In my latest Beer 101 column (which you can read here) I take a look at a beer style with a long history but for which the recent explosion of craft beer interest has passed it by. I am talking about Rauchbier, or smoked beer.

I start with the contention that beer palates have shifted significantly in recent years. The apparent acceptance of big bitterness, tart beer and other flavours that at one time were considered outrageous is really something to behold. Beer drinkers are embracing a host of flavours that 10 years ago would have been unthinkable (at least in Canada). I am very encouraged by that.

But then I started thinking about beer styles that have not received the thumbs up from beer fans. There are a few, but the most intriguing, for me, is rauchbier. So I spent some time contemplating why it hasn’t been embraced in the same way as other styles.

Sure, some breweries have taken a stab at the style, the latest being Winnipeg’s Half Pints with their yummy Smoktoberfest (read my review here), but usually as one-offs or experimental seasonals.

I think it comes down to 2 reasons. First, smoke is a hard to describe sensation – we all know it but at the same time don’t easily understand how it fits into beer. Smoke is neither a daily taste experience, like sourness, nor is it widely recognized as a beer-like flavour, such as hops. Only the small cadre of peaty scotch aficionados will have a clear sense of smoke’s effects. It doesn’t lend to an instinctive understanding.

Second, smoke has an image problem. The word smoke, these days, conjures up images of cigarettes or camp fires – neither of which will lead one to seek it out in beer. Of course, rauchbier is nothing like those kinds of smoke, but that is the hurdle it must overcome before people will embrace it in their beer.

Even I, a longtime beer judge and educator, took quite a while to warm up to smoked beer. I think I have finally come to understand and appreciate its earthy subtleties and now look forward to a well-made version. But that was a long time coming. So imagine the person who is newly reveling in the joys of bitterness; it might be a bridge too far for the moment.

I think that will change. Rauchbier will never be the “it” beer, like Imperial IPAs, barrel-aged beer and such. But I do think, in its own slow, plodding way, it will become both more available and more popular. I could be wrong, however. I have been before.