Why Is July 23rd Smokebeer Preservation Day?

What Is Smokebeer Preservation Day? 

Ironically, it was the rising popularity of rauchbier in the United States that inspired Trum to create Smokebeer Preservation Day. In the wake of the American craft beer revolution, Trum observed that “breweries were looking into older styles and smokebeer had some form of a renaissance.” As a result, many American malt manufacturers attempted smoking their own malts, often after the malts had already been roasted (or worse, using smoke flavor), but without generations of experience, the mass-produced smoked malts often led to a disappointing end product, often with an aggressive and exaggerated smoke character. Trum feared that this could “water down” the reputation and history of the style.

While Trum’s historical preservation and research efforts go back decades, the observed day of preservation came about in 2021. As he saw it, “We needed some kind of special day or event to make [the history] more visible here to local customers and abroad,” and what better day to acknowledge the history of rauchbier than July 23rd, “a date which marked the gateway between the old time and the modern time” when the wood-fired kiln ceased its reign as the default malt roasting method?

History and heritage remain at the forefront of Smokebeer Preservation Day. According to Trum, “It’s not the intention to turn this into a big Oktoberfest-style kind of thing.” Rather, he says, the day is about “creating an awareness of how the original maltmaking was done.” Should you find yourself at the historic Schlenkerla Tavern on this year’s Smokebeer Preservation Day, you could enjoy a brewery tour (including a unique look at how the malts are roasted/smoked), a presentation on the history of rauchbier and a special unfiltered tapping of their flagship smoked märzen. While the first two are only available in German, the third offering transcends language.

A Living History

While preservation often means passing on what we know, in the case of rauchbier, recovering a lost history takes precedence over repeating the one that’s been taught. Reflecting on the history he’d been told, Trum recalls, “When I grew up, the story always was that the brewery burned down in the Middle Ages and the beer got smoked by accident.” Trum, while studying brewing and brewing history at Weihenstephan, was the one who uncovered Halse’s patent as a historic turning point for the flavor profile of beer. Previously, Bamberg was thought to be the origin of rauchbier. Rather, it’s just the only place where smoked beer never ceased to be the norm. Humbly, he admits, “I’m a bit of an amateur historian,” but he’s selling himself short: “Whenever I’m not working or doing something with the brewery or family, I’m looking into old brewing books.” 

Interestingly, Trum’s historical preservation efforts are often most visible when it comes to the brewery’s new releases. While it is generally rare for breweries that are hundreds of years old to release “new” beers, Schlenkerla has recently unveiled two: an alderwood smoked schwarzbier as well as a cherrywood smoked rotbier (or red lager). When asked how Schlenkerla balances tradition and innovation, Trum says, “It’s not innovation; it’s rediscovery… I don’t sit down and think ‘hey, let’s do something completely different.’ I read about what  has been done before and what has been lost on the way to the present.” As an example, in his research, Trum found that alderwood had occasionally been used as a kilning wood in the past, as it was ideal for its slow-burning properties and gentler smoke character. 

Trum’s ultimate aim is “to use the sparse historic record to reconstruct how a beer could have been at the time” with the goal often being to find a historic beer style (e.g., schwarzbier, rotbier or doppelbock) that complements the flavor profile of of the wood used for kilning. Looking toward the future (or rather, further revivals of the past), Trum teased, “I have some more ideas for the future for what we can do along those lines, so keep your eyes open, and more things will come!”

Fermented in Time

If smokiness used to be a default for beer, how did it become a regional specialty to Bamberg? Trum has a few ideas. 

As stated earlier, a primary advantage of the smoke-free kiln was the fact that any heat source could be used to roast malts without tainting the quality of the beer. For most breweries, this meant that coal could replace wood. However, according to Trum’s research, “In Bamberg, the next coal mine was very far away and coal was relatively expensive,” thus making the initial transition from wood-fired to smokeless kilns impractical. Even the trains in the area were drawn by horses to cut costs. 

Other explanations include the fact that in Bamberg, no one brewery grew to outcompete the others, discouraging the industrialization of the brewing process. Additionally, very little beer from Bamberg was exported, with most consumption being local, “and local consumers are stubborn about what they drink,” explains Trum.

Generations later, the use of a wood-fired kiln became an intentional act of preservation rather than a slowness to adapt. As Trum recalls, his great grandfather, Michael Graser, “wanted to become an art historian, and I think he had a unique view on the business and on brewing… He realized that smokebeer was something on the verge of extinction, and he had the idea of preserving it—similar to preserving an old painting or old building—and he made the very deliberate decision not to switch to the modern brewing technique.”

The Flame Burns On

Graser’s decision to stick to the old ways was apparently the right one: “He was the one who laid down the tracks for Schlenkerla for the next century… Otherwise, Schlenkerla would be either non-existent or just a standard brewery like anywhere else.” As time goes on, appreciation (and demand) for the historical style has been steadily growing. An indication of this can be found in the clientele of Schlenkera’s historic tavern: “In the old days, tourists were brought here by the local tourist guides saying, you have to try this, and most of them had not tried [rauchbier] before and were totally surprised and kind of startled by it.” Trum would note that many glasses were returned half-consumed. “But in the last ten years or so,” Trum says, “there have been increasingly more people coming to Bamberg specifically for Schlenkerla… they come here explicitly to experience the flavor at the source.” 

When asked about the future of the brewery, Trum has his priorities straight: “Looking at the next 50 years, the brewery-pub is going to be the home base, and it always will be. The beer has been drunk here for the past 500 years and it will for the next 500 years or so—if humans are still around. I support the export in any way possible and will continue to do so, and whatever we can do, we will do, but the focus in the long run will be the most important part, the home brewery and tavern.” 

While this means that the historic brewery—and its beer—may remain relatively rare in the United States, true lovers of rauchbier should take comfort in the fact that the best producers of the style  are prioritizing quality over quantity. It also means that there will be a historic source of the style to aspire to visit. 

The Future of Smokebeer, As Seen by the Past

Even though rauchbier was not invented by the brewers of Bamberg, smoky beer lives on as one of the city’s legacies. Christian Fiedler, a fellow historian and friend of Trum’s, appears to have found the article in which the term “rauchbier” was coined, which he shared with Trum:.

“That term didn’t exist until 120-some years ago, and [Fiedler] found the article where the term was used for the very first time, and that was in an article in 1898 in the Bamberg newspaper,” explains Trum. “It was a fictional travel report of a person visiting the city of Bamberg in the year 2000, and in that article, the traveler wrote about the specialties of Bamberg—the beer gardens, beer cellars, and he wrote about the smoky beer, which he called rauchbier.”

Surely enough, the year 2000 has come and gone, and Bamberg remains a holy site for rauchbier production, consumption and preservation.