What's Brewing: Terrapin's RoggenRauchBier

Terrapin Beer Co. - Athens, Ga.

Where it is available:
Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida and Alabama in 22 oz bottles.

How the brewmaster describes it:
“Basically, I combined two classic German beer styles,” Terrapin’s founder and brewmaster Brian “Spike” Buckowski told SportsUnlimited. “A Roggenbier, which is made with an abundance of rye malt, and a Rauchbier which is brewed with smoked malt. I didn’t want to blow anyone out of the water with 70 percent smoked beer and make it taste like a dirty ashtray. I wanted it as one of the three flavor components in the beer: smoke, sweetness and spice.”

What inspired Buckowski to brew it:
“I always wanted to do something in a smoked beer. I always wanted to make a Rauchbier,” Buckowski said. “I’ve been to Bamburg [Germany]. I’ve tried Rauchbiers. But I’ve always thought they were very, very smoky for the average American consumer. It was basically taking a page out of my flagship beer [Terrapin’s Rye Ale] because obviously it’s brewed with rye and combining it with a Rauchbier and basically making my own style of Rauchbier: the RoggenRauch”

What foods it pairs with:
“I would like to have it with a nice piece of white fish, something very light and delicate because I think that would bring out the smoke even more,” Buckowski said. “If you had a smoke [pork] shoulder or something that has been smoked for the last eight hours, you might lose the smoke in the beer.”

Review:
Having never tried a smoked beer prior to tasting the RoggenRauchBier, I had no idea what to expect. It smelled and tasted smoky, sweet and a little spicy, and like Buckowski said, the smokiness wasn’t too overpowering and the beer overall was very approachable.
    On the advice of Buckowski, I mixed a cup of RoggenRauchbier into a batter for fried tilapia. The beer, which is a little syrupy, created a thick batter, so a little more liquid than usual was necessary. But the RoggenRauchBier beer-battered tilapia tasted very much like smoked fish and complemented the tilapia very well.
    Though it is not an everyday beer, Terrapin’s RoggenRauchBier is accessible to anyone who hasn’t tried a smoked beer and is interested. Beer advocates will enjoy it too.