Baron Rauchbier

Brewed by Baron Brewing & Lunar Brewing
Style: Smoked
Seattle, Washington USA

Draught at Falling Rock. Hazy orange coloured with a small white head. Malty aroma of caramel with notes of rye bread and smoke. Smoky flavour of caramel, malts and bacon. Smoky finish.

Date: March 28, 2009
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Cellar Party
Appearance: hazy gold, wispy white head, streaks of drippy lace
Aroma: light smoked aroma on a sweet malt base
Flavor: lots of smoked flavor, sweet malt adds contrast rather than balance, light wheaty tartness, light bitterness in the finish from the earthy smoke
Overall: oposing characters do not mesh together very well
Aroma: 5/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 5/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 10/20
Rating: 2.6/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: *4

Bronze-gold colour. The aroma is rich, with beech smoke dominating. The body is smooth, with Bambergian-style balance...tons of smoke with a fairly sweet caramel underpinning.

Good generous creamy and frothy off-white head mounts the straw-amber body. Toasted caramel and bready malts offer most of the aromatic substance besides overwhelming peachiness. Restricted bamberg smokiness, lightly oaky perhaps, but globally undefined, unpolished and the palate is definitely too citric for its own good. Light bodied, fair carbonation.

Bottle... GIABMISGFAB... Clear golden lager with a large, frothy, off-white head. Nice beechwood smoke aroma with undertones of biscuit and toffee. Light to medium-bodied with lively carbonation. Moderately sweet amber and pale malts with low bitterness. Thin and watery, but nice smoked flavor. Short, watery finish. Kudos to jayg for providing this rauchbier!

( 22oz bottle, courtesy of blutt59 ) Pours a clear golden body with a small white head. Aroma of smoke, roastiness, caramel, and light sour notes. Flavor of smoke, light citric, metal, and caramel malt.

Pours a transparent hazy orange amber with a thin, wispy-lacing white head. Has a lightly smoky and semi-tart fruity nose. Starts effervescent and mildly German malty sweet with some tart citrus notes before a mildly warming acidic finish. Seems like it would be a nice rauchbier, except that it’s in the early stages of infection.

Draught Pale gold, little white head. Instead of smoked whatever, rubber, faint fishy, maybe smoked nuts or shellfish. Corn (cooked) but not DMS, very, very light smokiness. Grain backgrouns, retronasal more smoked. Light MF, but nowhere empty. Surprising, but maybe a good introduction to the style? No danger for the Bamberg breweries, certainly...