Smokebeer is a particular kind of beer which has a smokey flavor. An urban legend holds that a fire in a brewery, during which the beer happened to get smoked, caused the exceptional flavor. The brewer, a poor fellow, had to sell its brew none the less, and unexpectedly his customers enjoyed the smokey taste. Hence a new style of beer was born.

This and similar explanations are all but legends. The truth lies in the history of brewing, or to be exact, that of malting. Ever since the early Babylonians started brewing beer, the basic principles remained the same - only the implemented technology changed considerably over the centuries. The malt was and still is being dried on the kiln during the malting process. Historically there were only two ways to achieve this: leaving the grain in the sun or heating air through an open fire. In the latter case it was unavoidable that the smoke from the fire penetrated the malt and left a smokey aroma in it. Obviously the resulting beer was smokey, too. Later on, during industrialisation in the 18th and 19th century, new technologies were invented which permitted drying malt with indirectly heated air, hence allowing for the use of fossil fuels. Those processes where cheaper and more efficient than the old smoke-kilns and therefore eventually replaced them.

The old tradition today lives on in Bamberg, Franconia in North East Bavaria at the brewery-taverns Schlenkerla and Spezial. The malt is being dried over the fire of beechwood logs, which gives the Schlenkerla Smokebeer a very aromatic smokey taste.

External links

• Brewery Schlenkerla (English and German)
• Brewery Spezial (German only)