Franconian Beer Message Board

About time I put a few words together following our arrival in Franken. Our host collected us from the station and took us out to our apartment in Drosendorf, where he was eager to ply us with seidlas of his homebrew. This was a delicious extremely dark beer, made from 6 different malts and Spalt hops, around 4.5 OG. Not particularly hoppy but rounded and smooth, like a very dark version of Franken Schweiz dunkles – you would be delighted to drink it in any stube.

The apartment is beautifully appointed, although not too big at 43 sq/m, absolutely nothing is missing – except WIFI! This was a blip on my part because I thought that the website had said with WIFI but I had slipped in the Tchibo stick before leaving home, so off to Bamberg to update subscription and buy a VGN 10T ticket. I'm not sure how the latter will work out at €89.60 and whether we will get our money's worth but it is great not having to worry about buying individual tickets. Had a quick seidla of Görtchla in Höhn Memmelsdorf, which I think is a good beer, without being outstanding. In Bamberg, bought our ticket and updated Tchibo but, later, on trying to connect, realised that I had forgotten the PIN – stupid me but there was a lot to remember for the trip. Later that eve, walked 50 metres round the corner to Göller. First time and thinking about the varied reports on its beers. Myself, I was pleasantly surprised with the Helles, ok, not one of the great beers but a solid kellerbier type. However, the Dunkles was not quite as good – a bit thin and without too much body but drinkable at €2.10 a time.

Saturday morning, it's back to Tchibo – I've said before that these places are a bit of a mystery to me, as the combination of coffee, fashion and internet services is an odd mix. I've not met anyone in the shops who has the remotest idea of the how the stick works but the staff – always female – are unfailing charming and helpful. So it was on this occasion: it was Saturday lunchtime and the Gruner Market shop was hectic with people buying coffe but the lady assistant took time off her work (about half an hour) running between serving coffee and phoning the help number. Eventually, we got things sorted out and were back in action.

We had arranged to meet Frank Wetzel at Schlenkerla and it was a lovely surprise to find him accompanied by Robert Pawelczach and Ursl Blenk. Schlenkerla was packed but we eventually got a table in the Schwemm and settled down to discuss the Märzen. First, a note of caution to future visitors: a Pfand system has been introduced and you must pay a deposit on your glass for which you receive a little token. To get the Pfand back, you must join the queue and present both glass and token – it's a bit of a bind. Anyway, back to the beer. To our surprise, it lacked the extreme smokiness of previous visits: Robert suggested that the level of smokiness is often reduced in the summer for reasons of chemistry – I didn't really understand this – but it was also suggested that Heller were experimenting a little because visitors found the smokiness too extreme, so a sort of dumbing down exercise. Whatever the explanation, it was agreed by all that the change was not an improvement.

Our next port of call was Greifenklau to try the Bock. Frank had already tried this at the anstich, so settled for the Helles, while J. and self had the Bock, which received a mixed reception. J. didn't like it at all, so I ended up with 2 seidlas. My reaction, yes, it was ok but, IMHO, once you get over 6%, the taste of the alcohol begins to overpower all other tastes. This may be sacrilegious but the Bock reminded me of Carlsberg Special Brew – ok for drinking at home but nothing to go mad about.

Sunday was a lovely sunny day, so we decided to walk up to Hummel in Merkendorf – further than J. has walked since the hip op and a bit slow but we made it just after opening at 3 pm. It was fairly quiet at that stage, with a choice of seats in the garden but, as time progressed, both the garden and inside filled, so we were glad to have got there early. Hummel have an extensive beer menu and we opted for Raucherla – a really nice smoked beer, I suppose somewhere between Schlenkerla and Spezial. J. stayed with this but I moved on to the Zwickelbier, which was a really excellent pale yellow unflitered beer, nicely hopped – one of the nicest beers that I've tried in Franken. We'll be back for more and to try the other Hummel beers.