Smoked beer
Rauchbier
A Märzen-based lager brewed with beechwood-smoked malt — intensely smoky, often compared to bacon, over a clean malt base.
- Strength
- 4.8–6% ABV
- Bitterness
- 20–30 IBU
- Colour
- Amber to dark brown
- Serve at
- 8–11°C
Also known as smoked beer, Bamberg smoked beer.
Pronounced ROWKH-beer.
Malt dried over an open beechwood fire carries smoke phenols directly into the beer. Before indirect kilning existed, essentially all malt was smoky to some degree; Rauchbier is what survived once it became a choice rather than a constraint.
The underlying beer is a clean, malty Märzen. The smoke sits over it rather than replacing it, and examples range from a faint whisper to overwhelming.
The smoke reads as bacon or smoked meat rather than ash, because the malt absorbs the phenols exactly as food does. A good one is judged on the beer underneath as much as on the smoke — it should sit on a competent lager rather than substitute for one. Most drinkers find the first glass startling and the third entirely normal, which is a reason to order a second before deciding.
Questions this page answers
- what does rauchbier taste like — How it tastes
- rauchbier abv — Measurements
- rauchbier food pairing — What to eat with it
- rauchbier serving temperature — Serving
- how long does rauchbier last — Freshness and storage
- styles similar to rauchbier — If you like this, try
- rauchbier history — How it got here
- what beer is an example of rauchbier — Beers to try
- is chlorophenol normal in rauchbier — Characteristics that may be expected here
How it tastes
BeerHQ’s own comparative scale, not a measurement. Each bar is a range because a style is a span of real beers rather than one beer.
Appearance and character
| Colour | Amber to dark brown |
|---|---|
| Clarity | clear |
| Head | Off-white to tan, dense |
| Fermentation | Bottom-fermented (lager). Fermented cool with Saccharomyces pastorianus, which settles out, then conditioned cold. The cooler process suppresses yeast-derived fruitiness, leaving malt and hop character exposed. |
| Origin | Germany — Franconia |
Measurements
Conventional ranges published by style bodies, not a specification. IBU measures iso-alpha acids in a lab and does not track perceived bitterness — compare it against the sensory scale above rather than reading it as a flavour rating.
| Measurement | Typical range |
|---|---|
| ABV | 4.8–6% ABV |
| IBU | 20–30 IBU |
| Colour | Amber to dark brown — 12–22 SRM, 24–43 EBC. |
| Original gravity | 1.050–1.057 |
| Final gravity | 1.012–1.016 |
| Carbonation | 2–3 vol CO₂ |
Classified by BJCP-2021 as Rauchbier (exact fit). BeerHQ maintains its own taxonomy and records how it maps onto others rather than adopting any one of them.
What goes into it
| Malt | Smoked malt, Munich malt, Vienna malt |
|---|---|
| Yeast | German lager yeast |
Serving
| Temperature | 8–11°C |
|---|---|
| Glass | Willi Becher, Stein |
| Dispense | Cask, gravity-dispensed — Cask beer poured straight from the tap under gravity, with nothing between the cask and the glass.Keg, CO₂ dispense — Filtered or unfiltered beer force-carbonated and dispensed under CO₂ pressure — the standard modern draught format. |
Freshness and storage
Rauchbier shows best within 6–12 months of packaging. After that it declines in quality rather than becoming unsafe.
Tolerates age. Keeps well without getting better. Useful if you are stocking a cellar and want something that will still be right in a year.
- A robust style that holds its character for a long time in the package.
What changes with time
- Staling. The general, gradual loss of freshness that affects all beer, accelerated sharply by warmth. Months, and roughly twice as fast for every 10 °C warmer.
In the package
- Brown glass bottle — No format-specific concerns beyond the general advice above.
- Keg — No light can reach the beer, so lightstrike is impossible in this format.
Old beer tastes worse; it does not become dangerous. Ethanol, low pH, hop compounds and the absence of oxygen make packaged beer hostile to the organisms that cause foodborne illness. The exception is a compromised package — visible mould at the closure, a pierced or rusted can, a lifted cap — which is a reason to discard the beer regardless of its age.
Guidance, not an expiry date. How a beer is stored matters more than the date printed on it, and staling roughly doubles in rate for every 10 °C. See storage and freshness for the full model.
What to eat with it
- Barbecue
Smoke on both sides, and the same compounds doing it — the guaiacol and syringol in beechwood-smoked malt are what smoked meat gets its character from too. The clean lager finish stops the pairing becoming overwhelming.
- Smoked sausage
The pairing the style exists for, and it works because both sides are smoked with beechwood rather than merely both being smoky. Salt is the constraint that rules out the hoppy alternative: it sharpens bitterness enough to make a pale, bitter beer read harsh beside cured pork.
- Smoked fish
Smoke meeting smoke, with the lager base keeping it clean. A pairing that could easily be too much, and works because both sides are restrained.
- Piri-piri chicken
Smoke in the beer meets smoke on the plate — the same family of compounds on both sides.
- Smoked food
Smoke in the beer meets smoke on the plate — the same family of compounds on both sides.
- Suya
Smoke in the beer meets smoke on the plate — the same family of compounds on both sides.
Beers to try
Widely-known examples BeerHQ carries as reference points for this style. Not a recommendation list and not ranked — these are the beers that make the category concrete.
If you like this, try
Grodziskie
The other surviving smoked style, far lighter and oak-smoked.
Suits you if: You like Rauchbier but want more dryness. Reason not to: Noticeably more dryness than Rauchbier, which not everyone wants.
Lichtenhainer
Same family — both are Smoked beer beers.
Suits you if: You like Rauchbier but want more dryness. Reason not to: Noticeably more dryness than Rauchbier, which not everyone wants.
Märzen
The base beer without the smoked malt.
Suits you if: You like Rauchbier but want less smoke. Reason not to: The smoke is a long way from Rauchbier — that is the thing most likely to put you off.
Czech amber lager
Shares a fermentation style with Rauchbier, so the underlying character is related.
Suits you if: You like Rauchbier but want less smoke. Reason not to: The smoke is a long way from Rauchbier — that is the thing most likely to put you off.
Czech dark lager
Shares a fermentation style with Rauchbier, so the underlying character is related.
Suits you if: You like Rauchbier but want less smoke. Reason not to: The smoke is a long way from Rauchbier — that is the thing most likely to put you off.
Compare with
- Rauchbier vs Grodziskie — The main difference is dryness: Grodziskie has far more of it than Rauchbier. Rauchbier also leads on malt intensity and body; Grodziskie on carbonation.
- Rauchbier vs Lichtenhainer — The main difference is acidity: Lichtenhainer has far more of it than Rauchbier. Rauchbier also leads on malt intensity and body; Lichtenhainer on dryness.
- Rauchbier vs Strong bitter — The main difference is smoke: Rauchbier has far more of it than Strong bitter. Strong bitter also leads on dryness, hop aroma and yeast fruitiness (esters).
- Rauchbier vs American amber ale — The main difference is smoke: Rauchbier has far more of it than American amber ale. Rauchbier also leads on phenolic spice; American amber ale on hop aroma and citrus.
Characteristics that may be expected here
Each of these is treated as a fault in most beer, and in this style it can be part of the character. Intensity and context decide which: a trace that suits the style and an obvious, dominating version of the same thing are not the same finding. Follow the link where you want to work out which one you have.
Chlorophenol
Phenolic character is correct in these styles, but the *kind* of phenol differs. Clove, pepper and smoke are yeast- or malt-derived and belong. Sticking plaster, antiseptic and TCP are chlorophenols and are a fault in every style without exception.
Detectable from roughly 0.000005–0.00002 ppm. Extremely low threshold — parts per trillion.
Faults to watch for
- Chlorophenol — A medicinal, sticking-plaster note formed when chlorine meets phenols — almost always a cleaning or water-treatment failure.
How it got here
Before indirect kilning, malt was dried over open fires and every beer carried smoke. Rauchbier is not a beer that had smoke added to it; it is the beer that did not stop, and Bamberg in Franconia is where the practice continued after the technology to avoid it became general.
The malt is kilned over beechwood, and the style is therefore a working demonstration of what the transition to indirect kilning actually changed — which is most of what pale beer is.
1800–1850 Indirect-fired kilning makes pale malt practical
Drying malt with hot air rather than over an open fire allowed pale, smoke-free malt to be produced at scale.
See the whole sequence on the beer history timeline.
Common misconceptions
“The smoke flavour is added, or the beer has been smoked.”
The malt is smoked, not the beer. Barley is kilned over a beechwood fire before it ever reaches the brewery, and everything that follows is ordinary lager brewing. Before indirect kilning this is what all malt was like, which is why Rauchbier is less an unusual beer than a surviving example of the ordinary one.
Questions
Why does smoked beer taste like bacon?
Both get their character from the same family of compounds. Wood smoke contains phenols — guaiacol and syringol in particular — that are also produced when meat is smoked. The malt is dried over a beechwood fire and absorbs them directly, so the association is chemical rather than coincidental.
Sensory levels are BeerHQ’s editorial abstraction, described as None–Very high on a six-point scale. Measurements are conventional style ranges. Last reviewed 2026-08-15.
Evidence
What BeerHQ knows about this, and how. Every statement carries the state of the evidence behind it rather than being presented flatly as fact.
On Chlorophenol
The medicinal, TCP or plastic character of chlorophenols forms when chlorine or chloramine in brewing water reacts with phenolic compounds from malt and hops, and is preventable by treating the water before use.
Backed by a source
Sources: Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers — print; Brewing: Science and Practice — print