Beer Styles

What is Rauchbier? A bottom-fermented beer made from malt kilned over an open wood fire. It's dark brown to mahogany in color, with a creamy beige head, and smells of smoke. On the first sip, many think of smoked ham; by the third, they think of getting used to it.

Bamberg is considered the home of Rauchbier. Competition guidelines list the style under the city's name. It's brewed there in several houses. The best-known name is the Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, a Märzen. There's also a Spezial Rauchbier.

Märzen in this context refers to a stronger lager once brewed in March so it would survive through the summer. The Rauchbier Märzen from Bamberg is therefore nothing special in terms of ingredients — it's simply an ordinary Märzen made with smoked malt.

The city's other flagship beer has no smoke at all: the Kellerbier. It's pale to amber in color, naturally hazy and unfiltered, often unspunded, and tastes of fresh bread and a light malt sweetness. There's no precise style guideline with fixed numbers for it; it follows the base style from which it's brewed.

What sets the two closely related styles apart is the smoke: a Märzen tastes of bread and caramel, a Rauchbier Märzen of bread, caramel, and fire. Compare Bamberg's Rauchbier to smoked beers from elsewhere, and it often turns out milder than expected. The style guidelines leave plenty of room, which is why a Rauchbier from Brauerei Spezial tastes different from one from Dominikanerstraße, even though both carry the same name. Comparing them reveals each house's own signature.