The usual Schlenkerla bottle shape, purchased from Green’s on Ponce in Atlanta, GA, USA.

The pour is a particularly attractive, gold color with a moderate, white head. It looks really nice in terms of the color, but I would much prefer a bigger and better retained head. It lacks a little in that department, but the color is really superb. Very nice carbonation.

The nose delivers the usual Schlenkerla bacon smoke, but it seems more complex and layered than some of the other Schlenkerla beers. The oak smoke seems VERY intense, but paradoxically more subtle than some of the similar beers from the brewery. The oak clearly brings a different feel. The beer lingers too.

Complex malts with plenty of sweetness to compliment the smoke. There is also a lingering bitterness that builds and as the beer is consumed it really feels mildly hoppy at the end – THAT, I wasn’t expecting. Strangely, the ending also comes in sharply sweet. It also delivers a little bit of solvent like alcohol in the finale.

A VERY complicated beer for me with plenty of rich, layered and competing factors that compliment one another brilliantly. A tremendous experience for me.

Like all of the Rauchs this is best paired with food and the sheer multitude of meats and cheeses that this could pair with is astonishing – perhaps even infinite!