This recipe made the Gold Medal winning beer in the Smoked beer style at the 2023 National Homebrew Competition, taking the top award out of 78 entries in the category. It was brewed by Randy Daniels of Des Moines, IA. At The Beverage People, we have adapted his recipe into an all-grain beer kit, and this discussion is intended to prepare you for brewing this recipe yourself. I brewed this beer myself in November 2025 as a part of our launching of the recipe kit, and I hope these notes about the ingredients, processes, and my own experience with the beer will help you. With thanks to the recipe founder Randy Daniels, and the AHA, let’s get into the details! Overview of the StyleRauchbier, or “smoke beer” in German, is nothing new. It is a historical style of beer, not a product of the extreme and weird beer brewing of recent decades. Before coal became common as the fuel source of kilns for drying barley malt in the early 1800’s, all beers had some level of smoke flavor. The smoke flavor was inevitable as a result of the use of straw, dried wood, peat or other biofuels used to dry the malt, inevitably absorbing smoke into the malt in the process. Generally, fuel sources with milder smoke flavors were favored, with stronger smoke flavor being shunned over time. But luckily, for those of us who love smoke flavor, the smoke flavored beer tradition has persisted in Germany. These rare beers are generally brewed as malt forward lagers based on styles such as Dunkel, Marzen, Bock, and other German styles. The smoked malt typically makes up 20-100% of the grain in a recipe, with the remainder of malts typically based on Marzen recipes. German yeast, hops, and processes are standard. For those new to this beer style, and perhaps even skeptical about brewing gallons of it, take note that the people of Bamburg, where the style continues to be brewed, give the advice that at least 3 liters should be consumed before you will start to really enjoy it. So if you can’t visit Bamburg anytime soon, the best way to get comfortable with this style might just be to brew a big batch for yourself! Key Ingredients to Be DiscussedMalts from Weyermann Malts for Red Color
Malts from Weyermann: Five of the seven malts in this recipe come from a single German maltster—Weyermann. Let’s first consider the key ingredient in this recipe, the smoked malt. Smoked malts are not at all created equal. Weyerman is the most used and brewers should generally stick with it. It is widely used by smoked beer producers in the Bamberg area where the Rauchbier tradition is strongest in Germany. It is quite mild compared to other smoked malts due to the use of 18 month aged beechwood which creates a very low smoke and mild flavored heat source. This smoked base malt from Bamberg makes up about 40% of the malt bill resulting in a very noticeable but not overwhelming presence in the final beer.
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