Smoked beers are not entirely new. Time was, before coal and gas kilns, all brewers cured their fresh grains over burning wood. As production modernized, beerâs heady fumes dissipated, except in the German city of Bamberg, where rauchbier, as itâs called there, lived on, made in ovens fired with fragrant beech.
Todayâs new smoked beers are made the same way, with wet kernels of barley slowly dried over wood fires. The difference is that instead of using only beech, American brewers are smoking with local hardwood to create beers as varied as the nationâs regional barbecue styles. Fullsteam brewery, in Durham, North Carolina, makes a brown porter, Hogwash, with grains that are smoked using the stateâs trademark hickory. Most pitmasters would never pair their meticulously smoked meat with strong, full-flavoredâŚ
