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July 23, 1635, is an important date in the history of beer in general, and smoked beer in particular.
What happened on that 17th-century summer day that was so important to the history of beer? It was on that day that Sir Nicholas Halse filed the first patent for drying malt without smoke touching the grain. We’re obviously grateful to him: we like to drink everything at Vitriol, including non-smoked beers. But it just so happens that we also like to drink smoked beers, which have been overshadowed by more popular beer styles. With the few last waves of craft beer revolutions, smokebeer are now produced everywhere and more accessible. Today’s smoked beers are all indebted to two cities: Bamberg in Germany and Grodzisk in Poland.
The Germans think they make the best beer in the world. The Bavarians think they make the best beer in Germany. Franconians think they make the best beer in Bavaria. Bambergians think they make the best beer in Franconia. That gives you an idea of the pride you’ll find there. In Bamberg, two breweries produce smoked beers: Spezial—which doesn’t export—and Schlenkerla, which carefully bottles its magic and shares it with the whole world. But be warned: exporting doesn’t mean selling your soul. When you go there, you’re treated to all the rusticity typical of German breweries. It’s still craftsmanship. They still malt (and therefore smoke) their own grain, a part of the process you don’t often see performed in the modern brewing world, preserving a tradition spanning six generations of the Trum family. All this to say that since 2021, July 23rd has been “Smokebeer Preservation Day,” at the instigation of Matthias Trum, Schlenkerla’s current brewmaster. We invite you to raise your pint/stein/maß to the health of smoked beers in all their forms.
If you don’t have any on hand, hurry up and order Schlenkerla Fastenbier, an amber lager made with smoked and non-smoked malts, available individually on SAQ.com and delivered within 5-7 business days to your nearest SAQ store.
If you want more selection, keep an eye out for our newsletter in the coming weeks. We’ll even have a nice Schlenkerla surprise for you! We’ll let you become impatient a bit…
Click here to read the article on which this blog post is based on.