Franconian Beer Message Board

Sandkerwa 08 report

Posted by mike004 on 2008-09-01 05:18:25

Here are some notes from my visit to Sandkerwa 2008, just over a week ago. The moans: * Friday and Saturday nights, it was *absolutely* packed. Uncomfortably so, at the bottle neck in front of Ambrosium. At one point, I was worried about getting crushed. In future I will definitely give the evenings a miss. Afternoons, though, are much more relaxed and manageable. * It may just be me getting old, but it seemed that there were a lot more teenagers and stag parties around this year, getting off their heads and behaving like idiots. I even saw a punch up between two groups of German lads -- something I've never seen before, even at big fests like Berlin & Munich. * Spezial, Keesmann & Griefenklau were closed. Spezial keller was open, but not Wilde Rose or Mahrs keller. * I got the bus out to Dorfleins, but Eichhorn was closed down for the weekend. Just my luck. I was too early for the nearby keller, so I had walked across to Hallstadt and visited the Golden Lion. Best beers at Sandkerwa: * Goller Pils -- under the bridge near Lewinskis, next to the herring stall. This is the Zeil am Main brewery, I think. I only found this one on the last evening. They have quite flashy (for Franconia) marketing, so I mistook them at first for an industrial size pils brewery. * Faessla Lagerbier -- at the Kalb stall, in the backstreets. Superb. The beer at the Faessla brewery tap also seems to be back to its best. But it downright weird walking into a smoke-free Faessla. * Hummel kellerbier -- opposite the church on Sandstr. * Huppendorfer vollbier -- at the Cafe Abseits stand behind Sclenkerla. Reliable as ever. * Also good were Spezial, Kaiserdom festbier, and Sonne. Disappointing beers: Mahrs -- Tasted like grapefruit juice. Hoenig -- I threw half of it down the drain. Schlenkerla -- Thinner and weaker than I remember it. St. Georgen keller beer -- Very disappointed. This used to be a fave of mine. Other stuff: * Best beer of my visit was at Palmengarten in the Plarrer area of Nuremberg. They had Lindenbrau Dunkel on draught, though it's more of an amber brew. I strongly recommend this pub. It opens at 5PM, if I recall correctly. Nearby is Landbierparadies, where I incidentally had the worst beer of my trip, a keller bier from Haid. Also in the area is the Palais Schoneberg pub. In addition to having interesting beers on draught, all three of these pubs seem to do a rapid trade in bottled Franconian country beers, such as Weissenhoe, Meister, and the Forchheim brews. * I stayed above the Neumann music shop, 5 mins walk from the station on Leopoldstr. Very clean, budget accommodation. They have a selection of rooms and also apartments to rent, I think. Recommended. Mike

Sandkerwa 08 report by Fred Waltman on 2008-09-01 08:58:49