So I got an e-mail from Cost Plus World Market a while back. I was in Rhode Island at the time, and since they don't have World Market locations in RI, I wasn't able to take advantage of the special price it mentioned. Still, the product, Shiner Smokehaus Mesquite Smoked Beer, intrigued.

Enough so, in fact, that I headed on down to World Market when I got back to Atlanta (interestingly enough, nobody else seemed to have this one). They did have a few cases left, so I bought a six-pack to go with some grilled bratwurst, pork ribs, shrimp, and veggies we were making that night. It did serve to wash down the smoky fare well enough, I'll admit.

The retro-style packaging was a hit at the cook out, and I'll admit that it hooked me, too. Shiner says their Smokehaus is "Brewed with pale malt that's been smoked with native mesquite in the backyard of our brewery in Shiner, Texas (pop. 2,070).......
 
Shiner calls this a Helles in style, which is a German style of pale lager that accents malt over hops. Still, by using smoked malt they're also putting one foot in the equally Teutonic Rauchbier category. Rauchbier means smoked beer, and the most celebrated examples come from the Franconia area of Bavaria. If a glass of Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier has never passed your lips, you just haven't lived.

But how would Shiner's beer hold up? I had high hopes.

Shiner Smokehaus Mesquite Smoked Beer pours to a pale golden color with a light fizzy head formation and a faint nose of crisp biscuity malt. What I want in the nose, though, is smoke, and I'm not really getting any. This is not a good first sign.I life the glass to my lips and take a sip. Contrary to Shiner's suggestion that the beer should be served ice cold, I've allowed it to warm a little to better appreciate the smoke flavor.

And that's a problem, because there really isn't any smoke flavor. As a Helles, even, I'm not sure I'm crazy about this one. There is some pale malt flavor, but I'm also getting a hint of annoying adjunct, too. Ice cold, this might be OK, but if I'm just looking for something to drink ice cold I could buy a 12-pack of Coors for the $7.99 price of a six-pack of Shiner Smokehaus.

I think that finally, in the finish, I get a faint hint of mesquite smoke. But it's so faint that Shiner should be ashamed to call this a smoked beer. It ain't rauchbier in my beer book, and it's not a beer I would buy again.

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