On the Beer Trail, 15 July 2025

Peter's July 2025 BeGeCz (Belgium, German, Czech Republic) Beer Tour

Hello neighbors, friends, singers and home-brewers,

On Tuesday, July 15th, Herb and I took a train from Nürnberg to nearby Bamberg to taste their famous Rauchbiers (Smoke Beers). I recently made a Rauchbier at home and was interested in seeing how it compared to the ones from Schlenkerla, the Mother Lode of Smoke Beers.

With the help of the increasingly scary ChatGPT-4o, I had identified a few breweries in addition to Schlenkerla that might be worth visiting. About two weeks ago, our planning for Bamberg got a big boost from neighbor, friend, and German native, Tobias Kraus, who I believe grew up not far from Bamberg. With Tobi’s guidance, Herb and I settled on hitting three breweries:

• Fässla

• Schlenkerla and

• Spezial

The first part of our walk to reach Bamberg’s Old Town was through a commercial district like many other modern cities, but things got interesting when we passed into the older parts of town. (Bamberg was founded in the 10th century and was named a UNESCO World Heritage site on account of the outstanding preservation of many of its older buildings.)

Bamberg. Parts of the Old Town are visible, as well as the Regnitz River.

The Regnitz River runs through Bamberg, offering many opportunities to vies the rapids and bridges with a backdrop of the many beautifully restored and maintained older buildings,

At our first stop, Fässla, we were SHOCKED to find that they had no smoked beer. In fact, they had only one beer on tap, and I thought that I had ordered it, but the barmaid popped open a bottle to fill my order of a Helles.

A Helles served at Fässla Braueri.

Herb and I continued on to Schlenkerla, and here we were rewarded with an amazing Rauchbier experience.

Schlenkerla Brauerei

Schenkerla had several Rauchbiers. Their “base” brew is made with a blend of smoked malts that would produce a Märzen-like beer, were the smoke not there. This is the first one I tried.

It was a delight, and it was far less smoky that my own Rauchbier of a few weeks back. I think that I may have been given a bum steer by my “recipe whisperer” Josh Weikert on the recipe I followed for my own brew; the smoothness and maltiness of the Schenkerla Märzen left me wanting to go back and revise my approach to making smoked beers. Which I will do!

Here are my notes for the Schenkerla Märzen:

• Appearance - dark copper, brilliantly clear, with a short-lived tan head

• Aroma - smoke, smoke, and more smoke. How could anything else find its way to the surface?

• Taste - amazingly drinkable, given the expectation that it would be a “smoke bomb”. It’s much less smokey than my own brew, which utilized a cherrywood smoked malt that supposedly generates less smoke in the beer than the beechwood smoked malt used by Schenkerla. You can actually taste the malt, and it's complex and multidimensional - can’t find the right words here. And there’s a lingering and delightful bitterness that is coated with smoke. Wow.

• Mouthfeel - lightly carbonated and medium bodied.

• Overall Impression - stunning! It’s a good thing that Schenkerla is so far from where I live.

Herb and I ordered some locally popular fare to go with our beers:

(Yes, I have made a big deal about not eating mammals, but this part of the world, that would require more willpower than I have. Tuck in!)

For a second brew, I tried their Cherrywood-smoked beer (Weichsel Rotbier mit Kirschrauchmalz), and this too was heavenly.

Given Herb’s predilection to chat up anything with a heartbeat, we got to talking with a foursome who shared our table in the beer garden. They were German (except one) but viewed themselves as tourists, like us, and they were delightful. Three of them agreed to have their names added to the Newsletter mailing list: Steffan, Christian, and Oscar. They too were beer touring and were exploring sites in Franconia (a part of Bavaria, I think). My German was not good enough to realize that at some point they asked our waiter to treat Herb and me to aNOTHER beer. What a nice gesture! (But, in truth, I was wondering where I was going to PUT all that beer.) I chose the Schlenkerla Rauchweizen, the Smoked Wheat Beer:

The last of the Cherrywood-smoked beer on the right, and the THIRD 0,5L beer, a Smoked Weizenbier, on the left.

On our way back to the Train Station in Bamberg we stopped in at Spezial, the third of the breweries recommended by neighbor Tobi, and had one MORE beer (now, I am at 2,5L for the day):

Two Smoked Beers at Spezial: a smoked Lager (l.) and a Smoked Weissbier (r.).

You would think that 2,5 liters of beer would be enough for one day, but no … what was I going to have with dinner once back in Nürmberg?

A Weissbier and a Pilsner, both from Lammsbräu, at a Lebanese restaurant.

And there we have it: 3,0 liters of beer in the stretch of about eight hours. I am having a great time on this tour, but it needs to end soon. And it will.

So much beer, so little time.

Peter

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