Baron Rauchbier

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

When i bought this i didn't no a thing about it, neither did the other Houston BA's, but this is a hidden unknown gem .. . pours with a good little head, with hearty german style lacing .. . light smoked malts tickled the nose, like drained honeey comb and smoked meats .. . amazingly smooth, and even abit refreshing .. . i like just the light touch of smoke, a very well amde beer in the bamburg style .. . awesome!

I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 5

A typical pour still easily produces almost four-fingers of head in my 25cl tulip glass. The head is a pale, off-white color and forms a nicely textured surface and lots of lacing as it slowly recedes.. The beer is a clear, lightly red stained, dark gold color as it sits on my desk but shows a brilliantly clear, gold color when held up to the light (close to the color of Pilsner Urquell). The smoke is apparent as soon as I start to pour this beer as it lightly accents the surrounding atmosphere. Smoky smelling and quite dry, this beer doesn't have the typical chewy, sometimes bready and sweet malt notes that many versions have. Because of this, the smoke is much more spicy here and even comes off as having some hints of plastic-phenolic notes towards the end. This definitely has a signature, beech wood smoke character to it.

Light, and dry up front, the beer actually tastes much like a dry Helles, though it doesn't have the depth of malt character that a great example of that style has. The beer finishes with a smoky flavor that lingers on the tongue, but was not quite as prominent as the aroma would have suggested. The base malt character seems a bit washed out, and with a definite green apple note to it. Somehow this even seems to have a slight tartness to it. The smoke can get a bit too phenolic and sharp in the finish at times; the smoke really needs some other structured malt to balance it out.

Just too unbalanced, it is actually not that the smoke character is overwhelming, it is not and in fact I have had good beers with much more, it is the fact that the supporting malt character is so flabby. The malt just disappears and ends up being wan and cidery. Not horrible, but I was hoping for so much more.

Purchased: Liquid Solutions

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Thanks to aspidites for sharing this one with me. The beer really delivers for those that love smoke beers. If you're not a fan of the smoke, this this probably won't be something you'd enjoy. The aroma is campfire smoke. Flavors are more smoke, bacon, a bit of grassy hops detected with a suprising twangy finish. Lots of smoke in this one and it was quite easy to drink, although an admitted smoked beer lover I could only drink one of these at a time.