Black Forest Rauchbock

on tap at Black Forest. Deep brown in color with alot of ruby highlights. Medium sized off white head. Aroma is very malty with caramel, toffee, some dark fruits and light smoke. Taste is also malty with alot of caramel, toffee, chocolate, and light smoke. Bitterness is light to moderate and gains some steam in the finish. Nice lager, would have preferred to have the smoke more in the forefront, but still pretty well done.

Tap @ Black Forest. Poured a dark copper-brown color with a beige head. Nice smooth smokey aroma with a light caramel malt underneath. The flavor was smokey in the middle of a fruity caramel malt. Light to medium body.

Pours dark black with a little head. Like most things at the Black Forest Brew Haus it was served too cold so the aroma was mostly muted. Had a nice alcohol finish. That was easily the most notable part of it. Also present was a mild chocolate malt and a new sort of flavor for me. I can only assume that it is the smokiness coming through as this is my first smoked style. This is part of the rotating taps, so if you haven’t had it, get there quick.

Growler from Brewpub: Pours a deep brown/rusty auburn color with a thick, creamy khaki head that lasts the whole way. Aroma isn’t robust smokiness, but it is present, with a nice German malt presence overall. There’s also earthy notes of damp wood and peat. The body is nice and chewy with silky carbonation. The flavor has a great malt depth overall, but like with almost all American renditions of Smoked beers, it isn’t meaty, yet it leans toward a wood-like smokiness. There’s a lot of bitter, dark cocoa flavors in the mid-palate. Tons of earthiness comes through from the middle into the long finish of grainy dark chocolate and tobacco. Beechwood smoke is under there somewhere, but there’s that predominating tobacco smoke, which worked well for this beer. Finish is long and tobacco filled. A very earthy and well executed version of the style.

Pours dark brown with red/dark amber tints and a small head. Too dark to see through, even in direct light. One can see, on the light, that it is a clear beer but still cannot see through the beer. Aroma starts with a very breezy/airy smokiness, which seems to hide the imperfections in the beer that come with the flavor. In the flavor it is mineral, leafy and kind of empty with a surrounding light smoke. I like rauch beer but this could have been done better. A light beer with a light bitterness at the end of the flavor. I just keep drinking the grolwer and nothing new or special comes out of it, just a cheap bock flavor.
Growler from brewpub poured into St. Paul cross between snifter/tulip glass.