Are you a fan of smoked beers, great barbecue, good times or any combination of the three? Then COAST’s Brew & ‘Cue this Sunday, Nov. 9, is right up your alley.
Tag Archives: smoked
Westbrook Grätzer
Westbrook Brewing Co.
Mt. Pleasant, SC
Grätzer Smokey Wheat Ale
3.4% ABV
I’ve always loved and been impressed with the experimentation Westbrook puts into its beers. But aside from concocting their own unique brews, they’ve made it a point to delve into beer’s history and bring to light some original styles that have either diminished in popularity or are foreign to a lot of craft beer fans.
Their Gose is a great example of that: A style that all but disappeared generations ago that, thanks to a few adventurous brewers, was brought back into the conversation. That trend continues with Grätzer, a highly sessionable German-style smoked wheat beer. (Wrecking Bar and Wild Heaven had an excellent example of the style with Wrecking Heaven.) It’s a style so unique and unknown to the stateside beer drinkers that it’s simply listed as a “Speciality Beer” under BJCP style guidelines. Westbrook’s attempt is brewed with a variety of hops 90% oak-smoked wheat malt. And clocking in at 3.4% means drinking glass after glass of the stuff – which I could do easily – won’t leave you hurting. Too much.
While the lighter almost Kölsh-ish color of the beer would lead you to believe the nose would be just as light, it’s deceptive. At first blush, the sticky sweet campfire smell of the smoked malts is overpowering, flooding out of the glass in waves of an almost maple-covered bacon odor. But behind that, the sweetness of the wheat pokes through slightly. It’s certainly masked well by the abundant smokiness of the malt, but the yeasty sweetness provides a nice backbone.
The flavor starts with just a slight tart bitterness on the tip of the tongue with a slight lemon character. The carbonation is mild throughout the mouth and the body, as the color would entail, is pretty light. But that all disappears toward the finish when those epic campfire notes explode over your tastebuds. The sweetness of the nose is tempered a bit by the citrus flavors from the hops, which give the beer almost a tart finish and aftertaste. There’s a little bit of a peppery spice in the flavor and a really smooth, sweet yeast flavor. It’s an understatement to say how INSANELY drinkable this beer is (if you like smoked beers). At just north of 3%, you could drink glass after glass and still keep your wits about you.
This is certainly a beer that won’t suit everyone. I, for one, love smoked beers, and this had the heavy, sweet smoked flavors I really like with a lighter base beer to keep it balanced. The style itself is incredibly unique, drinkable and enjoyable.
Evil Twin The Cowboy
Evil Twin Brewing
Valby, Denmark/Brooklyn, NY
The Cowboy Smoked Pilsner
5.5% ABV
One of the other newer Evil Twin beers brewed at South Carolina’s Westbrook is The Cowboy, which continues the gypsy brewer’s style-twisting ways with a smoked pilsner. While I’m a big fan of smoked beers, pilsners are … well, they’re pilsners. Generally nothing special in my opinion.
To start, it’s extremely hazy for a pilsner. It’s a murky, fuzzy brownish orange color. There was about a finger of a light bubbly head that dissipated fairly quickly along with some light lacing and alcohol legs.
The smoke on the nose is a bit lighter than other smoked beers I’ve had. It’s that sweeter campfire smokey smell. There’s a sort of sweeter tropical fruit note on the back and a very mild hoppiness. The malts are also really strong, lending a sweet cereal or biscuit note. There’s a little mango, papaya and pineapple as well. It’s a nice balance overall.
The smoke is also lighter on the palate as well. The taste is very rich and juicy to begin with, and those juicy fruit notes are very prevalent. There’s a lot of an orange juice flavor and richness to it. The smoked flavors pop up on the back of the palate again. It’s like a sweet BBQ smokiness that lingers nicely. Not overpowering or too strong. Really unique.
I liked how the smoked malts didn’t overpower the rest of the beer. It would have been easy to just make this a smoke bomb, but the smoke was a compliment if anything. And the juicy fruit flavors from the pilsner malts helped bring out the richness of the smoked malts.
Stone Smoked Porter (Original, w/ Vanilla Bean, w/ Chipotle Peppers)
Stone Brewing Co.
San Diego, CA
Smoked Porter (w/ Vanilla Bean and w/ Chipotle Peppers)
5.9% ABV
I’m quick to pick up anything new that Stone puts out. I’m usually at the store the week something new comes out to pick it up, and it doesn’t usually last long in my fridge. And when it comes to their year-round slate, I’ve had everything before, and multiple times at that.
Except for one: their 5.9% Smoked Porter.
It was always one of those beers I’d see and think, “Maybe I should pick it up this time,” but I never did. I wasn’t against trying it – I love porters and smoked beer – but I just never bothered to grab a bottle. Of course, now that Stone’s gone and made two new variations of the beer, it was the perfect time to finally pick it up.
The names of the beers speak for themselves. The brewery took the base of Smoked Porter and added fresh vanilla beans in one batch and chipotle peppers in the other. Both variations have been available on tap and cask at the brewery for a while, but this is the first time they’ve bottled them.
The pour on all three is the same: A very deep, dark brown verging on a black, with a finger of a bubbly head that dissipates quickly, along with some mild lacing and nice alcohol legs.
On the original, the nose has a big campfire smoke with a little bit of bacon and smoked meats to. There’s sort of a very dull sweetness on the back, like a really dark chocolate or cocoa. The vanilla bean on that variation hits strong. There’s more smoke at first but the vanilla really shines as it warms. Same with the chipotle. It’s really smokey at first but there’s a lot more heat as it warms up.
The smoke absolutely explodes on the tongue on the original. There’s a huge lingering smoked wood taste. It’s verging on a rauch beer but slightly more subdued. Dark chocolate is present on the back as well as a definite espresso or dark coffee too. At just under 6%, it’s a much lighter and easy drinking porter.
On the vanilla bean variation, that same smokiness is what’s present at first, but the fresh vanilla bean just explodes on the back end. It lingers for a good long while, too. It’s a good clean vanilla tasty, not overly sweet or artificial. Same with the chipotle. The smoke and the peppers blend together perfectly. The heat is very present, but not overpowering, and it becomes a lot more prevalent as it warms.
The consensus among reviews that I’ve seen is that the vanilla bean variation is the better of the two, but I lean a little more toward the chipotle version. I generally hate chipotle beers, but the smoke and the heat on this one was perfect and extremely enjoyable. The vanilla bean was definitely great as well, and the sweetness of the beans mixed with the smoke was a great idea.
If you’re like me and haven’t picked up the original yet, now is the perfect time to try it.
