SmOAKed

This is our Chicago Smoke aged in a Heaven Hill barrels. It’s woody, smoky, with hints of toasted caramel and vanilla. This is a very short run for FOBAB as part of ICBG’s Barricale program.

About Chicago Smoke: We wanted to brew a smoked lager, and after talking with our Brewmaster, Jim Cibak, we decided we didn’t want the smoke character in this beer to be subtle (go figure). So we used 95% SMOKED Malts in this brew (2/3 Best BEECHWOOD smoked malt, and 1/3 Weyerman OAK smoked wheat).

Basically, from the first moment a person puts the glass to their nose, the smoke should dominate! At the same time, we wanted some balance and drinkability (relative to the style, of course), so the remainder of the grist is Patagonia C170L. This gives the beer its amber hue, and some caramel sweetness to help to tame some of the smoke character. Also, we made the beer big enough to have some body to back it up.