Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen

Brewed by Brauerei Heller
Style: Smoked
Bamberg, Bayern, Germany

Pours a very dark reddish brown with a creamy tan head. Lots of smoke in the aroma, mixed with caramel and spice. Flavor is sweet at first with a hint of chocolate, then follows with a very nice smoke and dark berry flavor, nothing too intense though. Mouthfeel is thick, but is still drinkable. Very good beer once you get accustomed to it, it kind of grows on you as you drink.

Bottle. Thanks for sharing fonefan. The beer is reddish brown with a beige head. Aroma is smoky with a good malt base. Flavour is sweet malts with the smoke coming afterwards. I sense caramel and dark fruits as well. Great beer.

Bottle. Pours deep red brown with a beige head. Smoky burlap aroma with a hint of sweetness. Smooth body. Flavor has a very delicate balance of a nice subtle smokiness and sweeter notes of caramel and dried fruit. Very nice.

50 cl tap at the Brauerei Heller Bamberg. Pours dark brown with a thick white head. Aroma is smokey and roasted. Taste seemed to be a lot betetr than the bottled version I have had before. Malty, smokey, light roasted caramel notes, some dark fruits. Sweet. Very drinkable once you get used to the taste.

Draught at brewery tap in Bamberg. Nice wonderful dark mahogany color and great smoke aroma. Very strongly smoked beer and also very good. Definitely good with the food and each successive beer tastes even better.

Another smoke beer? But, the one I just had from Brauerei Heller-Trum was smoked too. Is there a perpetual fire in Bamberg or something? I guess the onus of this review is to figure out exactly how this smoked brew differs from the other equally smoky brutes. Through a haze of intense, eye-watering fragrance I can make out a thin, fuzzy light brown head atop a deep mahogany and bubbly beer. The bubbles are almost imperceptible in the deep shadows of the Rauchbier Marzen. A meathook’s worth of ham slams into the nose with a more smoked flavor than sweet. Hammmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. While the aroma is tolerably meaty (a lot like smelling a bag full of deli sliced ham) the taste is too strong and too raucous. It’s just a primal oinking that mellows into a burnt and charcoaled ham flavors and, eventually, a semi-sweet barbeque aftertaste. But that first half through is just too busy, like I’m vying for space at the only trough in the whole sty. If you look closely, you mind find the occasional taste of clove, but this is summarily eliminated by a policing ham, honey and charcoal flavor mix. I don’t think this is kosher. At least its not as smoky as it could have been.

pours a dark amber with a thin off white head. Strong smokey aroma. Some dark fruit if I try hard. Strong smokey flavour...smokey, some caramel malt and oakey tones in the middle and then a lingering oakey smoke. It’s very smokey. It has apparently poisoned my wife with carbon monoxide. Too smokey for her.

Pours beer bottle brown with thin white head that fades to a ring, no lacing. Hard to move past the inviting smoke aroma, but caramel, figs and wet limestone accompany it. Flavor is Is all smoke at first, then a nice slightly sweet malt a bit like grilled peaches and caramel, but very faint. Then more smoke, thicker this time reminds me of smoked sturgeon, sounds bad for a drink, but somehow it works-wonderfully. A very sudden bitter smokey hops finish that lasts and really is unique in my experience. This is only the third smoke beer I have tried but definitely the best! I have really developed a terrible hunger for smoked salmon while writing this.