Wed 6th:
It’s our wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we decided to cycle into Bamberg, drink a few beers (possibly), and have a meal. Sounds a bit like last night, in fact.
We started off at Brauerei Fässla – simply because it was right alongside the bicycle alley leading onto the Königsstrasse. Again, no problem taking our bikes down the entrance and into the Biergarten/Atrium. I tried the Zwergla – a dark, rich, 6% Märzen.
One of my main reasons for wanting to come to Bamberg was for the Rauchbier (literally smoked beer). Bamberg is famous for Rauchbier and there are very few other places in the world, never mind Germany, where it is made. In fact, there are now only 2 breweries left in Bamberg that still produce this style.
It may sound weird, or even unpleasant, but Rauchbier often has a “bacon-like” smokiness flavour with sometimes a peppery finish to it that comes from the smoked malt used for brewing.
The first Rauchbier Brauerei I had on my list was Brauerei Spezial. It had to be close by Fässla as the street name was the same. In fact, it was on the opposite side of the road. Directly opposite. No more than 15 metres away. Fall out of one into the other if you’re lucky enough to avoid being run down by bicycles and cars.
First up for me was the Rauchbier Märzen – a 5.3% smoked dark lager. Well-hopped (again, this is feature of Fränkische beers compared to those from other parts of Germany), with smoky and toffee flavours. Most excellent.
Joy then departed to do some window shopping, and a local joined me at my table. So I had to have another beer just to be sociable. This time, it was an “ungespundetes” (unfiltered) 5% lager. Naturally cloudy, with malt, coriander, and woody flavours. Had a long chat with the local who was telling me all about the maltsters of Bamberg: there are two of them, both with large maltings supplying not just Bamberg, but the whole of Germany. Some of their malt makes it to the UK, apparently.
Time for the next brewery – Schlenkerla. This was a 5 minute bike ride away in the Altstadt, but was most definitely worth it. Again, I was able to park my bike in the Biergarten. This time however, I was unable to find anywhere to sit. It was crammed. I did the German trick of inviting myself to sit on someone else’s table (which is perfectly acceptable in Germany). As soon as they left, their spaces were seized by several Asians. In fact, when I looked around, the place was full of them. A couple more arrived and I was struggling to keep a space free for Joy.
Over a Rauchbier Weizen (a most unusual and extremely hard to find beer), I got chatting to the Asian couple who turned out to be Chinese, and from Canton. They were really friendly, and wanted to tell me all about their 11 day tour of Germany (including Füssen, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Munich in one day). They’d visited England last year but – apart from London and Bath – couldn’t recall where they’d been. Only that they found it very, very expensive (so do I). When their party left, they insisted on taking a photo of me!
In the meantime, I’d started on the Rauchbier Märzen – at 5.1% and probably the best German beer I’ve ever come across. When Joy arrived from her shopping expedition, I had to order another to go with our food. I’m not entirely sure what I ordered, but it seemed to be Bratkartoffeln mit kleine pieces of Schweine. It was exceedingly good.
I’m guessing we left at something around 7:30, and the place was still heaving. As were all the other Gaststätte we passed on the way back to Memmelsdorf.
This is a place I’ll definitely return to in the future.