Grätzer Ale from Vintage Brewing

In a moment of weakness Scott Manning, the brewmaster at Vintage Brewing, read my plea on Google+ and brewed a grätzer/grodziskie (depending on whether you want the German or Polish name) ale. This is a Polish/Prussian smoked wheat ale and is believed to have been first brewed around the time the Great Plague was ravaging Europe. Its popularity declined after World War I and it eventually disappeared but was briefly resurrected in the 1990s in Poland before going the way of the dodo again. So what is this archaic brew supposed to taste like? I emailed Ron Pattinson and he told me that a grodziskie should taste “smoky and hoppy, very well carbonated, too.”

Yeah, my photo sucks. I wish I could be like some beer bloggers who make their snaps look like Ansel Adams but mine always turn out like something by Dorothea Lange, no offense to her legacy intended. Anyway, as you may or may not see, Scott's gräter is a nice clear yellow. It had a nice head on it so the carbonation is there but it disappeared fairly quickly. Schaumhaftvermoegen? Nein.

The aroma was smoky. This is to be expected since the grain bill was oak smoked wheat and more oak smoked wheat. Now, I'm no expert when it comes to rauchbiers with my experience coming in the form of having had three or four varieties of Schlenkerla and the occasional craft porter with some smoked malt thrown in for good measure. Having said this, rauchbiers usually smell like bacon to me. This beer had that but there was also some sweetness present which leaned towards the honey-glazed ham side of things.

Taking a sip I tasted that bacony/ham-like flavor and it was heaven. But then those hops kicked in and penetrated through the smoky goodness. They were spicy and herbal. Scott said that he was unable to procure Polish hops such as Lomik or Lubelski and so he worked with Gorst Valley Hops to concoct a replacement combo. I've had several varieties of Polish pale lagers but don't know what hop varieties were used in them so I'm not sure what hop flavor I should or could have tasted here. Regardless, it tasted like Noble hops – herbal but not piney. This is not a super-mega-maxi hopped beer but you need a goodly amount to compete with the smoke flavor.

Schlenkerla's rauchbiers tend to be pretty heavy on the tongue whereas this brew had a much lighter mouthfeel. It was weird because when I drink smoke beers, I expect a sturm und drang of smoke but this stuff was agile and nimble – as if you're bouncing flavor balls around in your mouth. Like comparing helium to lead. It had a nice, moderately bitter finish.

The brew weighed in at 4.5% ABV which I gather is a bit high for the style but by no means off the chart. (Can an imperial barrel aged grodziskie be far off?) As it stands, I would consider this a session beer and, indeed, I had two during my session at Vintage last night before bringing a growler of the stuff home with me. This is truly a smoke beer I could drink all night long.

Junk food pairing: Pair with kielbasa-flavored potato chips. If, like me, you're not in Poland, try Jay's Hot Stuff potato chips as they're heavy on the paprika.