Name: Red Hill Brewery Red Smoke Red Rauchbock

Style: Rauchbock

Country: Australia 

ABV: 8%

Beer description: Red Hill Brewery is a quaint little brewery nestled on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia. As their name suggests, they’re in the town of Red Hill. The brewery has its own hop garden, which they use in many of their beers. So you know all of their beers are going to be fresh and tasty.

Red Hill Brewery’s Red Smoke Rauchbock is part of ten red beers that they brewed to celebrate their tenth anniversary. Because, well, they were ten years old (ten beers) and they’re from Red Hill (red beers). Since this was a special release, we went into this thing expecting quite a bit, and we weren’t disappointed.

While there’s not a lot of head on this one as it pours, it suits the style and the drinker is more distracted by the distinct smell of barbecue sauce and bacon. After all, this is a smoked beer. And we’re not talking about a Saturday afternoon flipping burgers with friends. This stuff smells like proper Carolina Barbecue that mama makes. Really get your face in this beer while it’s still bubbling though, as the carbonation dies down quickly and it’s hard to get more aroma afterwards.

If you miss out on the aroma, there’s plenty there in the flavour, but the drinker is also greeted with plenty of peat and whiskey. As well as the distinct taste of a warm fireplace, late at night on a cold night as the flames die down. This taste almost feels like ash, but it’s pleasurable and associated with fine memories. It’s smoke, but combined well with a little bit of sweetness and tartness so it doesn’t feel like you’re licking an ashtray.

The tartness is what subtly drives this beer home. It cleanses the mouth mouth as the beer goes down so the next sip is a fresh one that can take on this bold beer one more time. It prevents the smokiness from taking over and, as mentions, prevents it from feeling like this beer is being drunk out of a pub ashtray.

The Red Hill Brewery Red Smoke Red Rauchbock is a great beer. It’s a surprisingly relaxing beer despite its size and shape. While this beer probably isn’t for people with a lighter palate, it may be a good one for people dipping a toe into smoked styles. Big, smoky porters and stouts can be a lot to dive into, so starting with a rauchbock may be a good idea. This one has enough to it to keep the experts interested, but may not be too scary for a novice.

Give it a go, if you can still find it.

On a side note, we’ve been on a beer adventure to Red Hill Brewery. Check it out!

Check out all rauchbock reviews.

Check out all reviews of beers by Red Hill Brewery.