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Mystic Brewery is known around the Greater Boston area for making some of the most eclectic American farmhouse ales around, but this beer goes in a different direction. Behold, Auerbach’s Rauchbier. I’ve discussed several children of the Bamberg method of malt-smoking before, but I’ve never discussed Mystic. Therefore, it is with great excitement that I tackle a new bottle from their first batch of smoked dark ale!
Pouring an intensely deep brown with no visible head despite somewhat fervent decanting, this beer appears cloudy and impenetrably hazy in the glass, speaking to the label’s insistence on it being unfiltered, unpasteurized and bottle-fermented. At only 5.4 percent ABV, this is pretty low gravity and also has fairly low bitterness with a stated IBUs of 25. To the nose, this brew smacks of brown sugar-cured smoked bacon and some lightly delicate floral/earthy hops. There’s a bit of a light spice, perhaps Saaz, but the earthiness reminds of Mt. Hood or Willamette. The slight sweetness meets right in the middle with the smoked scents, making this a very delicious smelling beer off the bat. I imagine the combination could only get better as the beer warms to the recommended serving temperature of 45 degrees Fahrenheit. The first notes on the tongue are lightly meaty and playfully smoked with a crisp linger of dry, spicy rye malt and perhaps some smooth wheat. Noble hops seem to build the groundwork in the finish but the smokiness picks up and drowns them out,
leaving little to the imagination in the end. A slighty applewood smoke peaks out over the beechwood layer and assumes a very lightly sweet and pleasant note in the middle of the tongue, but overall the flavor is quite resolute and to-the-point. This could definitely be meatier, it could be bolder and it could have a slightly higher ABV to bring out some stranger notes from the ingredients, but as it stands it’s about what was expected flavor-wise and brings some nice slight complexity to the table.
A little bit of chocolate or specialty malt seems to come out to play when the beer warms a bit, and that makes this drink nearly porter-like with an unusual nuttiness and deepness of flavor usually reserved for deeper, darker beers. That isn’t to say this isn’t “dark,” but it’s more brown-tinged and doesn’t quite hit the heft of a stout in terms of mouthfeel. In fact, it does lean towards being a bit watery upon the first few sips. Letting it warm is the answer and definitely brings it into its own. Carbonation is light and detailed with quick dissipation that feels pretty nice on the palate. It almost has a cleansing effect that is out of the ordinary for the style, which is kind of cool. For a very traditional type of beer and for a brewery seeming to go for a old-school brew here, this is quite Americanized and works pretty nicely all things considered. Though it’s a bit watery, this is nicely drinkable and rauchbiers are pretty much always enjoyable to session because they tend to be quite outside of the norm of typical beer. I quite liked this one; I’ll follow its progress and hope the batch indicator allowing for triple digits (batch 001!) is indicative of it going through various and sundry changes in recipe and feel. Good work, Mystic!
The official breakdown:
- Style: Rauchbier
- ABV: 5.4%
- Appearance: Strikingly deep-brown and quite ruddy with nice suspension. Small yet retentive head even despite a medium pour. No lacing
- Scent: Apple- and beechwood smoked meat, light brown sugar, some spicy and earthy Noble hops, wheat, grainy malt, some juicy sweetness below the surface
- Taste: Caramel malt gives way to big smoky flavors that coalesce into a lightly herbal and earthy hop finish. Quite round flavor with a tight, compact profile
- Mouthfeel: The easygoing carbonation that dies down quickly combined with the simplicity of the ingredients makes this very enjoyable yet deceptively complex
- Drinkability: Though it won’t be a regular beer for me, Auerbach’s makes a bold statement with its dark rauch stylings and is flavorful enough to stand on its own
From http://blogs.lowellsun.com/beer/.