Liquid Bread

My first experience with this Bavarian “liquid bread” was in 1973 and involved a late night trip to the Bahnhof with my buddy Reginald, six half-litre bottles of Salvator doppelbock, and a crippling hangover.

Bock is a strong lager which has its origins in the Hanseatic town of Einbeck, Germany. Bocks have a long history of being brewed and consumed by Roman Catholic monks in Germany. During the spring religious season of Lent, monks were required to fast. High-gravity Bock beers are higher in food energy and nutrients than lighter lagers, thus providing sustenance during this period. 

 

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It’s Good!

I tried the Schlenkerla smoke beer last night.  We had it with Gerda’s homemade broccoli soup and laugenstangen with cheese.  It was a little milder than I expected but this could be the difference between the bottled and on-tap versions.  In any case it was excellent. The smoke flavor wasn’t at all overbearing, even at the beginning.  The beer went very well with the soup and a sandwich.  This is what I call an indoor beer, to be enjoyed with a good meal.

PS: A laugenstange is a type of bread roll I make from time to time.  These are pretty good and close to the original we get in Germany.  Next time I make them I’ll post a recipe and a picture or two.

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Smoke Beer

It took a while, but I finally manged to get my hands on the real deal. Will be giving it a try today.

clipped from www.schlenkerla.de HISTORICAL BREWERY TAVERN In the middle of the old part of Bamberg, directly beneath the mighty cathedral, one can find the Historical Brewery Tavern Schlenkerla. First mentioned in 1405 and now run by the Trum family in the 6th generation, it is the fountain of Original Schlenkerla Smokebeer Bamberg’s Specialty   The Original Schlenkerla Smokebeer is here at the tavern still being tapped directly from the wooden barrel according to old tradition.     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.     Schlenkerla has become a magic word for a long time, but many do not know where this word originated. Its roots lie within the Frankish vernacular, in which “schlenkern” is an expression for walking not straight – just like a drunken person does. Allegedly one of the former brewers had a funny way of walking due to an accident, or maybe due to the beer, and so he was called the “Schlenkerla” – the little dangler. The ending –la is the typical diminutive for the Frankish dialect. After a while, the residents of Bamberg also called the tavern Schlenkerla, and even though the sixth generation of brewers now taps the beer, the name has remained. Even in the phone book and the internet you can find the brewery under the name Schlenkerla. Today it stands for the tavern, the brewery and, most importantly, for the Smokebeer.   Smokebeer from Schlenkerla is a dark, aromatic, bottom fermented beer with 13.5 percent original extract, which is equivalent to an alcohol content of 5.1 percent. No doubt: there are stronger beers, but nevertheless, one should not underestimate … it can make you “schlenker” quite a bit. 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, best drunk directly in “Schlenkerla”. An Original amongst the beers, even amongst the Bavarian beers. You can drink it in the “Alte Lokal” at white-scrubbed wooden tables – covering them with a tablecloth would be a sin – underneath an old timbered ceiling, even darker than the beer. You can drink it in the “Klause”, a former monastery, built in 1310, or you can drink it in the inner court next to a 500-liter wooden-keg.

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