Smoked beer that tastes like “liquid ham”

In Manitoba, you can’t smoke in bars anymore (thank God, in my opinion), but a certain class of people believe that drinking and smoking just go together and should never have been split asunder. Well of course smoking goes with drinking — if you smoke!

I always say that if smoking goes so well with drinking, how come you never see anyone drinking the bottles of beer with cigarette butts in them? (Okay, I’ve never said that, but now that I’ve thought it up, I’ll be sure to remember to say it next time the conversation goes that way.)

Bavarians, though, have managed to put smoking and beer together in a bottle that I can certainly agree with: Smoked Beer.

From a review in The Atlantic:

Only one beer tastes like smoked sausage. Bavaria’s Schlenkerla is the granddaddy of the smoked beers, a rare but esteemed style that uses malt dried over an open flame (it’s called rauchbier in German). The result is a dominating smoky flavor: think liquid ham.

Interesting, tell me more! From the Schlenkerla website, on their smoked beer page:

Its smoky flavor is being achieved by exposing the malt to the intense, aromatic smoke of burning beech-wood logs at the Schlenkerla-maltings. After mixing it with premium-class hops in the brew, it matures in 700 year old cellars, deep down in the hills of Bamberg, into a mellow, magnificent-tasting beer ….

The connoisseur drinks it slowly with relish, but steadily and purposefully. He knows, that the second “Seidla” (half-liter) tastes better than the first, and the third even better than the second. He drinks during the morning pint and during the afternoon break. He drinks it in the evenings, drinks it alone and with company, especially with company, as “Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier” makes one talkative and exuberant. It brings together the local with the stranger, as it is common in Franconia to share your table with others.

Even if the brew tastes somewhat strange at the first swallow, do not stop, because soon you will realize that your thirst will not decrease and your pleasure will visibly increase.

That is written on the coasters, and the coasters are right!

OH MY DEAR GOD WHY HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF THIS MAGICAL BEER BEFORE?!?!

I am so requesting this at the Liquor Mart. I will pay any price.

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UPDATE: They say it’s available at the LCBO, so I should be able to get some to Manitoba! A 5L “partykeg” is about €30 in Germany; I wonder what the Canadian price is.

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UPDATE 2: It’s $3.25 for a 500mL bottle. Pretty reasonable!