Brewery: Brauerei Heller-Trum Bamberg

Name: Aecht Schlenkerla Rauschbier Marzen

Style: Rauschbier(Smoked Beer)

Origin: Germany

Bottle: 1Pt. .9 oz

ABV: 5.1%

Appearance: A deep, opaque, reddish beefy brown with a lightly marbled tan head.

Pours: Easily enough with glass and bottle tilted

Smell: A deeply rich meaty umami odor with a strong almost deliciously pungent woodfire smell that elicits an anticipatory, throaty “oh-ho-ho-ho” every time. Very reminiscent of beef jerky.

Taste: This is one of those rare beers where what you smell is what you taste. Though to this I’d adda quirky little note of playful sourness to liven up the mostly darker aspects of its flavor. As time and bottle diminishes it takes on a slightly sweet aspect like dark chocolate caramel or blackstrap. Enjoy with a brass quintet or quartet of tuba, horns, trombone and trumpet with a mellow jazz groove but being playful and applying it with polka or to a classical arrangement or heavy metal with a samba rhythm or some other just-for-fun combination along the lines of a baritone-bass toned group could do.

Mouthfeel: lighter than you would think, almost on par with an Unfiltered Wheat or Belgian Strong Pale Ale.

Rating: 9.2 I know I’ve had a few others in this style but this one has the most smokiness to it. Only downside is sometimes that little bit of sourness and the smoky meatiness cancels each other out instead of enhancing and you wind up with a mouthful of water. Albeit not bad tasting water.
Definitely a beverage for low light fine-dining but black tie optional. This beer is a part-time clown from a Masons Lodge out of make-up and in a respectable three-piece, but still with that playfulness under a faux somber facade(and yes I realize that’s redundant.).
I’m not certain if it would go well with a campfire. It might enhance it or it might wind up being like one of those Xzibit “Yo dawg, I heard ya like X” memes.

Also I’d like to just say I love the aesthetics of German High Gothic font, but damn is it a p.i.t.a. to read!