Franconian Beer Hiking

There are many things that for me make the Franconia region of Germany stand out culturally.  But if I had to pick one thing that is truly unique and something you really can do quite to this extent anywhere else it would have to be the ability to go on long hikes (I use the term hike loosely as these are fairly easy, albeit hilly, walks) and visit plenty of breweries and beer gardens along the way.  Biergarten Wanderungen they call it and there is plenty of options in the Franconian countryside to do this for the motivated and adventurous.

One of the most convenient routes that one can find using Bamberg as a base is the walk from Tiefellenern to Strullendorf.  This route is half of a much longer walk or bike ride that can be done in a section of Oberfranken often referred to as the Franconian Tuscany (presumably because of the beautiful rolling, agricultural terrain found there). 

One can find an online map of this walk here: Thirteen Brewery Walk

On foot there is no way one is going to do this entire walk in a day but it can be done over two days easily and there are places to stay overnight along the way.  I met up with some fellow beer lovers from England, Scotland, and Jersey for the day that I did the walk and we didn't quite hit all the breweries even along half the path.  We did manage to visit 4 of them but given more time there were two others as well as an extra beer garden or three that could have been managed along the trail.

The best day to go is on a Sunday since this is when all the places along the way open the earliest.  So it started out in the village of Tiefellenern that can be easily be reached by bus #970 from Bamberg across from the train station.  There is a good website that helps you sort out all the bus line #'s and schedules at www.vgn.de.  Yes it does help to learn a bit of German and spend some time studying this site.  Eventually you'll figure out how to pull up the correct bus line number and view the schedule like so:  http://www.vgn.de/efa9/efa99/vgn_www/TTB/00003dd4.pdf

Anyhow the bus left Bamberg at 11:25 and had us at the doorsteps of the first brewery by 11:51 am.  Leaving a solid 8+ hours of daylight to walk and enjoy good beer along the way.  The bus ride is very easy and convenient and if I had not left my camera on the seat it would have been less stressful too.  Luckily the bus returned 10 minutes later to the same stop after turning around and I was able to get back on and retrieve my camera thanks to the very friendly bus driver.  Brauerei Honig is the brewpub at Tiefellenern and it's got a nice beer garden in the back for when the weather is as nice as it was that day.

 

 

 

The beer at this first stop was a respectable Pils served in a ceramic krug and they gravity pour the beer from a barrel at the serving counter.  Not nearly the best beer of the days walk but a nice start.

One of the pleasures of this walk are how easy the trails are to follow and how well kept they are.  The first walk would take us from Tiefellenern about 3km mostly downhill to the next village of Lohndorf.  As mentioned in a previous blog post the beer and pub at Brauerei Holzlein is outstanding.  One of my top 10 Franconian lagers easily.

About a half hour or so of walking and the village of Lohndorf comes into view.

And before you know it you are working your way through the streets to the brewery.

It a little bit of head scratching to figure out what street the brewery was on but it didn't take too long.  It's hard to miss since it's a big blue-ish building right on the main street.

 

 

And before you know we are having a lovely lager beer poured right from the barrel by the braumeister himself.

 

Nice beer garden out back to even though we sat inside and had some lunch and a couple of beers.

It was tough to leave Holzlein but there was more places to visit a lot of walking in between so the next stop would be the village of Melkendorf.  This one took us up over a forested hill and was about another 3 kilometers in distance.  But what lovely views, firstly of Lohndorf behind us and then up through the woods and down into Melkendorf.

 

I love the mushroom statues that welcomed us to Melkendorf.

The brewery at Melkendorf is called Winkler and I've heard mixed reviews about it so I set my expectations for the beer somewhat low but it was actually better than I anticipated.  It was worth stopping for along the way at least on this day.  Maybe my standards aren't as high as some others?  But then again my hiking/drinking comrades for the day seemed to enjoy it as well.

The place might have the worst architecture of any brewpub I've seen so far though.  It was 1950's concrete block construction  no frills kind of place.  But a very nice shady patio was a good resting spot for two krugs of this beer.

After Melkendorf the brewery density begins to rise as the next 3-4km walk takes you to Geisfeld where there are two breweries and a great beer keller called Griess Keller.

This was probably my favorite part of the walk that day as the forest that you pass through is just stunning and is complete with beer signs to point you in the right direction.

We didn't have time to visit Brauerei Krug in town so went straight to the Griess Keller.  I've attempted to visit the Griess Keller twice before on previous trips but found it closed both times due to cooler than seasonable weather.  This time I was not to be denied and found this glorious bier keller open and the beer was every bit as good as I hoped.  Again they gravity pour it right from the barrel in the cellar.

There is so much more to do on this walk and I will do it again and again.  You've got Brauerei Krug in Geisfeld.  In nearby Rossdorf Am Forst you have Brauerei Sauer that also has it's own bier keller nearby and finally you can pass 2 or 3 other nice beer gardens and pubs along the way as you head back to Strullendorf where you can catch a quick train ride (5-10 minutes) back to Bamberg.

Can't wait to do this one again.



What happens in Merkendorf stays in Merkendorf!

So after a beer tour and lengthy pub crawl with the Swedes I needed a long sleep and that is exactly what I did.  No breakfast just sleep until about noontime.  So what would today bring?  I kind of had in the back of my mind that I would like to go to a small festival called Bierabend held at a brewery in the nearby village of Merkendorf but wasn't quite sure I'd be up for it.  So I decided the thing to do was go to Cafe Abseits and contemplate the issue.  While having a few beers of course.  This is easy to do at Café Abseits because they might very well have the best beer selection in all of Germany.  At least from what I've seen so far.  It's a great place to visit if you want to try a range of different Franconian beers without having to travel all over Bamberg and the surrounding area to do it.  It's also a nice culinary break from the "traditional" Franconian cuisine.  In other words, you can get something spicy like the chili.  I love the chili at Abseits BTW.  It's fairly good stretch of the legs from the Altstadt being on the other side of the train station.  Altogether about 1.5 kilometer walk. 

It was busy in the Altstadt and a bit rainy as I started my walk past Schlenkerla.  It's one of the few times I walked by Schlenkerla on this trip without stopping for a pick me up Rauchbier.

First beer at Abseits was a no brainer.  The Monschsambacher Maibock from Brauerei Zehender.  It was fantastic.  My spirits lifted with each quaff of this brilliant, malty brew.

I ate a nice lunch (including chili) and sampled a few other beers while talking to the proprietor Gerhard Schoolman about all things local beer.  Gerhard is always very hospitable to us beer tourists and a fountain a knowledge about the local brewing scene.  One of the beers I got to try was a pale ale (of all things in Franconia!) brewed at a fairly new local brewery in Breitengussbach.  Not too shabby for a lager brewing region.

Well I probably don't need to tell you that by the time I got through lunch I was feeling quite lively and the venture out into the countryside to Bierabend in Merkendorf was definitely going to happen.  I've always wanted to visit Merkendorf, festival or not, since it has two excellent breweries each with quite a selection of different beers.  So I walked to the train station and hired a taxi to take me there.  It took about 15-20 minutes and was a nice ride out to the countryside and finally to the small village of Merkendorf.  I knew from the ride that if worse came to worse I could walk back to Bamberg from there but as it turned out getting a cab later was no problem. 

The Bierabend festival didn't start until 5pm so I had some time to kill.  So first stop was Brauerei Wagner. 

My first inclination was to go into the pub and have a seat inside but it was packed!  Not only was it packed but I was by far the youngest person in the room other than the staff.  So I went back into the entrance hallway and ordered a beer from the window and enjoyed it at a small table.  After growing bored with that I went outside and sat at one of the tables. I was the only one as it was somewhat chilly.  But I was on vacation and quite content to sit there quietly and enjoy this nice kellerbier.

From there I opted to walk around the village a bit and take some photos.  Lovely place and just imagine living in such a small village yet have two world class breweries just a hop, skip, and a jump from your doorstep.  Lucky people.

Okay so having had enough of the mini-photo tour of Merkendorf it was time to head to Brauerei Hummel and take this Bierabend festival head on.

Not being totally sure where the festival was actually taking place I took a seat in the courtyard beer garden behind the front building situated perfectly between the pub and the brewery.  First beer ... a Maibock of course!  It was phenomenal.  Better than the Monschsambach Maibock IMO. 

Second sample was the kellerbier that they were gravity pouring right from the barrel for the festival.  I don't know if that's a regular thing or not.

I've had the kellerbier from a bottle before but that was nothing compared to this superb version gravity poured from a barrel.  So I just sat quietly for a while watching a few people pass through the courtyard and just enjoying the idyllic atmosphere.

I snuck a photo of a nearby, elderly gent sitting at the Stammtisch quietly enjoying his kellerbier.  I took this photo because to me this typifies Franconia.  An elderly local sitting peacefully enjoying beer from his local that is as good as it can be made on earth.  This is heaven.

Before long some folks from Bamberg that decided to come to the festival sat down at the table with me and between my broken German and their broken English we had a nice chat about local beer and breweries.  I finally realized the barn door across the courtyard where people where coming in and out of must be where the festival is being held.  So I got up to check it out.  It was.  I opened the door and this is what I saw.

How the hell could I not hear this going on from the courtyard 50 yards away!?  Anyhow it was a Franconian version of a hootenanny!  Or is that a hoedown?  It was a good fucking time I can tell you that.  Above was the view to one side.  This was the view when you turn around 180 degrees.

 

Lovely kellerbier being gravity poured form the barrel.  Jackpot!!

I spent the better part of the evening switching between Maibock and Kellerbier, eating brats, taking pictures, and talking to locals.  It got a little out of hand taking pictures as these two birds didn't seem to thrilled with a stranger taking their photo.  "Get the fuck out of here!" she seems to be saying.  So I left that one alone for the night.

They started playing some weird drinking games that I watched in bemusement.

There were three fellow beer lovers arriving to Bamberg that day from Jersey, Scotland, and England so I gave the Jerseyman an call and told him how great a time I was having a Bierabend and that they should get a taxi to Merkendorf ASAP.  They did and met me for the first time completely shattered on Maibock and Kellerbier.  We all had a great time and thanks to them I got a taxi ride back to Bamberg.  Had they not arrived I might have had to crawl back.  One photo that I really loved was another elderly gent relaxing at Bierabend over a kellerbier.  This could be me in 30 years.  I hope!

I hope to make it to Bierabend again next year.