Terry’s Big Adventure

Terry’s Big Adventure by Bhramari Brewing Company is an experiment in the BJCP 32B Classic Style Smoke Beer, with the base being a Helles, but with the grain having been smoked using fig wood instead of the traditional beechwood. It seems that this choice of wood has delivered a somewhat different character to the finished beer that is a bit off-putting.

There is an ashy smoke character reminiscent of a mild hickory smoke. The beer is a quite hazy light golden color with small white bubbles that dissipate extremely fast delivering a quite poor head retention.

The base beer flavor is quite clean, but the smoke character dominates the overall flavor delivering a rather hammy character. These strong smoke notes are retained throughout the drink, but an additional ashy quality comes through in the finish along with an enhanced malt sweetness, delivering a rather flabby yet rough finish due to the ash flavor. The body is light/medium, and the carbonation is moderate. The overall fermentation character is quite clean.

Overall, Terry’s Big Adventure is an interesting attempt to use an alternative wood to smoke malt for a Rauchbier. However, the smoke character simply is too strong for this presentation, harming the flavor balance.