Terrapin Side Project Roggenrauchbier

Brewed by Terrapin Beer Company
Style: Smoked
Athens, Georgia USA

Bomma, pours a dark brune body with a tan off white head. Smoked rye malts, hints of bacon, and some smoked malt. A moderately chewy body with some char notes. Nice ale.

Bottle sampled on 6/28/08: Pours a transparent dark copper amber with a thin-lacing light tan head. Aroma of grainy rye and nice smoky caramel sweetness. Body starts fairly full and toasty caramely sweet with a good balance of smokiness before a slightly drier bittersweet doughy finish. Very authentic and true to style, an enjoyable brew.

This pours up a ruby-tinted amber color. A head of almost one-fingers worth of light tan colored foam sits on top. It fades to a creamy surface covering, which stays around until the end of the glass. Lacing is foamy and slightly slick. The smell is almost exactly what you’d expect. A nice level of smokiness, along with a good amount of rye spiciness. I also get some mild hints of roasted malts. Some light maltiness hits first. It is then almost obliterated by a smooth and mild, yet dominant, smokiness. At about the midway point you get a nice level of rye spiciness, combined with the smoke, which carries on through to the finish. It’s a nice, medium-bodied brew. It has a medium-to-full level of carbonation. This makes it just a little bit too active, I think. This is a brew with a good level of flavor, that never overwhelms the palate. It is under 6.0%abv and that helps it remain quite drinkable. Very nice.

Pours a dark chestnut brown color with golden orange/amber edges when held to a light source and a thin 1 finger yellowish beige head. Great retention, slowly fading into a lasting cap that lasts throughout, leaving sporadic chunks of lacing behind. Smokey roasted malts dominate the aroma with hints of smoke, charcoal, butane, barbecued bacon and more smoked chocolate malts. Wow! Sweet rye flavor balances out the smokey barbecue charcoal bacony maltiness. There are some subtle hops but they are overshadowed by the burnt/smokey flavor. With all of the smokiness it is still somewhat balanced by the hops and sweetness up front. Not a complete rauch bomb by any means. This is an excellent beer and a very successful experiment that I wish they would turn into a year round offering. Highly recommended for fans of smoked/rauch beers but you should expect it to be a bit different.

Strange and interesting. The aroma is smokey (think campfire as opposed to stove fire) with hints of malt, rye, and even a slight dishsoap aroma. The flavor is lightly tart and malty with a definite almost salty bacon smokey taste that is subtle but you can’t ignore (like smoked cheese). High carbonation, you can tell tell when you pour; not from the head, but from the crazy eruption of bubbles.

Bottle courtesy of ericandersnavy. Pours a hazy burgundy with a small white head. The nose is of a nice, sweet, smoky, light malt; beautiful. Light-bodied and softly effervescent with a lingering, moderately smoky finish. Sweet, lightly spicy smoked malt with a mildly sweet and drying finish. This is a very nice beer and my second favorite smoked lager behind Aecht Schlenkerla Fastenbier (and that is saying something).

Medium brown with tints of red and gold. Aromas of cherries, fruit, must, smoke, bacon, and rye. Upon tasting its difficult to get past the overwhelming flavors of f’ing smoke. Still in the background you can pick up hints of bacon and malt. Flavors are overly subtle to the point of being weak thanks to the overbearing smoke. Mehhhh