[kim]

Brewed Horst Dornbusch's Racubier couple of months ago. Hoped to achieve the bacon flavor he described in his article. However, although there is a slight smokey flavor, the predominant one is citrus.

A friend, who has been to Bamberg and tasted rauchbier, said that it had a flavor or smoked ham.

Smoked ham, bacon is a long way from what I am experiencing. Would like to brew another batch but do not want to duplicate what I have done. The only change I made to his recipe was to brew 10 gallons. Used a Bavarian lager yeast, Wyeast 2206.

Any ideas would be great. Thanks.

Kim 

[corkybstewart]

What was your recipe?  I've brewed a few rauchbiers but never had a citrus flavor at all.  I can't say they taste like bacon either but there's a definite smoke flavor to them.

[thomasbarnes]

More to the point, what temperature did you ferment your beer at and what sort of hops were you using?

I'm thinking that the citrusy notes are due to esters from yeast if you fermented at way too high a temperature, or from essential oils in hops if you got a bit heavy handed with the late hopping. Combined with some of the natural smoky phenolic notes from the malt I guess that the combined effect could come across as citrus, although I've never encountered that before.

[kim]

the grain bill is:

13½ lbs Munich
1¼ lbs CaraMunich 60
7 lbs Rauchmalz
5/8 lb Carafa Special
5/8 lb acidualted malt
3 ozs Hallertau 60 min boil pellets
½ oz Tettnanger 60 min boil pellets
Wyeast 2206

20 mins @ 140°F
20 mins @ 147°F
30 mins @ 168°F
10 mins @ 172°F mash out