First Day in Bamberg

Sorry this is a bit late. Friday we had an early bus to catch and jet lag finally caught up with me. 

After checking out of Hotel Andres we headed for out new hotels, Brauerei Spezial and Brauerei Fässla. We agreed to meet in a hour at Spezial for a beer and discus the plans for the day.

I started out with the bock as I wanted to taste it with a fresh palate. I liked it better after a night's sleep. Still need to drink few more, though.

We had one person who was about to arrive so we had another beer while waiting for him. I went with the U, just beause.

When our weary traveler arrived we waked across the street to Fässla for lunch and a beer. About have had the Pils and have the Lager. Both were good, but I am still partial to the Pils. Forgot to take pictures, so you'll just have to look one of the bazillion other pictures of Fässla beer found on this site.

We decided to walk down to Mahrs and Keesmann to check out their bocks. On the way we passed the site of the former Gaststätte Wunderburg. It is now named "Moe's" and I am not sure if it is open yet, but the beer list looks to be pretty good: Fässla Pils, Huppendorfer Vollbier, Wagner (Merkendorf) Richard Wagner Dunkle (which routinely wins the European Beer Star award for it's category) Kundmüller (Weiher) Lager, another frequent Beer Star winner. Will have to check this place out.

We stopped at Keesmann first. Somewhat violating the tradition of this blog, here is the gang out front of Keesmann.

 

We all went with the bock, and in keeping with tradition, ordered and drank it in the Schwemme. I was very, very good -- clearly strong but not at all sweet and a nice bitter finish. It could be dangerous. 

We only had one -- it was either move inside or go across the street to Mahrs. We crossed the street

 They only had the Helles on, so we had that to start.

Stefan Michel, the brewer (and future owner) came by and chatted with us for a while. I asked about the Festtags Weisse and he said he had just bottled some. He left for a minute and came back with some bottles. "Be careful," he said, "the labels are still wet.")

You could see the beer was still foamy in the bottle, and when we opened on there was no sound -- no time for any bottle fermentation. The beer was carbonated, just not quite as much as a wheat beer usually is. This beer ranks up with Schneider Weisse and my favorite wheat beer. I wish it was available year round (and in my local).

When we finished the Festtags Weisse we noticed a new barrel being tapped. The Bock? No, the U. Oh well, another beer to drink...

After the U we asked the bartender when the Bock was coming on and he said "when people ask for." OK, we said, we'll take seven...

Mahrs bock

Huey,  Duey  and Louie

One bock was great, two would be too many so we moved on the Schlenkera were we had a bite to eat and an Eiche or two. Then some of us walked up the hill to Stöhrenkeller for a nightcap. Half had the Drei Kronen (Strassgiech) Kellerbier and the other have the Keesmann bock. All were happy with their selections.