After we awoke from a 2 hour nap, we decided to head over to the department of tourism to pick up their Brewery Trail kit. For 20 Euros we received a map of Bamberg and directions to its 10 local breweries, coupons for a free beer at 4 of them (and free admission to the brewery museum), a clay stein and a Bamberg backpack to keep everything in. We spent a bit of time looking over the map and decided to head directly to the most famous brewery in Bamberg, Schlenkerla.
We had read on websites that navigating your way through Schlenkerla could be a bit confusing. Apparently there is one room dedicated to regulars and locals, one larger room meant for tourists and a biergarten. Upon entering, it appeared that the tourist room was closed, so we walked into the room for regulars. We stood in the entrance, looking around, wondering if we were in the right spot and the bartender invited us to sit down and asked if we’d like 2 beers.
At Schlenkerla, there is always one beer on tap being served from a very large, ancient barrel. This beer is their famous rauchbier (smokebeer). You can find this beer in Indiana, and I highly recommend trying it at least once if you haven’t, but drinking it directly from the serving barrel it has a much more complex and balanced smoke flavor and nice creamy mouthfeel. In fact, almost every beer we had in Germany had a smooth, creamy mouthfeel.
Once we grabbed a seat at one of the communal tables and we were well into our pints, the bartender came over and handed us a few promotional materials related to the brewery. We learned the whole story of Schlenkerla, and discovered the reason all the rafters were dark is that 1500s, they used to regularly paint them with the blood of the pigs the brewery served. I’m guessing they use regular paint now. We were curious if that’s the reason all traditional German architecture features very dark wood, but decided we should probably not ask. When the waitress came to collect on our tab, I fumbled greatly with my German numbers and Jess had to save me. When we settled up, we ventured back out into the city.
From here, we wandered the city a bit and just took in how beautiful Bamberg was. All the buildings are maintained in their historic style and nothing looks modern. You can view art from just about any point in the city, whether it’s stone statues, metal or marble sculptures or other historic items. It’s a really great thing that many American cities are placing a large focus on bringing public art into urban areas, but our efforts don’t even come close to the overwhelming amount of history that surrounds you in Germany. For the rest of the afternoon we simply just walked down streets in any direction to see what we could find. Nowhere were we alone, there were people out on the streets in all directions, and this was a Monday afternoon!
After our stroll through the city, we decided to make our way over to the other famous rauchbier brewery in Bamberg, Spezial. Spezial’s rauchbier is a much more tame rendition of the style. Heavy, dark roasted malts are replaced with a lighter caramel flavor. Similar to an amber or altbier. The smoke is subdued as well compared to the almost bacon-like smoke of Schlenkerla. It’s very apparent why both of these breweries can co-exist in such close proximity. Spezial is where I made my first and biggest faux pas. When we sat down in the biergarten, I asked the waitress for 3 beers. Having only known German for about 48 hours, zwei and drei sound very close. So close that I get them mixed up. Drei is three. Drei rauchbier bitte is 3 smokebeers please. Jess gave me a puzzled look and the waitress responded “drei?” to which I responded “Ja, drei.” As the waitress walked away, Jess quietly informed me that I just ordered three beers. Well crap. In an effort to save face, when the beers arrived I indicated that I would like two and Jess would have one. I don’t think it really fooled her. Now this is where things turn south. After excitedly flipping through pictures on my camera, I reached across the table to hand it to Jess so that she could see them. Upon pulling my hand back, my elbow hit one of my two beers and knocked it over. Great. Now I’m not just an ignorant tourist, I’m a drunk ignorant tourist. At this point I actually wished I was drunk, because then I probably wouldn’t have been completely self-conscious about the entire event. My shirt and pants were drenched in beer. I righted the mug, finished what was left of it and moved it away from myself. I spent the rest of our time at Spezial with my full mug clenched tightly in one hand. On the upside, the camera didn’t get wet, and after my clothes dried I was neither sticky nor did I smell of beer. Beer in Germany is magic!
For dinner that night, we decided to visit another brewery that was ranked very high for their food in our guide book, Klosterbräu. Once again, we sat outside, as we almost always did during our stay in Germany. Klosterbräu was the first place that we decided to order Spargelcremesuppe (white asparagus cream soup). We later learned that this large white variety of asparagus only grows in Germany for 6 weeks each year, and we were lucky enough to be there just after the season began! Almost every restaurant we visited had some sort of spargel special. The soup here was probably the best variation of spargelcreme suppe we had, as it had just a hint of horseradish that really livened things up.
I went ahead and ordered the schweinshaxe here and it was simply amazing. The exterior was light and crispy like fresh pork rinds and the interior was similar to steaming pulled pork. This was definitely the best schweinshaxe I had while in Germany. Jess went with a lighter meal of weisswurst in a vinegar sauce, as she was still full from lunch. We had a few beers here, a dunkel, a dunkelweiss, a hefeweiss and a maibock. All were great but most noticeably the maibock was not as sweet and heavy as American renditions, which was a welcome surprise. Jess’ favorite of the night was their Hefeweiss.
We stopped off at a nice little pub just outside of our hotel on the way back for one last drink. We made the observation that every single beer has proper glassware and the bartenders knew how to properly pour every one, whether it was from a bottle or tap. We enjoyed each others’ company to the sweet sounds of 80s American pop music, which for some reason is very popular in Germany. On our short stroll back to the hotel down narrow, faintly lit cobblestone streets, we fell in love with Bamberg and how picturesque and romantic of a city it is.
Last year I had started working at the NCAA after the window to request tickets to the first and second rounds of the Men’s Basketball tournament. This year when the ticket request came around I jumped at the chance to see these student-athletes battle it out in one of the craziest times of the year.
View from our room
Another view from the room
Jess in front of the old city hall
