Don't Settle For Boring Beer — Try A Smoky Upgrade

Beer has undergone quite the evolution since its inception. These days, the beer market is absolutely flooded with just about any type of beer you can think of to fit just about any palate. But even in spite of this variety, sometimes it's easy to get weighed down by choosing the same safe albeit boring brews over and over again. People aren't drinking beer like they used to, and while you could chalk that up to any number of factors, one thing that might excite your prospects is to search for a tasting experience you haven't had before. Enter smoked beer.

Just like how a smoky whiskey sets itself apart from the pack, so too does a smoky beer. Beer is often associated with malted barley, and it's no different with this style. However, with smoked beers, the malts are — you guessed it — smoked or otherwise roasted over fire to impart a rich, smoky flavor to the beer. It might seem like a questionable decision at first, but remember that some beloved beers have a smoky/roasted note in them already, such as how stouts set themselves apart from porters. This process of smoking beer isn't so much a novel gimmick as it is a resurrection of much older beer-making practices. As such, smoky beer might just be the thing that makes beer interesting to you again.

As with many beer-brewing traditions, smoked beer has roots in the suds-loving country of Germany. Here you'll find a beer that has remained largely unchanged from its inception, back when smoky malt was the de facto ingredient in beer production. Rauchbier (for "smoked beer" in German) is the name given to this beer – essentially a smoked lager robust in both color and taste. Though still classified as a lager due to its fermentation process (which sets lagers apart from ales, for example), rauchbier's taste and appearance set it starkly apart from the lighter domestic lagers that you might be used to. And as it turns out, this is mostly due to it remaining very faithful to traditional brewing practices.

There aren't many brewers making rauchbier these days, but some of the ones that do date back hundreds of years. Back then, smoked malt was a lot more common, and even when the practices petered down, some rauchbier brewers remained true to tradition. Now, with smoked beers once again on the rise, rauchbier is in a perfect place to help fill that niche. Smoky beers can be surprisingly approachable and should pair well with many lager-friendly foods. So whether you opt for the old school rauchbier or a more modern take on smoked beer, you shouldn't have any trouble beating that malty monotony.