Day 2 - Oberfranken - A quiet afternoon until fate intervened.

Having gotten to bed fairly early and slept like a jet lagged rock I woke up feeling pretty good but a bit sluggish.  So after breakfast I went to have a late morning, restorative Schlenkerla Rauchbier.  I think it has magical properties when poured right from the barrel at it's home tavern.  I was soon feeling tip top.  I thought it was a perfect day for a nice quiet walk through the countryside to visit some small village breweries north of Bamberg.  I chose to start at Schwanen Brau in Ebing mainly because it is easy to get to being a short 15-20 minute train ride from Bamberg and the walk from the train stop in Ebing is a pleasant approx. 1 mile.  I had a bit of time to kill before the train departed so as I walked to the Bamberg station I veered left on Ober Konigstrasse to have a Pilsener at old standby Brauerei Faessla.  That hit the spot and made for a nice train ride.  Ticket was cheap maybe 3-4 euros and the ride was short. 

The Ebing train station was really country.  I got off with a bunch of school kids presumably coming home from school in the city.  The walk was nice and soon I was in the small village and quickly found the brewery.

The place is a real Franconian classic.  You enter through a big, barn like doorway (as is not uncommon for breweries in this region) and there is a large hallway with picnic tables for those that want to sit out side or if you happen to bring your dog.

 

 

The funny thing though as I walked up to the building I noticed a large tour bus parked outside.  Now going back to my previous post, for those of you who read it, you'll recall I mentioned running into some Swedes on a beer holiday the night before in Bamberg.  Well of course my first thought was that might be them.  Then again the odds were a bit long.  After all there are 100 or so breweries not far from Bamberg so the chance of them being at this exact one at this exact time are pretty astronomical. 

Well I entered and the place was indeed plenty full of beer drinkers.  I didn't immediately recognize any of them so I sat down to have a beer.  A lovely, malty, nutty Vollbier.  Just a delightful beer that I could have rested upon for the entire afternoon.

Then after tearing my attention from this classic Franconian beer I looked up and recognized Jan-Erik sitting at one of the tables so I got up to say hello and have a laugh about the odds of meeting again so randomly.  He asked what I was doing the rest of the afternoon and if I'd like to join them on the rest of their tour.  Who am I to argue with fate?  Besides it looked like it would be too much fun not to join in.  So after finishing my beer I left with them and hopped on the bus.

They were all very welcoming and friendly and Jan-Erik even went through the trouble of announcing that their new American friend Mark Andersen would be joining them for the rest of the day.  I was pretty impressed with the bus and the organization of the tour.  They even had some traditional German music on the speaker system as we drove to the various places.

There were three breweries left on their tour for the day.  The next one was a place I would also visit on the forthcoming Sunday in Lohndorf called Brauerei Holzlein. 

This particular place is now a favorite of mine.  Not just for the outstanding lager beer but also for the very traditional, homey character of the place.  They've got a very old school serving area where the beer is poured right from the barrel.

... and served in a nice looking krug.

It's very much a family operation.  The father and son were working there that day and I know from talking to Gerhard of Café Abseits that the son trained at another nearby brewery before returning to help his dad out at Holzlein.  This is a fairly common practice in the region I hear.  Anyhow it was cool to see the photo of the grandfather on the wall with his master brewers certificate next to those of his son and grandson.  I love to see tradition like this passed down through generations.

Well it was a nice stop.  This last photo of Holzlein is from a picture site of one of my Swedish travel companions that I have nicked since I'm in it.  Hope they don't mind. Oh and if anyone is wondering why I look so red in some of these pictures it is not only the number of beers drank it is also a lot of time spent walking around in the sunshine without sunscreen.

Next stop was a newer brewery pub that I was anxious to visit and jumping on this tour afforded the opportunity.  It is the Zoigl Stube Strassgeich.  It used to be a brewery called Drei Kronen that had shut down but was reopened as a pub serving he beer brewed not far away in Schnaid.

We sampled both the Kellerbier and the Zoigl.  It's not really a Zoigl in that it's not brewed in a real Zoigl town.  I'm not sure why it is called that other than maybe the recipe is similar.  At any rate I though both beers were pretty good but we didn't stay long so I reckon I may revisit some year for a more lengthy sampling. 

Last stop on the tour was Brauerei Griess in Geisfeld.  A place I had been to twice before and would revisit on the coming Sunday as well.  It's a favorite of mine.  I love the hoppy kellerbier they brew and would discover on Sunday I love it even more out of the barrel at the keller down the road.  It was a amusing stop in that the locals who were drinking there already were not expecting a bus load of 20-25 foreigners to stroll in and fill the place up. 

The tour ended at Griess and the bus returned to Bamberg just outside Brauerei Spezial.  I went and had dinner at Faessla with three of the others on the tour.  They were avid homebrewers like many of the other folks on the tour so much of the conversation that went on through the night was all things beer.  After dinner we went across the street to Spezial for a few rounds.  Sat at a table with an older gentleman and his two daughters.  One of his daughters lamented to me about how she met an American soldier from New Hampshire but lost all his contact info when she was caught in the Tsunami in Thailand.  She actually gave me her email address in the hopes that I would find him for her and email her his info.  Yeah that's really going to happen!  Hah!  I can see the look on the blokes face now when if I were to show up at his door where he probably now lives with his wife and X number of kids.  Yeah good luck with that.  Anyhow it gave me and my drinking buddies for the evening just another thing to laugh about while we spent the rest of the night drinking rauchbier at Schlenkerla right up to closing time. 

What a great afternoon and evening spent with some very knowledgeable beer enthusiasts and homebrewers from Sweden.  They asked if I'd like to join them the next day as well but knowing that I wouldn't feel to spry at 9am when their tour began I declined.  Besides I had another plan up my sleeve that would turn out to be a very entertaining evening.