as the name implies, is a beer that has derived a smoky flavor and aroma from the addition to the grist of a certain portion of smoked malt. Such malt usually picks up its smokiness in the malt house, where it is dried—after steeping and germinating—in a direct-fired kiln that is heated by a smoky fuel such as juniper, beech wood, or peat. See malt. Before the innovations of the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of the indirect-fired kiln in the early 1800s, all kilns were direct-fired. This meant that virtually all malt had flavors influenced by smoke; less so, if the fuel was fairly clean-burning coke; more so if it was slow-smoldering, high-resin, unseasoned softwood. See kilning, wheeler, daniel. The most favored wood varieties for smoke-kilning malt are ash, beech, and oak. Peat, too, has been used as a traditional fuel for smoke-kilning malt, especially in the Scottish Highland and Islands. Peat formed from partially decayed vegetation in bogs, marshes, and wetlands after the retreat last ice age some 7,000 to 8,000 years ago. Scottish peat-smoked malts impart aromas and flavors to fermented extracts used to distill many Scotch and Irish whiskeys. Historically, peat malts have not played a significant role in the brewing of Scottish ales, but many modern homebrewers and non-Scottish craftbrewers have started to add such malts to their ale grist for their interpretations of these beer styles.

Because a brewer can add smoked malt to any beer, there is some debate as to whether or not smoked beer can constitute a style proper, or if “smoked” is just one of many possible descriptors in the vocabulary of brewers and beer tasters. There are legitimate arguments on both sides, but, regardless of where one comes down on this issue, there appears to be universal agreement that one type of smoked beer is, indeed, a style of its own, largely for historical reasons. This is the Bamberger rauchbier, an almost bacon-scented lager made with malt that has been smoked-kilned over well-seasoned beech wood logs. The brewing of rauchbier is documented as the early Middle Ages and is considered a regional specialty of Franconia, a region in central Bavaria. Rauchbier is still produced by many small and mid-size Franconian breweries. The most famous of the Franconian rauchbier brewers is Brauerei Heller-Trum, better known as Schlenkerla, a brewery and pub in the old town of Bamberg. See schlenkerla. This brewery still makes its own malt, smoked over a firebox within a barely mechanized malting facility. See bavaria, rauchbier.

Most smoked beers nowadays, however, rauchbier and otherwise, are made with commercially available smoked malt, with the most prominent made in Bamberg by the family-owned Weyermann maltings. This malt is made by the traditional method of kiln-drying the germinated grain with seasoned beech wood. It is kilned to a relatively pale color of only 3 to 6 EBC (1.7 to 2.8°L) to preserve the malt’s enzymatic power. Rauchmalz can be used for varying degrees of smokiness, in any amount up to 100 percent, in any grist bill. American craft breweries in particular have used these malts to create a dizzying array of flavors in their beers. Other than Schlenkerla, perhaps the best-known beer made with smoked malt is the Alaskan Brewing Company’s Alaskan Smoked Porter, which was first introduced in 1988 and has since won numerous awards at prestigious national and international competitions. This brewery smokes its own malt in small batches using local alder wood in a commercial food smoker. See alaskan brewing company.

Outside of Franconia, the phenolic character of smoked beer is unfamiliar and somewhat shocking to the average beer drinker, even within Germany. While poorly brewed smoked beers can emerge with unfortunate flavors reminiscent of ashtrays, the best of them can pleasantly evoke campfires. This can give these beers an unparalleled affinity with food, especially smoked meats and fish. Even if the accompanying food isn’t smoked, many foods that meld well with smoked flavors will pair nicely with a range of smoked beers.