Style Details

Name
Spe­cial­ty Smo­ked Beer
Cate­go­ry
Smo­ked Beer
BJCP Style Code
32 B
Appearance
Varia­ble. The appearance should reflect the base beer style, alt­hough the color of the beer is often a bit dar­ker than the plain base style. The use of cer­tain fruits and spi­ces may affect the color and hue of the beer as well.
Aro­ma
The aro­ma should be a plea­sant balan­ce bet­ween the expec­ted aro­ma of the base beer, the smo­ki­ness impar­ted by the use of smo­ked malts, and any addi­tio­nal ingre­di­ents. The inten­si­ty and cha­rac­ter of the smo­ke, base beer style, and addi­tio­nal ingre­di­ents can vary, with any being more pro­mi­nent in the balan­ce. Smo­ki­ness may vary from low to asser­ti­ve; howe­ver, balan­ce in the over­all pre­sen­ta­ti­on is the key to well-made examp­les. The qua­li­ty and secon­da­ry cha­rac­te­ristics of the smo­ke are reflec­ti­ve of the source of the smo­ke (e.g., alder, oak, beech­wood). Sharp, phe­n­o­lic, harsh, rub­be­ry, or burnt smo­ke-deri­ved aro­ma­tics are inappropriate.
Fla­vour
As with aro­ma, the­re should be a balan­ce bet­ween smo­ki­ness, the expec­ted fla­vor cha­rac­te­ristics of the base beer style, and the addi­tio­nal ingre­di­ents. Smo­ki­ness may vary from low to asser­ti­ve. Smo­ky fla­vors may ran­ge from woo­dy to some­what bacon-like depen­ding on the type of malts used. The balan­ce of under­ly­ing beer cha­rac­te­ristics and smo­ke can vary, alt­hough the resul­ting blend should be some­what balan­ced and enjoya­ble. Smo­ke can add some dry­ness to the finish. Harsh, bit­ter, burnt, char­red, rub­be­ry, sul­fu­ry, medi­cinal, or phe­n­o­lic smo­ky cha­rac­te­ristics are gene­ral­ly inap­pro­pria­te (alt­hough some of the­se cha­rac­te­ristics may be pre­sent in some base styl­es; howe­ver, the smo­ked malt shouldn’t con­tri­bu­te the­se flavors).
Mouth­feel
Varies with the base beer style. Signi­fi­cant astrin­gent, phe­n­o­lic smo­ke-deri­ved harsh­ness is inappropriate.
Over­all Impression
A smo­ke-enhan­ced beer show­ing good balan­ce bet­ween the smo­ke, the beer cha­rac­ter, and the added ingre­di­ents, while remai­ning plea­sant to drink. Balan­ce in the use of smo­ke, hops and malt cha­rac­ter is exhi­bi­ted by the bet­ter examples.
Typi­cal Ingredients
Dif­fe­rent mate­ri­als used to smo­ke malt result in uni­que fla­vor and aro­ma cha­rac­te­ristics. Beech­wood, or other hard­wood (oak, map­le, mes­quite, alder, pecan, apple, cher­ry, other fruit­woods) smo­ked malts may be used. The various woods may remind one of cer­tain smo­ked pro­ducts due to their food asso­cia­ti­on (e.g., hick­ory with ribs, map­le with bacon or sau­sa­ge, and alder with sal­mon). Ever­green wood should never be used sin­ce it adds a medi­cinal, piney fla­vor to the malt. Noti­ceable peat-smo­ked malt is uni­ver­sal­ly unde­si­ra­ble due to its sharp, pier­cing phe­n­o­lics and dirt-like eart­hi­ness. The beer ingre­di­ents vary with the base style. Other unu­su­al ingre­di­ents (fruits, vege­ta­bles, spi­ces, honey, etc.) used in noti­ceable quantities.
Comm­ents
Any style of beer can be smo­ked; the goal is to reach a plea­sant balan­ce bet­ween the smo­ke cha­rac­ter and the base beer style. Ent­ries should be jud­ged on how well that style is repre­sen­ted, and how well it is balan­ced with the smo­ke cha­rac­ter. Ent­ries with a spe­ci­fic type or types of smo­ke cited will be jud­ged on how well that type of smo­ke is reco­gnizable and mar­ries with the base style and added ingre­di­ents. Jud­ges should eva­lua­te the beers most­ly on the over­all balan­ce, and how well the smo­ke cha­rac­ter and added ingre­di­ents enhan­ces the base beer.
Notes
A Spe­cial­ty Smo­ked Beer is eit­her a smo­ked beer based on some­thing other than a Clas­sic Style, or any type of smo­ked beer with addi­tio­nal ingre­di­ents (fruits, vege­ta­bles, spi­ces) or pro­ces­ses employ­ed that trans­form the beer into some­thing more unique.
Ori­gi­nal Gravity
0.000 - 0.000 SG
Final Gra­vi­ty
0.000 - 0.000 SG
Color
0 - 0 SRM
Alco­hol
0.0 - 0.0 %vol
Bit­ter­ness
0 - 0 IBU