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Report on Trip to Bamberg and Merkendorf (long)

Posted by Joelle on 2006-04-06 07:32:01

Day 1 Better late than never, here’s the long awaited report on the Dewberry/Martin visit to Bamberg and Merkendorf. Dan and I met up with our friends Marc and Janet Martin at the Frankfurt airport around 7.30 on Sunday, March 12th. We arrived at the train station in frigid Bamberg about 12.30. After checking into our rooms at Fässla just before they closed for the day, we headed over to Spezial to grab something to eat and sample some of their beers. Spezial’s lunch dishes were huge and very tasty. We came to find that large portions are the norm in Germany and began splitting dishes, or one of us would ordered soup or a salad and split an entrée. Marc, Dan and I shared a Lager, a Märzen and a Weizen so we could taste most of their range. The Märzen was my favorite because it was the smokiest. I’m not a big fan of smoked Weizens, so that one came in last with me. After lunch a short nap was in order. Dan and I were ready to head out again around 18.00, but Marc and Janet were feeling under the weather, so we hit the town on our own. First stop was Schlenkerla. We’d had their Märzen and Weizen in bottles before, but were very excited to get to try the Märzen vom fass. We peeked in the first room to the left of the entrance, but it was packed, so we took seats at a table in the schwemm. First off we decided to try the Fastenbier since we had heard it was less smoky than the Märzen. It was quite good and definitely warming after the cold walk from Fässla. The couple sharing our table commented on our drinking the starkbier and quickly figured out we weren’t German. We made small talk in broken German and English for awhile, when the lady finally gave up and grabbed a guy from one of the other tables to translate for us. Helmut very graciously chatted with us for awhile and even bought a round or two of Märzen. Talk about hospitality! The Märzen was everything we had expected. Soft and smoky we could have drunk it all night long. Helmut noticed that we had Fred’s Beer Drinker’s Guide to Bamberg and called over a younger guy from a nearby table. Knut, as we came to find, is quite the beer connoisseur and he had even met Fred before. Knut reminded us that we needed to try the Ottobier over at Stilbruch since it was only served on Sundays. Reluctantly we drug ourselves away from the nice folks at Schlenkerla and headed over to Stilbruch with Knut and another guy to try the Ottobier. It was quite tasty as well, but it would have probably been better if we had sampled it before all of the Rauchbiers. I noticed some guys playing a lively game of cards at a nearby table and Knut told us that was Schafkopf. We came to find this was also a very common sight in the pubs in Franconia. He said it was a very confusing game and he didn’t really understand it. I’ve since looked it up after getting back to my computer and it seems to be much like Pinochle. My great grandmother used to play that all the time and she came from German heritage. Soon the jetlag started kicking in and we parted ways with the guys promising to meet Knut at Der Pelikan the following evening for some Thai food. Day 2 The cold weather hadn’t abated and when we headed down for breakfast the next morning big snowflakes were falling. Breakfast is one of my favorite things when traveling in Europe and Fässla didn’t disappoint. Lots of bread, meat and cheeses were available along with yogurt, fruit and cereal. I stuck with the first three! Janet still wasn’t feeling well, so Dan, Marc and I went to check out the city. We dropped by the visitor’s center to buy the Bamberg Beer Card. For 20 Euros you get a card for 1 free beer at 5 different pubs, a small mug with all of the Bamberg breweries listed on it, coasters from all of the breweries and a nice backpack. Definitely worth the price! Most of the museums were closed on Monday, so we looked in a few shops before heading over to Schlenkerla so Marc could sample their beer. It was much less crowded around 10.00, but there were still many people in there having a morning beer break. Wish we could do this at home! We decided to have lunch at the little Middle Eastern restaurant next to Fässla and it was very good. A short nap to help the jet lag and Dan, Marc and I were off to sample some of the beers at Keesmann. We had the Herren Pils, the Lager and the Weizen. They were all good, but the Pils was the best with a good amount of hops. Next we headed across the street to Mahr’s. We’d heard many good things about the U, so we thought we’d see for ourselves. The interior of Mahr’s was very cozy and more crowded than Keesmann. Here we sampled the Helles, U and Weizenbock. The U was nice and malty and the Weizenbock was excellent with dark caramel notes. Unfortunately the Helles was thin and metallic tasting. We didn’t even finish it which is unusual for us. It was getting close to 18.00 and we had to walk quite a way to check on Janet at the room before heading out to meet Knut for dinner at Der Pelikan. After a few wrong turns Dan managed to get us there, but we were 50 minutes late for our meeting with Knut. The wait staff were very nice and lent us a cell phone to try and reach Knut at home, but there was no answer, so we went ahead with dinner. Did I mention the wait staff was very nice? When they realized we spoke English they brought us a menu written in English. The food was terrific and they had a decent beer list. We shared a Mönchsambacher Weizenbier, a Zirndorfer Hell and a Dunkel (I think it was Huppendorfer Dunkles Vollbier). They were all good and went well with my chicken in red curry sauce. Unfortunately Marc’s stomach started acting up again after spring rolls and some spicy Thai food, so we decided to call it an early evening and make the chilly walk back to our rooms. Day 3 Day three proved to be a much better day for Janet. So after breakfast the four of us walked over to the visitors center to buy some Bamberg cards and take some tours. They were 8 Euros each and provided admission to 4 or 5 museums and churches and free bus rides for the next two days. First stop was the Dom Cathedral. It had a nice museum attached to it with the usual religious items. Even though we couldn’t read the captions we got the gist of it. We also visited the cathedral portion and were similarly impressed. For lunch we headed over to Klosterbräu. As we walked in the door we were hit with the familiar smell of boiling wort. Lunch was delicious with the highlight being a spaetzle dish that was very reminiscent of macaroni and cheese. Talk about rich! Once again, Dan, Marc and I shared our beers. We had the Braunbier, Schwärzla and Pils. All were good, but I liked the Schwärzla the best with it’s chocolate notes. The Braunbier came in second. It was sort of like a Vienna lager in flavor. The Pils was OK, but not as good as Keesmann’s Herren Pils. Next we tried to visit the Ancient History Museum, but after finally finding it we found that it wasn’t opening until April (would have been nice to know this at the tourist office). The nearby Neue Residence wasn’t free on the list of Bamberg tour card options, so we decided to walk up to St. Michael’s Cathedral (even though it wasn’t on the card either). We were very glad we did. It was even prettier than the cathedral at the Dom, and the view over the city was spectacular. Unfortunately the Brewery Museum that is in a building in the parking lot for the cathedral didn’t open until April either. Are you seeing a trend here?? No biggie. Needing a drink, we headed off down the hill to catch a bus to Greifenklau. There was a rowdy game of Schafkopf going when we arrived at Greifenklau. We sampled their Hefeweizen and Lager. The Weizen was milder than most with a little bit of banana and sweetness. The lager was grainy tasting with mild sweetness and not as clean as you would expect for a lager. Unfortunately the door to the beer garden out back was closed, so we couldn’t check out the view of the city which is supposed to be so nice. We bussed it back down the hill and headed to Ambräusianum. This place looked much like an American brew pub inside with the brewing equipment in sight of the bar. Unfortunately the beers weren’t quite as good as the other pubs we visited. The best was the Hell with a nice aroma and clean, sweet flavor. The Weizen didn’t have much in the way of banana and clove flavors and was pretty dry. Finally the Dunkel had light flavor for its color and some clove phenols as it warmed. Janet decided it was time for dinner, so we headed back towards Fässla. We decided to try Maisel Keller. We were already across the river, so we tried to head the direction of the restaurant and pick up a bus along the way instead of going to the ZOB. Big mistake. It was hard to figure out which street the bus went along, so we never ended up catching one. Just a little bit further, right Dan?? After about a mile and a half and a few wrong turns we finally found the place. Boy were we happy because it was seriously cold that night! The Kellerbier was the star at Maisel followed by the Weizen and then the Pils. The food was very good here too, so it made the long trip worth it. By the time we finished eating it was a bit late to catch a bus, so we made our way back to the hotel and hit the sack. Day 4 It was our last full day in Bamberg, so we decided to do a bit of shopping for the family back home after breakfast. We were a bit stiff after all the walking the day before, so it was nice to walk around a bit and stretch our legs. Before heading to the ZOB to catch the #17 to Merkendorf for lunch we stopped by the hotel to drop of the glasses and beers we had bought at Klosterbräu and Schlenkerla. Just as we were heading up to the rooms the guy at the front desk flagged us down and gave us a package. Apparently Knut had left us 10 beers from various area breweries while we had been out. It had two each of the following: Adler-Bräu Stettfeld Alt Frankisches Lagerbier, Mönchsambacher Lagerbier, Sonne Urtyp Hell and Weiherer Lager. Talk about a nice guy! We were glad we didn’t buy more beer that day since we wanted to bring some home from the Merkendorf pubs as well. After a bit of trouble finding the stop for the # 17 bus at the ZOB we were on our way to Merkendorf (along with about 20 kids who had just gotten out of class for the day). The first stop was Hummel since it smelled like they were brewing. We wanted to try and get a tour of at least one brewery since Marc has recently started writing articles for the BYO homebrewing magazine. We had struck out at Schlenkerla the day before, but we did manage to talk to the brewer’s mother and get some literature about the brewery. Lunch was very good, but I was really surprised when my Rauchfleisch turned out to be a huge slab of braised bacon with sauerkraut! Not exactly what I had envisioned, but tasty, sans quite a bit of the requisite fat that came with it. Are you really supposed to eat the whole thing? I have to say that Hummel had the best beers overall of all the pubs we visited during the trip. They had two special starkbiers on tap while we were there, the Weizenbock and Räucherator. The Weizenbock was strong, but smooth with excellent banana notes. Many Weizenbocks have too much caramel flavor for me, but this one didn’t have much. Dangerously drinkable! The Räucherator may be the best beer I have ever tried. Believe it or not, it might be even smokier than Schlenkerla’s Märzen, but with a nice sweetness that takes the edge off of the smoke. We also ordered a Kellerbier which was nicely hoppy with a wonderful aroma. Our waitress was very nice. When Marc tried to see if we could get a quick tour of the brewery, she brought us some coasters and postcards and showed us a book with an article in German about the brewery. Not exactly what we were looking for, but nice none-the-less. The language barrier seems to get a bit bigger when you start to mention tours Oh well, we bought a few beers to take home for us and a few for Knut and headed over to Wagner. It was a little bit busier at Wagner than it had been at Hummel. We tried their Märzen, Pils, Ungespundet Lager and Weissebier. Unfortunately the beers here weren’t as good as those we had tried at Hummel. The Pils was astringent, the Märzen was lighter in color than the Ungespundet and thinner than you would want a Märzen to be. The Ungespundet was clean with good hops. The best beer was their Weissebier. A little thin, but good banana flavor. We didn’t like any of the beers quite enough to buy any, so we headed to the bus stop. Time was running short so we couldn’t run back to Hummel and get a few more. Oh well. Back in Bamberg Dan and Janet decided to take a nap, but Marc and I kept on going. Believe it or not, we still hadn’t tried the beers at Fässla, so we used our free beer tickets to sample the Lagerbier and the Zwergla. Instead of drinking them downstairs we brought them up to the sitting room on the second floor. The vote for smokiest bar in Bamberg was unanimously Fässla, so if we wanted to taste the beer, we figured we’d have to do it upstairs. They both went down easily. Just as we were about to order more, Dan came out and we decided to use our free beer coupons at Spezial. After a round of Märzen it was time to collect Janet and go to dinner at Schlenkerla. We were hoping to run into Knut there and give him the beers we had bought in Merkendorf. As soon as we got outside we heard someone yelling behind us. We had been in such a big hurry to run the smoke gauntlet in Fässla’s Schwemm that we hadn’t seen Knut and his girlfriend sitting there. Even though we were starving we had to go back in for a drink with them didn’t we?? Of course we did! So back into the smoke we headed for another round of Lagerbier. Not sure Marc and Janet were too keen on the idea because the smoke was so thick it stung your eyes, but ya do what ya gotta do. After saying goodbye to our new friends we finally arrived at Schlenkerla just before they closed the kitchen. The meal was nice and the Märzen even nicer. A great way to top off our visit to Bamberg. Thanks again to all of you for your help in planning this trip. We had a great time! Joelle & Dan

Followups:

Report on Trip to Bamberg and Merkendorf (long) by Uncle Jimbo on  2006-04-06 09:25:59

Report on Trip to Bamberg and Merkendorf (long) by Joelle on  2006-04-06 11:00:53

Report on Trip to Bamberg and Merkendorf (long) by scott on  2006-04-07 00:35:12

Report on Trip to Bamberg and Merkendorf (long) by Nick B. on  2006-04-18 01:26:04

Report on Trip to Bamberg and Merkendorf (long) by Joelle on  2006-04-18 08:19:57

Report on Trip to Bamberg and Merkendorf (long) by Fred Waltman on  2006-04-18 08:47:21

Report on Trip to Bamberg and Merkendorf (long) by Joelle on  2006-04-18 08:57:02

Report on Trip to Bamberg and Merkendorf (long) by Nick B. on  2006-04-18 14:36:42

Report on Trip to Bamberg and Merkendorf (long) by Joelle on  2006-04-19 06:45:47

Report on Trip to Bamberg and Merkendorf (long) by Nick B. on  2006-04-26 03:10:18