Franconian Beer Message Board

Bamberg visit - Review 2

Posted by Barry on 2009-12-22 03:39:20

Sorry, I didn’t intend this to be a work of suspense, just been busy for the last couple of days. No, Nick not 'sarcasmus' just a little ‘tongue in cheek’. I have registered my liking for Mahrs on several occasions and, particularly the ‘real U’, and was delighted to find that, on our first visit, all seemed to be as usual. We managed to squeeze into the little ‘front room’, where we drank plentiful sufficiency of lovely unfiltered U from the barrel and engaged in interesting conversation with some of the regulars. However, there some practices in Mahrs that I do not like and, far from these being just the rantings of an occasional visitor, I found that the ‘regulars’ with whom we conversed shared some of these feelings. Their biggest gripe was that Mahrs allowed corporate bodies to reserve tables in the ‘little room’, sometimes not even taking them up, which then pushed out the regular drinkers. Added to this, there was some resentment about the ‘Stamtisch’, which seems to be a very exclusive club and not welcoming to some locals. In our final visit, the ‘little room’ was totally occupied (mainly by diners) and we were forced into the back room, which is quite devoid of character and reminds me of a school dining room. To add injury, it was fairly obvious that the U was not from the barrel but from a bottle (this also occurred later on our second visit). Now, I have read various comments here and elsewhere that German drinkers do not differentiate between bottled and barrelled beer but I found this quite contradictory. If there is no difference, why do so many pubs signify ‘vom fass’ as a selling point? And, what is the point of having supposed strict regulation over the basic ingredients of a beer when it can be polluted by artificially adding carbon dioxide? In discussing German brewing and dispensing techniques, John Conen, in his excellent book, comments that ‘…because greater care is taken in dispense, draught beers in Germany tend to be less gassy and more flavoursome than British keg beers and lagers’. With respect John, I think the point is rather irrelevant. As far as I am concerned, any addition of gas at the point of dispense has a negative effect on the taste. This also applies to the gas added to bottled beers. Certain of the Bamberg breweries (Fassla and Spezial, for example) seem to handle this better than others but, as the beer is brewed next door to the bar, why do they not serve it fresh and unfiltered? If thousands of pubs in Britain, often quite remote from the brewery, can manage this, why can’t pubs in Bamberg? Sorry, for this lengthy rant but I assume that the reasons for not serving ‘real’ beer are simply commercial – in other words, the very reasons that brought about keg beer in Britain and, ultimately, CAMRA. I assume that, once upon a time, all the German pub breweries dispensed their products naturally and I wonder why there was not a similar outcry about ‘kegged’ beers that there has been in other parts of the world. I guess that, in our future visits to Franken, we will have to seek out those pubs that do not filter, pasteurise or otherwise pollute their products. Finally, a little plug again for the wonderful Hirschbrau in Leipheim. Real beer, no additives, even in their bottled beers, great food, modest prices – well worth the detour!

Bamberg visit - Review 2 by Nick B. on 2009-12-22 05:25:04

Bamberg visit - Mahr's & U by Uncle Jimbo on 2009-12-22 06:28:04

Bamberg visit - Review 2 by Barry on 2009-12-23 04:40:18

Real Lager by Nick B. on 2009-12-23 05:43:06

Real Lager...and... by Nick B. on 2009-12-23 06:09:55

Bamberg visit - Review 2 by Uncle Jimbo on 2009-12-23 08:07:56

Bamberg visit - Mahr's & U by A Harvey on 2009-12-23 08:06:46

Bamberg visit - Review 2 by Fred Waltman on 2009-12-23 08:17:24

Bamberg visit - Mahr's & U by Barry on 2009-12-24 04:17:20

Bamberg visit - Mahr's & U by A Harvey on 2009-12-24 12:23:34

Bamberg visit - Mahr's & U by Barry on 2009-12-25 08:41:41

Bamberg visit - Mahr's & U by Robbie Pickering on 2010-01-02 15:28:54

Bamberg visit - Mahr's & U by Barry on 2010-01-03 07:23:25

Bright Beer, Conditioning, etc. by Nick B. on 2010-01-04 00:53:40

Bright Beer, Conditioning, etc. by Barry on 2010-01-04 08:48:52

Bright Beer, Conditioning, etc. by Uncle Jimbo on 2010-01-04 13:32:40

Bamberg visit - Mahr's & U by Mark Andersen on 2010-01-04 15:10:17

Bright Beer, Conditioning, etc. by Nick B. on 2010-01-05 01:22:34

Bamberg visit - Mahr's & U by Nick B. on 2010-01-05 01:40:22

Bright Beer, Conditioning, etc. by Barry on 2010-01-05 03:18:42

Bamberg visit - Mahr's & U by Barry on 2010-01-05 03:47:49

Bamberg visit - Mahr's & U by Mark Andersen on 2010-01-05 06:16:41

Bamberg visit - Mahr's & U by Mark Andersen on 2010-01-05 07:02:19

Natural carbonation in beers by Uncle Jimbo on 2010-01-05 10:22:09

Buzzards Bay by Uncle Jimbo on 2010-01-05 10:31:31

Bright Beer, Conditioning, etc. by Fred Waltman on 2010-01-05 17:08:46

Weyerman's Smoked Malt by Joelle on 2010-01-11 09:03:37

Weyerman's Smoked Malt by Mark Andersen on 2010-01-11 12:35:18

Weyerman's Smoked Malt by Joelle on 2010-01-11 13:10:47

Weyerman's Smoked Malt by Fred Waltman on 2010-01-11 14:17:07

Weyerman's Smoked Malt by Joelle on 2010-01-12 07:55:11

Weyerman's Smoked Malt by Uncle Jimbo on 2010-01-12 11:08:54

Weyerman's Smoked Malt by Nick B. on 2010-01-12 23:32:06

Weyerman's Smoked Malt by TreinJan on 2010-01-13 00:26:32

Weyerman's Smoked Malt by Nick B. on 2010-01-13 02:08:48