Get it while it is here...
Left Hand Smoke Jumper...$8.29 / 22oz
Smoked Imperial Porter.
When I went to the GABF this year, we also took a visit to Left Hand. We saw them smoking the malt for this beer. It smelled unbelievable. It was a great treat to actually see how the smoked the malt. I cannot wait to taste it tonight.
Beer Description: Roasty black in color, the long-lingering smokiness wraps around flavors of sweet molasses, toasted malt and an earthy hoppiness. A 21 degree plato Imperial Porter, the espresso and bittersweet chocolate flavors are present and blend well with, rather than overshadowed by, the hand smoked malt flavors. 9.51% ABV with 50 IBU’s.
A Bit of Smoke & Malt?
We love smoke in our beers. The smokier the better, or, as our Head Brewer, Ro Guenzel puts it, “If it says ‘smoke’ on the bottle, it better have smoke.” There was even a time before the Industrial Revolution that most of the beers crafted had a noticeable smoke characteristic to them. Why is that, you ask? Well, in those early days they didn’t have the ability to pick up the phone and call a maltster and ask for non-smoked malt. Those early brewers had their malt dried over open fires, which proved to be significantly quicker than drying it by the warmth of the sun and air. However, it imparted a smoky flavor, which (aghast!), many of those early brewers tried to filter out. However, some did not.
...So, being the crafty folk that we are, we decided to build our own smoker – developed by our Head Brewer Ro. Basically, we took a free-standing commercial warm & serve oven and outfitted it with 14 custom-built screen lined trays, vents and a very slick smokestack. That allowed us to smoke those 14 trays for 4 solid hours a time without those pesky workers comp related issues! Not to mention allowing us to ultimately control the levels of smokiness that we wanted to achieve with this year’s version – which was critical to us achieving that correct flavor profile without having it overwhelm the other flavors of our Imperial Porter. And, finally, the other question that we typically get: What type of wood(s) do you use to smoke your malt? Well, the use of different woods to smoke malt imparts different flavors in the beer. And that’s right where we’ll have to stop you – that old adage “we could tell you but we would have to kill you” applies. That’s the secret sauce, my friends." -- Chris Lennert, Left Hand Brewing
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