are simply a love-hate proposition. No arguments here.

Peter wrote a very complete entry at BetterBeerBlog, adding in his thoughts, an explanation of smoked beer, tasting notes on the Sierra Nevada Smoked Imperial Porter he had, and notes on the bar where he got it. (What, nothing on the traffic?)

The folks at Beer-O-Vision tasted Stone and Schlenkerla on-camera: have a look.

And finally, the brother-from-a-different-mother who talked me into this, Jay Brooks, takes the wheel of his Brookston Beer Bulletin and drives us on an exploration of whether smoked beers are legitimately more about place of origin and consumption than most other beers. For me? I'd say yes...as long as the 'place of consumption'...is me.

Thanks, everyone. It was a hoot, and I'm glad you all played along.

The Session #26: Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em!

Today is the first Friday of April, so it's time for The Session, beer blogging on a common topic. This month it's my turn to host it. I invited people to write about smoked beers. Anything you want to write, the only 'rule' is that you actually have to drink at least one.

Here's where you want to leave a comment with your URL, or you can e-mail me the link (your comment may not show up immediately, so don't double-post; I moderate comments to keep out spam and jackasses). Drop it off here, and I'll do a round-up later this weekend. Cheers!

It's Friday, and it's Lent, and I am at least a practicing Catholic, if not a perfect one, so I'm not having the smoked meat that I'd like. And my cheesemonger didn't get in any Bruderbasil and I just don't care for smoked Gouda, so I'm doing smoked fish. Because I love smoked stuff, smoked cheese, smoked fish, smoked meat, smoked sausage, smoked nuts -- anyone ever had smoked fruit? -- and smoked beer. But I most of all love smoked beer with smoked food.

So, first course: Spezial Rauchbier with cold smoked salmon made at my local fishmonger's. Nothing 'spezial' here, no smoking juniper twigs or Nova Scotian peat, nothing e*treme, just plain old German rauchbier, made with smoked malt. The only thing special about Spezial is that it's so damned good, and it's one of the Bamberg breweries I've been lucky enough to visit, a wonderful session that I still look back on fondly. The smoked salmon is still moist, delicious, and the Spezial doesn't overwhelm it. As rauchbier goes, Spezial is fairly mild, yet very tasty.

Second course: Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen and whitefish. And now the pair's stood on its head: the beer is bold and rocking, and the fish sure doesn't overwhelm it (the fish is nice, too, moist and yummy). I love this beer, huge, smacky, rambunctious, and ready for food, and I've liked it in multiple servings from the first time I tried it.

Smoked beers represent a great example, maybe the best, of beer's directness. When a winemaker wants a smoky character in wine, they use grapes and yeast and oak that have produced wine with hints of smoke before...and they suggest that smoke to the consumer. When a brewer wants smoke in beer, on the other hand, they do just that: they put smoke in the beer. Period. They smoke the malt, just like you smoke fish or cheese or meat, and then brew the beer.

Smoke has been tagged as a carcinogen. Well...this is just one of those times where I'm going to remind myself that I could get killed crossing the street. God help me, I do love it so.

Thanks to everyone for participating in The Session!

Announcing Session #26: Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

We're working on getting The Session back in shape -- we got kinda flabby with non-beer style-related postings (!) last year, which apparently pissed some folks off -- and it's looking buff and stylish: we just had a round of light low-calorie lagerboy workouts, courtesy of The Beer Nut. But before we get carried away with this health craze, I'd like to invite everyone to join me out back of the barn, where we're going light up some smoked beers.

There may be more smoked beers than are dreamed of in your philosophy, Horatio; it's not just rauchbier lagers from Franconia. Within the last year, I've had a strange smoked wheat beer, light and tart, that local brewers insisted was a re-creation of a Polish grodziski beer; a lichtenhainer, another light smoked wheat beer; several smoked porters; the odd Schlenkerla unsmoked helles that tastes pretty damned smokey; and, yeah, several types of smoked lagers. You've got three weeks, is what I'm saying: go find a smoked beer.

Because I'm not going to tell you that you have to like them, how you have to drink them, or whether you can have an expensive one or where it has to be from. But I do insist that if you blog on this Session, that you drink a smoked beer that day.

Which I'm sure means that some of you will fail to do that and proudly blog about it and have what you think is a real good reason. I swear, it's like trying to push string...

Have fun, smoke 'em if you got 'em, and you better get 'em!