They Brew it, I sell it, You Drink it... and so do I..

Monday, 18 March 2013

BraufactuM. Rauchweizen?

I never used to be a fan of smoked beer until a couple of years ago. The style best known from the upper Franconia Bamberg usually gets its flavours by kilning its malts over an open fire producing a very prominent smoky (mostly dominating) flavour. It took a while for me to get into the flavour of these kinds of beers but I'm very glad I persevered with it as the benefits outweighed the number of facial winces. (Trying lots of smoked beer with food helped a lot!)

BraufactuM produce a Rauchweizen called Roog (German for... Roog.. Dutch for eye). Their label states (translated from German) "The classic Rauchbier has a very dominant smoke flavor that is often perceived as too dominant. Roog, the smoke of wheat BraufactuM collection, has defused the smoky taste, but without the beer to take the smoked beer-typical characteristics. The triad of smoke and wheat beer and Spezialmalzaromen is well matched."

It seems very dark and cloudy on the lively pour, and while it's not too strong at 6.6% it comes in a very large and very attractive looking bottle. The aroma is full of flavour. Classic banana and bubblegum coming from the wheat with a little earthy/mineral like quality (lemon/lime and slate). The smoke is definitely there in the flavour, but it's been massively dialed back. This takes the beer to a different dimension almost, and produces a very accessible but completely different sort of beer. Lots of bready malt and a big mineral flavour - slate, orange, lemon zest and a little hay. It's almost meaty in parts and the finish has a great smoky caramel flavour which lasts. It's a very refreshing and really easy drinking beer, I think Rauchweizen will be something I'll be looking out for in the future!

Big thanks go out to Rob from Copper Dragon for passing this beer along for me to try.
Posted by at

6 comments:

  1. Barry M19 March 2013 at 02:59

    I have to say, this is the only Rauchweizen I've tried that worked for me. I've tried a few from Bamberg, but to my tastes, the combo didn't work (and I love Rauchbier! :)). Braufactum do good stuff, but are very expensive over here in Germany, as they target the "gourmet" market. Well, it's a part of the Radeberger group, so set up to do just that. I despair...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ghost Drinker19 March 2013 at 11:50

      Don't Schlenkerla make a Rauchweizen? If so I was going to look out for that one next, but it would probably be much more on the heavy side of smoke, like I say, this one probably worked very well because of the subtle smoke...

      Delete
  2. Bryan the BeerViking19 March 2013 at 03:46

    Not all Rauchbiers are as smoky and potentially overpowering as, say, Schlenkerla. You could try Spezial or Weiherer, for example.

    Is Braufactum beer any cheaper in the UK? I think it's typically €10 (£8.50) for 75cl here in Germany.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ghost Drinker19 March 2013 at 11:52

      I saw Spezial in North Bar, I'll have to give that a go. Asked for UK prices, I'm not sure but I reckon they'd probably be about the same, or even more than £8.50 over here in the land of the laughing tax...

      Delete
    2. Bryan the BeerViking19 March 2013 at 13:21

      I don't think Spezial does a Rauchweizen, their Rauch Märzen is rather nice though. You may have pay a tad more than the quid a bottle or thereabouts that I paid at the brewpub though. )-:

      Delete
  3. Anonymous21 March 2013 at 06:52

    Had this beer at the Braukunst Live Beer festival in Munich, was not impressed, hardly any smoke, just another Weizen with a small difference. Definitely not worth the money.
    Btw, roog is a fantasy name pronounced as Rauch. The Dutch word for rye is rogge.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)