Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock

While home on R&R the family and I took a quick day trip to Bamberg Germany, home of rauchbier or smoked beer.  The breweries in Bamberg are actually listed as one of Germany's Best Breweries.  They were also listed in our Germany Day Trip Guide Book, it also had many recommendations from our friends who had been here before.  So how could we pass it up.  I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the Bamberg Cathedral, the New Palace with the Rose Garden, or the river cruises.  So if you come to visit us you'll probably find yourself making the 90 minute drive up to Bamberg with us.  But back to the beer.

 A rauchbier gets it's smoky flavor because the malt is dried over an open fire.  To sample our first rauchbier and to get a bite to eat we stopped into a place called the Schlenkeria Braureiausschank that was recommended in our guidebook.  To read more about it's history and rauchbiers click here. 

Since I like bocks I tried their Urbock (Original Bock), that they only offer in October.  It poured a deep amber that was almost black with virtually no head and no tracing.  The intense smoky aroma penetrated even my stubborn sniffer.  The beer itself tasted thin almost watery with a only a little bit of hops flavor penetrating the overwhelming smoky taste.  Overall I'd call it interesting rather than good but it did go well with the boiled pork belly (that's a whole another story) and saurkraut.

I picked up two bottles from different breweries in addition to stopping in another brewery to sample their beer before leaving.  So look for reviews of those in the next few weeks.