On Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Weizen

Last week I reviewed Aecht Schlenkerla Marzen, a smoked beer from Bamberg where smoked beers are a specialty. Today I'm reviewing another Aecht Schlenkerla beer, this time a wheat beer. That's right, April is going to be smoked beer month. Why? Well... why not? Smoked beers are wonderful and I don't think they get the credit they deserve among all the other specialty beers out there.

The world doesn't need another whiskey-barrel aged, sour, one-day-only, double imperial Russian stout. But a nice smoked beer provides excitement and differentiation without being in your face. I can only hope more craft breweries experament with smoke outside of the super strong realm and give a refreshing taste of smoke to complement all those summer burgers on the grill.

When poured krystal style the beer shows a dark amber color beneath a thick head of foam. Adding the yeast turns the color to a murky brown that isn’t quite as pretty, but well worth it in the end.

Spicy yeast phenols volly back and forth with smoke in an aromatic game of tennis that becomes more exciting the longer it lasts. Ultimately it’s the yeast that comes away with the win.

The smoke doesn’t make much of an appearance in the flavor, but in the same vein, traditional heffeweisen flavors are muted by the smoke that is there. Bready wheat malt and some clove anchor the flavor.

Dry and light, this is as refreshing as I’ve ever seen in a smoked beer. However, smoked beer lovers may find the smoke underwhelming, while heffeweisen lovers could find the smoke bothersome. This one never quite comes to a cohesive statement, but the individual elements are there.