Gute Nacht Geneva: Good Night Bamberg by Art History Brewing

I braved the Thanksgiving blizzard for this beer.

Roosevelt Road was an absolute disaster with every snowflake threatening to obstruct my view and my poor tires with barely any helpful tread for gription were due to replaced the following week. It was like Mad Max in slow motion with cars fishtailing everywhere and the owners of SUVs steadfastly declining to slow down for the conditions.

But like your friendly letter carrier, neither snow nor jagoffs driving Subarus would stay me in my search for a particular beer - more on that another time. And while the weather outside was frightful, Sal's Beverage Emporium, er, World was delightful. I perused the local beer shelves after a trip to Binny's and the brewery of the highly sought after and temporarily anonymous beer both proved unsuccessful.

"IPA. IPA. IPA. Bamberg. IPA. Barrel...Wait a minute!"

Now that got my attention.

The beer was Good Night Bamberg by Art History Brewing in the western burb of Geneva. The label described it as a "Franconia Style Smoked Dark Lager". As you can imagine, it was an instant buy for this Rauchbier addict.

While I have heard of Art History, I cannot recall ever having tasted their beer previously. Surely I've seen their brews many a time at Binny's yet I am unsure why I had never sampled their liquid until now. My best guess is that I'd mostly seen IPAs and turned my nose up at them. Upon seeing something more to my liking such as a Helles, I moved on because why would I buy their Helles when Dovetail's and Goldfinger's are just down the aisle and I know they have been lovingly decocted to drive me to Maillard gluttony?

And so I was confronted with my first Art History beer. How did I make out?

This was another in a long line of beers lately  that produced a tan head. I got a fairly good amount of foam and it hung around for an average amount of time. When the folks at Art History called it a dark lager they were not kidding. This is one of the most positively Stygian brews I've had in a long time. My desk lamp struggled to get any photons through that nearly impenetrable gloom. I had to tilt my glass at just the right azimuth to discern its deep, dark brown color. It seemed to be clear as I spied quite a number of bubbles at one angle.

The aroma was mainly smoke, luscious smoke. But there was also a bit of plum as well as a hint of spicy grass.

Those bubbles I spied were a portent of a nice, firm fizziness. The smoke flavor took pride of place and was undergirded by some biscuit, a tad of milk chocolate, and a smidge of stone fruit. Spicy hops kept everything in check. The medium-light body allowed for just the barest hint of sweetness.

On the finish, only a subtle sweetness and a gentle smokiness remained as the spicy-herbal hops kicked in. But this is not a particularly hoppy beer which meant there was just enough bitterness to balance the malt and add a modicum of dryness at the end.

I guess I'll have to give Art History another try because this was a very tasty beer. It had a good dose of fizz and the smoke was muscular but not deadly. Perhaps a bit more biscuit flavor next go round. At 4.9% this was not a potent brew but the smoke and the dark malt flavors had real autumnal vibes and made it a nice early fall treat - the canned on date was 10/8/2025.

Junk food pairing: Good Night Bamberg pairs well with another Chicago area favorite, Jays Hot Stuff potato chips. That smoky paprika taste just complements the dark & smoky flavors of the beer perfectly.