Speciality / Specialty Beer Bar of the Month: January

For details of a White Beer Travels Beer Hunt, in 2007, featuring Bamberg (21st to the 27th of July), click here. The seventy-seven page White Beer Travels guide covering other Bamberg beer-orientated places, is available from the Downloads page, along with the thirty-one page companion guide to Nürnberg (Nuremberg). There is also a companion guide to Forchheim, since it is near Bamberg and has four Brew Pubs, and hosts one of Germany's best beer festivals, the Annafest (www.anna-fest.de or www.annafest-forchheim.de); Bamberg is often reached via Nuremberg; interestingly, there is a Schlenkerla in Nuremberg, which is, of course, covered in the Nuremberg guide, as are the excellent Landbierparadies (Country Beer Paradise) bars and beer shop (www.landbierparadies.com), and a not-to-be-missed bar/restaurant, Hutt'n (www.huettn-nuernberg.de), at Burgstrasse 19, these all having a very good selection of Franconian Beers. The Bamberg guide provides full details of how to get to Bamberg and how to get around it and out of it on public transport; the area around Bamberg is full of treasures for the most experienced of Beer Hunters. Also available on the Downloads page is a sub-guide to the White Beer Travels Bamberg Guide, entitled "Strullendorf Beer Hunt Walk", which covers a walk starting and finishing at Strullendorf railway station, this being only a few minutes from Bamberg. A great collection of superb Franconian Speciality Beer outlets - Beer Gardens and Brew Pubs - are on the route.

This White Beer Travels "Pub of the Month" was selected by John White. Descriptions of places such as this are taken from Beer Guides that have been prepared for White Beer Travels Beer Hunts, all participants getting copies: they typically get well over 100 A4 pages of information per trip. This particular write-up is based on one that was originally prepared for a 1996 Beer Hunt, based in Brussels, in Belgium, Bamberg, and Maastricht, in The Netherlands. Whilst in Bamberg, there was a day trip to Pottenstein (www.pottenstein.de, White Beer Travels Web page), in the spectacular Franconian Switzerland (Fränkische Schweiz, www.fraenkische-schweiz.com), for its then three breweries (it now has only two), and Buttenheim for the superb St. Georgen Bräu Brewery (www.kellerbier.de). For details of the whole trip, see Past [Beer Hunts]. The write-ups on other Pubs of the Month can be accessed by clicking on Archives, or by using the "Previous Month" and "Next Month" links at the top and bottom of this page. The also excellent Löwenbräu brewery in Buttenheim (www.loewenbraeu-buttenheim.de), was visited during a White Beer Travels Beer Hunt in 2006; click here for more details.

Why go to Bamberg for a Beer Hunt?

This photo shows a church and former Monastery on the top of one of Bamberg's seven hills: Michelsberg or Michaelsberg (St. Michael's Hill). There is an excellent brewery museum within the former Benedictine Monastery, the Fränkisches Brauereimuseum (Franconian Brewery Museum) (www.brauereimuseum.org). Until 1969, there was a brewery within the building, the Brauerei Michaelsberg, which had a range of Benediktiner-Bräu beers. Records show that it brewed from 1122, which makes it the city's oldest known brewing site, although it is probable that brewing took place here even earlier than this, as the monastery was founded in 1008. The photo was taken by John White, in July, 2003, from Am Kranen (Crane, hence the old Crane in the foreground). From here, one can take excellent canal and river boat trips; the destinations include the great beer town of Forchheim, which is the subject of a White Beer Travels guide. The Schlenkerla is just a couple of minutes' walk from Am Kranen.

If a street poll were to be undertaken in the UK or the USA, asking people to name a place in Germany famous for brewing, most would almost certainly name Munich (München, www.muenchen.de), in Bavaria (Bayern). They will probably have heard of its October Beer Festival (Oktoberfest München), where thousands of people drink beer in the open, in huge marquees, and in famous Beer Halls/Beer Gardens, such as the Hofbräuhaus (www.hofbraeuhaus.de, www.hb-show.de), such places being covered in the excellent www.beerdrinkersguide.com. Bamberg is another brewing city in Bavaria. It is not as well known to Specialty Beer enthusiasts, when compared to places in Belgium, such as Bruges and Antwerp, and Bamberg is probably on less than one in a thousand people's lips in the just mentioned street poll. However, Bamberg is a major brewing and malting centre. It is my personal favourite of all the beery places that I have visited. It has ten breweries/Brew Pubs, all independent, an incredible number for a city of only around 70,000 inhabitants; Nürnberg (Nuremberg), the biggest city in the part of Bavaria that Bamberg is situated, Franconia, see below, has a population of over 500,000, but only has two breweries/Brew Pubs. The breweries/Brew Pubs of Bamberg produce over forty beers, a significant number of which are outstanding, and in the many pubs in the city, these and many excellent beers from other places, both local to Bamberg and from all over Germany and beyond, are to be found. That unfiltered and gravity-fed beers are available, see the photo below, will possibly come as a surprise to a lot of members of CAMRA (www.camra.org.uk), the UK's premier beer consumers' organisation; I know that many have the mistaken belief that almost all the beer available in Germany is in the same style as British lager, the latter being generally a very poor and, for me, undrinkable version of the classic examples available in Germany and The Czech Republic (Česká republika). Note that the figure of ten breweries for Bamberg would go up to fifteen if one included Robert Pawelczak's Brau Haus Robesbierre (which closed in 2006, but will reopen in a new location in Bamberg, in 2007); the 2.5 hectolitre Kaspar Schulz (see below) Test Brewery (Versuchsbrauerei) in one of the city's major maltings, Weyermann Malz (Malt) (www.weyermannmalt.com (English pages), www.weyermann.de (German pages, with links to pages in many other languages), White Beer Travels Web page), which is run by Sabine Weyermann, and her husband, Thomas Kraus-Weyermann; also in Weyermann, the 90 hectolitre Heinz Weyermann Röstmalzbierbrauerei (Roasted Malt Brewery), used to produce malt extracts, including SINAMAR®, the Reinheitsgebot-compliant colouring malt; Zur Sonne (www.sonnenbier.de), a marvellous Brew Pub in Bischberg, which is four kilometres (2½ miles) NW of Bamberg, where the city's river, the Regnitz, joins the Main; and the Brauerei Eichhorn (Brauerei Schwarze Adler) (Squirrel Brewery (Black Eagle Brewery)) (www.brauerei-eichhorn.de, White Beer Travels Web page), another great Brew Pub, in Dörfleins (Hallstadt), six kilometres (four miles) North of Bamberg. Further details of all these places can be found in the White Beer Travels downloadable guide to Bamberg. Note that beers brewed by Weyermann are available in the Weyermann Bräustüberl, a very pleasant bar/restaurant, which is used by Weyermann employees and is also used for entertaining invited visitors to the maltings. Some of the beers, including Schlotfegerla (5.2%), a Rauchbier, see below, can also be purchased by the general public, in the Weyermann Fan Shop (Souvenir Shop), which is just inside the main gate; it is open from 1pm to 3pm on Fridays. I do not know whether Bamberg's other maltings, "Donau Malz. Bamberger Mälzerei" (www.donau-malz.de), has a Test Brewery. Beer is not produced on the site of the Bamberg-based brewing equipment manufacturers, Kaspar Schulz (see below).

Bamberg is in an area of Northern Bavaria known as Franconia (Franken in German), 145 miles (230 kilometres) North of Munich (Germany's third city, after Berlin and Hamburg, with a population of 1.3 million). Franken, the land of the Franks (from which the name France is derived), was only assimilated into Bavaria, by Napoleon, between 1803 and 1806, hence the website, www.franken-2006.de, to celebrate 200 years of Franconia being part of Bavaria. 1806 seems a long time ago, but many Franconians do not regard themselves as being Bavarian. Franconia stretches to the Czech border in the East, and to the outskirts of Frankfurt in the West. It boasts the highest concentration of breweries in the world (283 in December, 2002), a large proportion of them being within a forty mile (sixty-four kilometre) radius of Bamberg.

The number of breweries in an area does not necessarily equate with quality, but Bamberg produces outstanding examples of a truly great but unusual beer style, Rauchbier (Smoke Beer), along with other excellent beers, such as dark beers in the Munich style, and unfiltered beers reminiscent of English Ales. Note that Rauchbier is often incorrectly translated as Smoked Beer, see an example in a book title below; Smoked is Geräucht in German, so Smoked Bier is Geräuchtes Bier, which would be beer which had had smoke bubbled through it! It is the malt used to produce Rauchbier, which is smoked, not the beer itself.

Beer aside, the wonderful Baroque city of Bamberg is a place of exceptional beauty and history. Not for nothing was it declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, in 1993, the twelfth place to be so designated in Germany; Durham is one in England, a city which once had its Prince-Bishops, like Bamberg. For the full list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, see whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31. This is an outstanding information source, which gives details of each place listed, including a justification as to why they are included in the list. Further information on Bamberg, from a general tourist point of view, is given in the White Beer Travels guide to the city. By analogy with its World Heritage Site status, the European Beer Consumers' Union (EBCU) (www.ebcu.org), awarded Bamberg "World Beer Culture City" status, at a meeting in Bamberg, in November, 2002. Bamberg will be the European City of Culture (Kulturhauptstadt Europas), in 2010.

The Schlenkerla and a number of Bamberg's famous taverns are protected by the Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (Bavarian Monument Protection Organisation) (www.blfd.bayern.de), the equivalent of the English "listed building" system. This website gives outline reasons why these buildings of historical interest are on the protected monument list, and hence why they should be legally protected from having unauthorised modifications done to them. The website covering all such organisations, for the whole of Germany, is www.denkmalliste.org.

Bamberg Smoke Beer, the Schlenkerla Tavern and the Heller Brewery

In the beer world, Bamberg is synonymous with Smoke Beer: Rauchbier. However, it is brewed by only two of its ten breweries - Schlenkerla's Heller Brewery and Spezial (www.brauerei-spezial.de) - both of which, unusually for such relatively small breweries, have their own maltings; the Schlenkerla's brewery produces 13,000 hectolitres of beer per year (2006). Rauchbier is brewed using malt produced from barley which has been kilned over burning beech wood, obtained from local forests, such as the Steigerwald (www.steigerwald-info.de and www.mein-steigerwald.de), a major recreational area just to the West of Bamberg. Malts used in most other beers are produced from barley kilned using materials which only produce heat, imparting no taste to the malt, such as anthracite, a high grade coal, or, more recently, using hot air, with no exposure to smoke whatsoever. Barley for whisky malt is kilned using burning peat, which also produces a smoked taste to the malt, and hence to the whisky, varying smoke taste intensity being a major differentiating feature of malt whiskies. Malt Whisky is unhopped beer subjected to distillation to concentrate the alcohol. Michael Jackson (1942-) (www.beerhunter.com), the world's most famous beer writer, who is also renowned for the promotion of Malt Whisky, regards the Schlenkerla's Rauchbier as being analogous to the Malt Whiskies with the most intense smoke taste: those from the Isle of Islay (www.isle-of-islay.com). As well as being famously known as "The Beer Hunter", Michael is also referred to as "The Maven of Malt", as he is an expert on beer that is made from malt and whisky that is made from malt. Click here to go down this page to see a photo of Michael, with Matthias.

The most well known of Bamberg's Smoke Beers is Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen, which is principally available in the Schlenkerla. It is one of the world's greatest taverns, from beer quality and architectural splendour points of view, as well as for other reasons. It is a very friendly place, much used by locals. If you come in and there appears to be no room, you will almost certainly be squeezed onto a table, not by one of the staff, with profit in mind, but by one of the customers.

Its beers are no longer brewed at the Schlenkerla itself, but at "Heller-Bräu" - Trum (Heller-Trum Brewery), situated on the Stephansberg or Stefansberg ([St.] Stephen's Hill), in Bamberg. Should you not wish to walk up the Stephansberg, take the Linie 28 bus from the Zentraler-Omnibus-Bahnhof (ZOB, Central Bus Station) and get off at the Aufenthalt (Stop) named "Obere Stephansberg", the end stop on this route, which is at the top of the hill. The White Beer Travels guide to Bamberg provides further details of local buses, including details of some superb beery places that you can get to on them.

There were once a good number of breweries and/or lagering (maturation) caves on the Stephansberg, see below. but today there is only Heller; Greifenklau (www.greifenklau.de) on another of Bamberg's hills, Kaulberg, is the only other Bamberg brewery to still mature its beer in caves. It was Johann Wolfgang Heller, the first Heller to own the Schlenkerla, who, from 1750 purchased caves below the Kaulberg, the adjacent hill to the one on which the present brewery and its lagering Kellers are situated, the Stephansberg. The address on the Kaulberg was Laurenzistraße 28, which was later the Keller for the Grosskopf Brewery (Obere Königstrasse 5), which closed in 1922, after being founded in 1541. There was also a Maltings where the Großkopf's Keller was, founded by Johann Baptist Weyermann, in 1879; it was the forerunner of the Weyermann Maltings, at Brennerstrasse 17-19 (GPS: 49.904818^o N, 10.897228^o E).

The caves below Bamberg hills such as the Stephansberg were created over 700 years ago by the mining of sandstone, used for building and as an abrasive (to clean wooden tables in bars, etc); some of the later caves below hills such as the Stephansberg were specifically built for beer lagering. Note that the Bamberg Tourist Office, see below, organises tours (Stollenführung, Stollen meaning tunnel) of part of the city's cave system (Die Katakomben). The meeting point for the start of the tours is very close to Heller Brewery, at Sternwartstrasse 3. A book detailed below states that the lagering caves that are today below the Heller Brewery, were, in 1860, owned by two breweries on the city's Maxplatz: the Brauerei Eckenbüttner (closed 1906); and the Brauerei Ströberla (Schuberth) (closed 1905).

Heller/Schlenkerla brewery was at one time quite cagey about giving its address, and it is still not listed in the telephone directory; this, like their letter heading, gives the tavern address. Beer books by famous authors give the impression that the brewery is hard to find, but it is easily spotted, smelled and heard (bottling plant), if one goes up the hill. Its address is Oberer Stephansberg 27-31, which is on the far corner of Sternwartstrasse, on the left (GPS: 49.886578^o N, 10.887003^o E). Beech logs for malting can be seen by looking through gates on this street, and within the brewery itself, see the middle photo just below. The plaque, in the photo, above left, is a relatively recent addition, on the Sternwartstrasse side of the building; the separate legend at the bottom reads: "Eingang um die Ecke" (Entrance round the corner). Locals buying beer at the brewery will know this, this being a common practice with Franconian breweries, including Heller, see below. There is also a beer shop in the Schlenkerla, see below. There is a similar plaque on the front of the Schlenkerla itself, see above, but also a stonework equivalent, see the photo, above right, which is at the entrance to the tavern; Wirtshaus is one of a number of German words for pub. The photos were taken in August, 2004, by John White.

The first two of the above three photos, featuring John White and Matthias Trum, were taken by Joyce White, in July, 2003; the third was taken by Jez Blake, see below, in August, 2004. The photos illustrate three special aspects of the Heller-Trum Brewery with regard to the production of its Smoke Beers. In the first, John and Matthias are standing in one of the brewery's three germination boxes (Keimkästen), where barley, sourced as far as possible from Franconia, commences to grow from seed and thus produces the enzymes required in the mash tun to convert starch into sugar; not many breweries produce their own malt. Heller, like Spezial, Bamberg's other brewery with its own a maltings to produce smoked malt, does not sell any of its malt to other brewers. Weyermann produces Smoked Malt, for sale around the world; it is used in a beer that they first produced in 2003, in their own Test Brewery, to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the production of the already mentioned special malt extract used for colouring beer, SINAMAR®. The beer is a Smoke Beer, with 27% of their Smoked Malt in the mash; it is called Schlotfegerla (Little Chimney Sweep) (click here for its recipe); it was one of only three draught beers available at the celebration. Amazingly, bearing in mind that no Weyermann Malt is used to produce it, one of the others was Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen, which on the Weyermann website was described as "Bamberg's signature beer", which, of course, it is. As already stated, Weyermann Versuchsbrauerei Schlotfegerla can be purchased in bottle by the general public in the Weyermann Souvenir Shop (Fan Shop), which is open from 1pm to 3pm on Fridays. Note that malting at Heller only takes place from late September to late June, this today being more because of tradition than necessity, since the temperature control required for good malting is no longer a problem at Summer time. In the second photo, above, John is holding a beech log, the smoke from which will directly kiln the malt and thus, most unusually, produce malt and thus beer having a taste of smoke. In the photo to the left, Matthias Trum is actually putting a log into the fire below the kiln. This photo was taken by John White, in May, 2007. The maturation (lagering) tanks (Lagertanks), in the Lagerkeller, where the secondary fermentation takes place, are shown in the third photo. These are deep below the brewery, in the centuries old sandstone caves. In former times, ice was brought down into them to maintain a temperature of 4oC, but today, this is done with refrigeration plant. Note that the ice was not only obtained locally, but was also imported from Finland by train. The photo, above left, which was taken, in July, 2005, by White Beer Travels Beer Hunt regular, Jez (rauchbier) Blake, shows Matthias Trum holding on to the Zwickel Schlüssel (Zwickel Key, this being explained shortly) of a Lagertank full of maturing Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock, in the sandstone caves below the Heller Brewery. Jez is a major contributor to the justly famous ratebeer website (www.ratebeer.com), his nickname on the site being rauchbier; Jez's highest rated beer on ratebeer is this Urbock! John has a glass of the Urbock - it was truly magnificent - that Matthias has just drawn from the aluminium lagering vessel in the background, and it is thus a genuine Zwickelbier, this word deriving from the Zwickel Drill used to make a hole in the side of a wooden vessel to enable the maturing beer to be sampled; Matthias drew one for each of the White Beer Travels group. The photo, above right, was taken in the Heller Brewery, by John White, in July, 2005. It features White Beer Travels Beer Hunter, Mike Robinson holding the Zwickel and the Zwickel Schlüssel used to draw the beer featured in the photo to its left. In the background can be seen a stack of the wooden barrels destined for the Schlenkerla tavern, see below. In 1873, Carl von Linde  (1842-1934), who was born in Berndorf, near Thurnau, in Franconia, invented refrigeration, specifically for Franconian brewers, so perhaps without Franconian Beer, there would be no domestic fridges today! The company Carl founded, Linde (www.linde.com), became a major player in the refrigeration field; the company still exists, but, somewhat disappointingly, it stopped making fridge plant, in 2004. Their website has a very good biography of its founder, who will, no doubt, be turning in his grave. Before my first visit to the Heller brewery, what I had read about its famous caves (Kellers) gave me the impression that one would be able to walk into them horizontally from a hillside. In fact, it is quite flat where the brewery itself is, and to get to the caves, one goes down steep steps, as per the photo to the left, which was taken by John White, in August, 2004. As can be seen, the sandstone is covered in whitewash, which is reapplied annually, which accounts for the cellars being strikingly clean. In the photo, Matthias Trum is leaving the caves, alongside White Beer Travels Beer Hunt regular, David Mummery. In his hand, Matthias has a box of glasses, these having been used for the beer that was sampled straight from a maturation vessel, see the next paragraph. In the caves, there are sixty aluminium lagering tanks, each having a capacity of 4,410 litres. Lagering of the "regular" Smoke Beer takes two months, whereas the stronger Urbock, see below, stays in the tanks for three months. In the third photo, above right, Matthias is drawing unfiltered beer from one of the lagering tanks for the group of Beer Hunters to sample. What a privilege it is to be able to drink Schlenkerla beers in this form. Many thanks, Matthias!

More "conventional" aspects of the brewery are shown in the above two photos, featuring John White and Matthias Trum, which were taken by Joyce White, in July, 2003. The first shows the beautiful copper hop boiler (copper) in the Brew House (Sudhaus). Interestingly, when a brew is taking place, a smoke aroma emanates from the copper, which is quite different to the smoke taste in the final beer. The aroma from the copper reminds me of Smoky Bacon-flavoured Crisps, whereas, the smoke taste in the beer is just not the same: definitely non-meaty and decidedly pleasant! The second photo features one of the brewery's 11,338 litre enclosed fermenters, where the main fermentation takes place, in the Gärkeller (Fermentation Cellar). This takes around seven days, at 7-9^oC for the Smoke Beers. For the Wheat Beer, the primary fermentation takes place at 15-20^oC, and takes three to four days. For the Wheat Beer, unlike the Smoke Beers, there is no bulk maturation/secondary fermentation; for the Wheat Beer, this takes place over a period of around two weeks in the individual bottle, the amount of time required being measured using a beer bottle which has a pressure gauge in the top to monitor the level of carbonation produced by the secondary fermentation. The Wheat Beer is produced using a top fermenting yeast, whereas the main Schlenkerla beers are bottom-fermented, as per a famous style of beers that they are seemingly a long way from: Pilsener, poor UK imitations of which are called, as has already been stated, Lager.

The above photo, which was taken by John White, in August, 2004, shows Heller's Brew House Control Panel. It was supplied by the famous Bamberg firm of Kaspar Schulz (www.kaspar-schulz.de), the world's oldest manufacturer of brewing equipment; they were established in 1677. They are based in the Hafengebiet (Port Area) of the city, at Kaspar-Schulz Strasse 1 (the NE pointing section of Coburger Strasse on some maps) (GPS: 49.913240^o N, 10.878910^o E). Clearly, they were not producing such equipment then, but have certainly moved with the times. Today, they can supply complete, modern stainless steel breweries, such as the installation in the Bamberg Brew Pub, the Fässla (www.faessla.de), and the Freedom Brewing Company's micro-brewery, in Covent Garden, London, England (www.freedombrewery.com), which produces Organic, German-style beers. Very close to Kaspar Schulz, is another company that manufactures and repairs brewery equipment, particularly old stuff, Heinrich Leicht (Gummi Leicht) (www.heinr-leicht.de), at Laubanger 17f; they were established in 1888; they have a museum of old brewery equipment on their premises.

Matthias is confident that, as the control system ensures that each brew is carried out in the same way, that the use of such automation produces better, more consistent beer than the manual method. Two brews go into one of the fermentation tanks, this being another factor that contributes to the final beer being of a more consistent quality.

From its earliest days wort was taken for fermentation, and subsequent lagering of the beer produced, to nearby caves or tunnels, dug into the sandstone (Sandstein, specifically Keupersandstein) making up the Stephansberg, see above. In Summer, these provided the temperature required for subsequent cold conditioning (lagering). Note that these caves/tunnels are referred to in Bamberg as Kellers. However, the word Keller normally means Cellar in German. On the Stephansberg today, there are Kellers which are actually Beer Gardens, these being named after existing or former brewery Caves/Kellers. These are detailed in the White Beer Travels guide to Bamberg. In Franconia, other than just on the Stephansberg, the word Keller has come to mean Beer Garden (strictly speaking, Biergarten in German), hence the name of the website covering Beer Gardens in the Bamberg area: the essential www.bierkeller.de. Books covering Bamberg and Franconia are featured later in a section that also provides the addresses of other important websites covering Bamberg and Franconian beer.

As the Schlenkerla tavern became more popular, more space was required and the Schlenkerla's brewing equipment was relocated to be above the lagering vessels, deep down in the sandstone tunnels, i.e. to where the present brewery and maltings are situated. Of course, for a brewery as old as Heller/Schlenkerla, there have been numerous changes over the years. With regard to the relatively recent past, it is known that Matthias's Grandfather built a brewery and bottling plant on the Stephansberg in the 1930s and that his father installed malting facilities there in the 1960s, but, one stage of the malting process was still carried out in the Schlenkerla (germination) until all production – malting and brewing - was finally transferred to the Stephansberg, in 1971. The old Brauhaus (Brew House) in the present day tavern, which was at the back of the building, is today an area comprising the restaurant's kitchen, toilets and, most importantly, barrel storage, this room still being called the Brauhaus. The area where malting used to take place is above this area; it is used for storage. The well that was used for beer production is still below the tavern.

Note that the brewery once had a Beer Garden (Keller) on the Stephansberg, but it was closed at the time of WWI and never subsequently reopened. The old black and white photo, above left, shows the entrance to the Keller, which was just up the hill from the brewery entrance on the left of the photo. The wording on the outside wall is: "Grosser schattiger Garten. Besitzer Michael Grasser. Eingang." (Large Shaded Garden. Proprietor Michael Graser. Entrance.). Michael Graser, see below, not Grasser, this being an error on the part of the sign painter that was not corrected, took over Heller/Schlenkerla in 1907. The beer garden itself can be seen in the photo above right. These two photos were supplied by Matthias Trum to Dr Christian Fiedler for his superb book covering Bamberg's brewing history: Bamberg - die wahre Hauptstadt des Bieres (216 pages (220x235mm), ISBN 3-00-013723-8). This features seventy-three breweries that have brewed in the city, since 1817 - click here for a White Beer Travels review of this essential book, which has an associated website, www.bamberger-bier.de. The book was first published in September, 2004, but proved so popular that a second edition was published in April, 2005. It has twelve extra pages; the new edition (same ISBN) additionally covers the Bamberg suburbs of Gaustadt and Bug. The book is available in most of the outlets in Bamberg that are featured in it, which still serve beer. Today, Heller's tavern, the Schlenkerla has an adjoining Beer Garden (Biergarten), see below.

The mashing method used at the Heller brewery is quite different from that commonly employed in England, although it is very popular on the Continent, particularly for malt accented beers. In England the simple infusion method with one vessel is used. For the continental decoction method of mashing, a proportion of the mash is removed and heated in a second vessel to a particular temperature and then returned to the main mash tun. Some brewers traditionally do this at two temperatures, a "double-decoction", and thus remove wort twice, raising it to two different temperatures, these being chosen recognising that some of the enzymes present in barley, which convert malt starch into sugars (which are converted to alcohol during fermentation), work best, or at all, at particular temperatures. Some even do this three times, a triple-decoction. Heller use double-decoction.

If you ever visit Heller, note the whirlpool for wort filtration, located above the Brew House. These are not common in England, but are the norm on the Continent especially when other than whole flower hops are used. The hops used at Heller brewery, in the form of pellets, are Hallertauer Magnum for bitterness, and additionally Spalter, in the Helles Lagerbier, for aroma. The Pale Lagerbier, a Workers' Beer, only accounts for 5% of production. Although only 1% of the mash is smoked malt, it has a discernible smoke taste, which results, in part from being brewed in the same vessels as the Rauchbier, and because the same yeast is pitched during fermentation as is used for the Rauchbier. The Pilsner malt that make up the bulk of the mash comes from Weyermann, as does the malted wheat for the Wheat Beer.

The Schlenkerla (Little Dangler) only got its present name after its purchase in 1877 by Andreas Graser. He was a small man who was slightly handicapped such that he appeared to be rather clumsy, with dangling arms when he walked. Andreas "Schlenkerla" Graser is featured on the Schlenkerla's beer labels in his dangling mode, and in the tavern's splendid sign, in the middle of the laurel crown, see the photo above, which was taken by John White, in July, 2004. Andreas Graser's manner of walking is called "schlenkern" in the local Franconian dialect. "la", in the local dialect, forms the diminutive. Also note the Hexagram (Das Hexagramm) (two overlapping triangles) (commonly called the Star of David (Davidstern) or Magen David) on the left hand side of the sign. In this context, it is not of religious significance, but the alchemy symbol for the brewer, The Brewer's Star (Der Brauerstern)); it represents unity, i.e. the joining together of things to produce a whole, which, in this case, is beer; alchemists also use it to represent the dual power of fire (man) and water (woman). The star is generally used to denote a brewery's main outlet, the brewery tap.

Matthias Trum carried out research on the origins of The Brewer's Star for the thesis he produced whilst attending Weihenstephan Brewing School, see below, and click here to see the thesis, in English, or here for the German version (it is a much better read than the thesis for my Master's Degree, entitled DDC Algorithm Tuning For A Rotary Solids Drier)! Referenced in Matthias's thesis and reproduced in it, is the earliest known depiction of a brewer in Germany, this appearing in Mendel's Chronicle (Das Hausbuch der Mendelschen Zwölfbrüderstiftung zu Nürnberg (The House Book of Mendel's Twelve Brothers Foundation in Nuremberg)), which is often shortened to Hausbuch der Mendel; the depiction is a 1425 miniature, which is often stated in English to be entitled "The Brewer Monk", although it does not actually depict a monk, but Herttel Pyrprew ("Herttel, The Beer Brewer", in an old form of German) (the 46th brother), one of the men in the house, founded in 1388, by businessman Konrad Mendel, in Nuremberg. As can be seen, the miniature features a Brewer's Star, and is thus the earliest known German representation of this famous symbol. A reproduction of the miniature, which was obtained from Matthias's thesis can be seen to the left. The original book containing it is in the Stadtsbibliothek Nürnberg (www.stadtbibliothek.nuernberg.de), i.e. in Nuremberg's City Library. The book is famous for depicting a number of crafts, in addition to brewing. Modern reproductions of the book can be purchased. Interestingly, another of the miniatures depicts Jorg, the Prewmaister (Master Brewer) (the 124th brother), this indicating that, even in the Middle Ages, there was a hierarchy in the brewing "profession".

The Aecht in the beer's name, Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, is an old form of Echt, meaning real or original. Depending on the season, there are different versions of it on sale, at least in Bamberg.

Note that Märzen, from the German for March, traditionally signifies a beer produced in that month, for drinking from March until October, the Summer months being, before the advent of refrigeration, too warm for brewing, or rather fermentation. Note that there is also a Schnapps, Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Edelbrand (Noble Spirit) (40%) (€1.90 for a 2cl measure, in October, 2006), produced by distilling the main Schlenkerla beer, this not being produced by Heller itself. From both the Schnapps and the main Rauchbier, there are also some Schlenkerla Chocolates, made by the Conditorei Ernst Heinrich (Cafe am Dom), Ringleinsgasse 2.

The Märzen is the "basic" beer on sale in the Schlenkerla (€2.15). This is an October, 2006 price, for a 50cl measure. The Märzen is served on draught, delivered gravity fed, from wooden barrels in the bar, see the photos above. The photos were taken by John White, in July, 2003, and July, 2004. Filling the glasses on the left is Alex Culaj, a student from Kosovo, one of the Schlenkerla's six Bierschänker (Beer Servers). As you can see, from the photo on the right, they are not all male, this Bierschankerin being Andrea Baidoc, from Romania, who is also a student. For a further photo of the servery, with two barrels on it, see below.

20% to 25% of the brewery's output goes into such wooden barrels, but, apart from one or two special exceptions, an example being given soon, they are not used anywhere else other than in the Schlenkerla itself; depending on the season, the Schlenkerla gets through ten to twenty 50 litre barrels per day! Draught beer is Fassbier (literally barrel beer) or Bier von dem Fass. A wooden barrel is a Holzfass. "Ohne Kohlensäureanstich" often accompanies descriptions denoting beer from a barrel. This translates to "without Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) delivery", which can mean that the beer is gravity fed. Note, however, that only the Schlenkerla and Mahr's Bräu (www.mahrs-braeu.de), of Bamberg's Brew Pubs or Brewery Taps serve beer genuinely by gravity from wooden barrels. The taps in wooden barrels in, for example, the Bamberg Brew Pubs, Fässla and Spezial, are actually fed from tanks in the basement. The Schlenkerla Märzen was available in Finland in wooden barrels (Tammi Tynnyri (Oak Cask in Finnish)) for the Oktoberfest that took place in Helsinki on the 9th and the 10th of September, 2005. This annual event is run by Mikko Montonen and Markku Korhonen. (Click here to see a photo of Mikko with Michael Jackson, taken by John White, in August, 2005, at a British Guild of Beer Writers' function, in London.) Note that this "October Beer Festival" comes under the umbrella of the Helsinki Beer Festival "brand" (www.helsinkibeerfestival.com), the main festival typically being on the first Friday and Saturday of April each year. However, arrangements to have wooden casks of Schlenkerla beer in places other than the Schlenkerla are extremely rare, not least because the actual cost of an empty barrel is around €500. Heller/Schlenkerla also request, quite rightly, the conditions (temperature, etc) that the casks are transported, to ensure that the remote customer gets the best drinking experience possible.

Many beer books state that it takes a least five litres (nine imperial pints) to get to like Rauchbier, but on my first visit to the Schlenkerla, in 1993, this proved totally false: it was brilliant from the first to last pint! Publicity material published by the Schlenkerla itself, declares that the second Seidla - the local name for a half litre - tastes better than the first, the third better than the second, etc. The draught Märzen sold in the Schlenkerla is obviously smoked, both in aroma and palate. One gets the impression that one would never get a bad pint of it in the Schlenkerla! A stronger version, known as Urbock (6.5%, 17.5^o Plato) (€2.45), is put on sale in the Schlenkerla from October until the 6th of January, the tradition being called "Stärke Antrinken" (Drinking for Strength). "Ur" means original, as per Pilsner Urquell, the Pilsener from the original source (Quelle) in The Czech Republic: Pilsen (Plzeň in Czech). Somehow, despite this, SABMiller, who now own Pilsner Urquell, seem to think that it can be brewed in Poland! Of course, it has been hideously dumbed down since they got involved. However, there are some excellent examples of beers in the Pilsener style brewed throughout Germany. Other local breweries have special Bock Beers, particularly between the middle of October and the first week in November. If you visit Bamberg then you will not see the Schlenkerla's famed geranium boxes at their best! A Bock Beer has typically 6.5% alcohol, as per the Schlenkerla example. On the first day that the Urbock is put on sale each year, its tapping (Anstich) has become quite a fair-like event, which is popular with the young. In 2004, the Urbock had all ran out by 10.30pm, despite more than double the volume of the previous year being available! According to Matthias's grandmother, this had never happened before. In 2006, the Urbock tapping took place on Thursday, the 5th of October. Note that Urbock is brewed "out of season" for bottling for the USA.

Szafran Maciej tapping the first Urbock in the Tavern, in October, 2006. Maciej is from Poland, so his first name follows his second. The larger barrel on the left is the "conventional" Märzen.	The crowd on the same evening in the Dominikanerhof, a Courtyard outside the tavern, where the Urbock was also tapped. Both photos were taken by John White.

The Urbock tapping takes place simultaneously inside the tavern in the Altes Lokal, and outside, to accommodate the large number of people who come for the event, alongside the Schlenkerla, in the Dominikanerhof (Dominican Courtyard), or the "Hof" for short, see the above photos. In October, 2006, the Urbock was €2.60 in the tavern, and €2.80 in the Dominikanerhof, where there is glass deposit (Glaspfand) of €2; Matthias pronounced it more bitter than the previous year's (he samples it, before the official tapping, for quality control purposes, on his birthday, in mid-August); whatever, it was truly superb. The courtyard was previously called the Lazaretthof, this being the yard of the hospital part of the Monastery, which was where the present main bar is. Before this, it was the Marktplatz (Market Place).

The entrance to the Dominikanerhof is next to the main entrance to the Schlenkerla; it has "pillars" on each side of it, but these are just painted on the stonework. There is also an entrance off Kasernstrasse, behind Ambräusianum, see below; it is signed to Dominikanerstrasse 10A. In May, 2007, the Dominikanerhof became a permanent Beer Garden (Biergarten) for the Schlenkerla; it opens each year, in the Beer Garden season, i.e. from May to October, with the Urbock tapping typically signalling the end of each season, although, weather permitting, it could open longer. The photo to the left of the Schlenkerla Beer Garden was taken by John White, in May, 2007.

The other, far bigger building, adjacent to the Dominikanerhof, is still Bavarian State property; it houses the regional Wasserwirtschaftsamt and Hochbauamt (Water and Construction) offices, which extend to the building opposite Am Kranen, see above. Note also that the Schlenkerla is attached to a Dominican church, the façade of which can be seen on Herrenstrasse. The church is now used for cultural events, such as symphony concerts. Adjoining the church are some very attractive cloisters, which are on all the tourist itineraries. The Schlenkerla also uses the Dominikanerhof during the Sandkerwa (www.sandkerwa.de and www.feierhof.de), which is Bamberg's principal Carnival. It is held on the last Thursday to Monday of August (23rd to the 27th, in 2007).

A new seasonal beer was introduced in 2005, Aecht Schlenkerla Fastenbier (Fast Beer, i.e. Lent Beer). This is available for the period of Lent, i.e. the forty days (not counting Sundays) from Ash Wednesday (the day after Shrove (Pancake) Tuesday) until Easter Saturday; it represents the forty days that Jesus Christ is said to have spent in the wilderness, with little or nothing to eat: fasting. In 2008, it is thus available from the 6th of February until the 22nd of March. This 5.5% beer is available in the Schlenkerla itself from the wooden barrel, and from selected importers, in keg, although there have been some unofficial bottlings from these in the USA; there are no plans for any official bottlings. It is an unfiltered Smoke Beer, although around 50% of the malt used in the mash is unsmoked (Pilsner Malt ex Weyermann) (the proportion of smoked malt is varied to provide the same taste each year, bearing in mind the differences in the barley each year). Like the main beers, around 0.1% Caramalt is used in the Mash for colour. The Fastenbier provides customers something special at a time of year that can be quite boring, especially if one were to actually fast, and therefore its description on the Schlenkerla's website points out: "Due to the nourishing yeast, the Original Schlenkerla Lentbeer has the Brotzeit already included". (Brotzeit literally means "Bread Time", but is the normal German word for an afternoon snack.) It is served in special mugs with tin lids. It is unlikely that a Maibock (May Bock) will be produced, as this is more a Munich thing. However, Joseph Alois Ratzinger (1927-), who was born in Bavaria and who became Pope Benedict XVI, in April, 2005, is a good friend of the Bishop of Bamberg, so perhaps a White Smoke Beer to recognise this could be produced; it will no doubt have a good A Roma (thanks to Tim Webb (sixth from the left in the photo, below) for this aroma stuff)!

The Fastenbier represents something relatively new for the Schlenkerla, and in general, to quote Matthias, "The future of the Schlenkerla is in the past", i.e. tradition will prevail over modern gimmicks.

Apart from the Schlenkerla, Heller's beers are on sale in other taverns in the area, two interesting examples being given below, and throughout the world. On draught, in the Schlenkerla, it is truly one of the finest drinking experiences, of any type of drink.

Draught Schlenkerla Rauchbier is filtered, but unpasteurised. An unfiltered Rauchbier is served in stone mugs (Steinkrug) in the Brauerei-Gasthof Fischer, which is "Hausnummer 11 (House Number 11) (tel 0950 25 45) in the small village of Greuth, ten miles (sixteen kilometres) South of Bamberg. It opens from 10am, but only on Fridays, Sundays and National Holidays. Another unfiltered Rauchbier, both on draught and in bottle, is produced by Hans Heller in Herzogenaurach (Hauptstrasse 33, tel 0913 22 073), a few miles further South of Bamberg. The town is worth a visit; it has two other breweries, all producing excellent beers. Also close to Bamberg, the Drei Kronen Brew Pub (www.drei-kronen.de), in Memmelsdorf, produces an unfiltered Rauchbier, both on draught and in bottle: Stöffla (4.5%). Another place just a short bus ride from Bamberg, with a Rauchbier, is Merkendorf, where the Brauerei Hummel (www.brauerei-hummel.de) brew the renowned Räucherla (5.6%). These breweries in Memmelsdorf and Merkendorf have been visited by White Beer Travels Beer Hunters, click here and here for more details. Gunzendorfer Schlückla is a well-made Rauchbier from Andreas Sauer, in Gunzendorf (Jurastrasse 30, tel 09545 215), which is a few kilometres to the East of Buttenheim.

Note that to follow public demand, there is also now a Schlenkerla Rauchbier Weizen, i.e. an unfiltered Wheat Smoke Beer (13.2^o Plato), at €2.30 (October, 2006); this is produced with around 50% of smoked malt in the mash. With Greifenklau following suit, in 2003, with its cloudy Weizen, all Bamberg's breweries now produce a Wheat Beer. There are two or three wines to choose from in the Schlenkerla, including a Franconian wine, Volkacher Ratsherr, that comes in a Bocksbeutel, the classic style of bottle used for Franken wines; click here to see an image of one. Drinks such as Tea, Coffee and Coca Cola are not available in the Schlenkerla, although one can get Apfelsaft (Apple Juice), a Blackcurrant drink, Fanta, Bottled Water and Schnäpse, including, of course, the house Schnapps (Schnaps), see above. There is also Glühwein in Winter (€2.30 in October, 2006). Food and drink are served in the Schlenkerla by waitresses in black and white uniforms, which match the outstanding decor. The light coloured scrubbed maple tables contrast with beams darker than the Rauchbier itself, see the photo on the place's website.

There is some impressive vaulting, in a particular attractive area, which is typical of other pubs in the city, known as a Schwemme, this joining the various rooms together. The room on the right, as you enter, is called the Dominikanerklause, which is shown in the old black and white photo, above right, which was very kindly sent to me by Matthias Trum. There is an ecclesiastical look, see the photo, above right, and feel to the Dominikanerklause, which is not surprising given that this part of the building was built in 1310 as the Chapel of a Dominican Monastery. Hence the name of the room and street on which the tavern stands. The Dominikanerklause has had somewhat of a chequered history. Around 1800, most property belonging to the Church was secularised and became State property, including this room; it became part of an armoury and was not in good repair, when, in 1924, Matthias's Grandparents took a 99-year lease on it and the rest of the building, which included some rented apartments on the upper floors, from the Bavarian government, which was subsequently converted into a freehold, so that now the Schlenkerla is owned in perpetuity by the family. They then refurnished it, after carrying out major restoration on the building, including the Dominikanerklause, particularly its superb ceiling, at a time when labour was cheap; today the cost would be too prohibitive. When completed, Matthias's Grandparents and the City of Bamberg were justifiably proud of the restoration work carried out, and, of course, the Dominikanerklause and the other parts of the building are still splendid to this day. There were plans at one time to convert the apartments into a Schlenkerla Hotel, but these did not materialise. From May, 2007, the Dominikanerklause became the Schlenkerla's no-smoking room, although, of course, one can drink Smoke Beer in it!

Another interesting room in the Schlenkerla is the Altdeutsches Zimmer (Old German Room), which is typically used for private groups; it has one large, round table; note the traditional stove in the background. The photo to the left was taken in this room by John White, in July, 2005. In it, there are both White Beer Travels Beer Hunters and members of the British Guild of Beer Writers (www.beerwriters.co.uk), the host at a marvellous meal in this room being Matthias. Further details of this White Beer Travels visit can be seen by clicking here.

There are written records proving the existence of a brewery in the Schlenkerla from 1678, see the brewery plaque above, but it is likely that beer was brewed and/or partaken of in the place well before this. On the Schlenkerla's website there is a full list of its owners, going back to Fritz Vernbach, in 1405. Christian Fiedler, in his book, cited above, gives the date for the commencement of brewing on the premises, to be "after 1485", this being based on evidence that there was a Cooperage (Büttnerei) on the site in this year.

The room on the left, on entering, is signed Wirtsstube, another word which simply means bar, but where one can eat as well as drink; the beer servery is here, see above, and the labelled Stammtisch, the locals' table. An alternative name for the Wirtsstube is Altes Lokal or Old Bar, since this was the place's original bar. It is featured in the old photo on the left, which was also sent to me by Matthias Trum. Those who have visited the Schlenkerla will know that it is very similar today, with just minor changes to the servery, which can be seen in the middle: a nice copper drip tray has subsequently been installed. Beyond the entrance is a lovely courtyard, where there is a shop, see the photo, above left, which was taken by John White, in August, 2004. As can be seen, "Flaschenbier" (Bottled Beer) is the main thing on sale here, but one can also buy glasses, the Schlenkerla Rauchbierschnaps, see above, and toy Schlenkerla delivery lorries, etc.

The photo, above left, was taken by John White, in July, 2003. It features White Beer Travels Beer Hunt regulars, Dr Eric Clow and his wife, Sylvia. Eric and Sylvia are enjoying "Fränkische Bierhaxe in Rauchbiersosse mit Bratkartoffeln" (€8.30), a Pork Knuckle dish in a Smoke Beer Sauce, with Fried Potatoes. Food in the Schlenkerla is very, very good. In addition to other specialities, such as Saure Nieren ("Acid" Kidneys) (€6.30), Krautbraten mit Bratkartoffeln (a Meat and Cabbage dish) (€7.40), there are beer tavern favourites such as Ziebeles Käse (Schwartzbrot (Black Bread) spread with Spiced Quark), Leberkäs (literally Liver Cheese, but, in fact, it is a Pork and Beef Loaf), Leberknödelsuppe (Liver Dumpling Soup) and Schlenkerla Käse (Cheese (Camembert Cheese and Onion Mix served on Bread) (€4.80). A house speciality is Bamberger Zwiebel (Bamberg Onion) (€6.85), which, in fact, also contains Smoked Pork and Smoked Bacon, and has a Smoke Beer Sauce; it is served with Kartoffelbrei (Mashed Potato). All the dishes available are listed on the place's excellent website, www.schlenkerla.de/www.smokebeer.com. Note that the lunch and evening dish choices are different. The photo, above right, was taken by John White, in July, 2004. In it, from left to right, around the table, are: Bamberg local, Frank Wetzel, see below, Ben Morgan, Margaret and Bob Middleton, Joyce White, David Mummery, Les Triggs, and Jez (rauchbier) Blake. Apart from Frank, all are White Beer Travels Beer Hunters. On Jez's plate, in the foreground on the right, is Putenschnitzel (Turkey Escalope, but much better than its typically naff UK counterpart), an excellent Schlenkerla alternative to the normal Pork or Veal version (€8.60). Through the window can be seen another outlet for Schlenkerla Rauchbier Alt-Ringlein (www.alt-ringlein.de), this being one of five draught beers in the place. Of course, in the Alt-Ringlein, it is not served from the wood, on gravity, as in the Schlenkerla, but from an aluminium keg, using Carbon Dioxide (CO2) pressure. Note that up until 11.30am, and from 3pm to 4.30pm one can eat food that you have brought in with you in all of the Schlenkerla's rooms, i.e. when the restaurant is not serving food. There is an interesting outlet for draught Schlenkerla Rauchbier, next door but one to the Schlenkerla, i.e. a Brew Pub that opened on the 4th of August, 2004: Gasthausbrauerei Ambräusianum (Dominikanerstrasse 10, tel 0951 509 02 62, www.ambraeusianum.de). Ambraeusianum has three brews of its own, served alongside its Brew House; click here for more details.

The Schlenkerla is near the impressive Imperial Cathedral (Kaiserdom, which is often referred to as just the Dom, in direction signs, etc), to the West of the river Regnitz, and consequently finding itself in the "Bishops' Town". The part to the East of the river is known as the "Burghers' Town". Just outside Bamberg, in Bischberg, the Regnitz joins the Main, the river on which Frankfurt and another Baroque city, Würzburg, stand. In turn the Main joins the Rhine at Mainz. The Schlenkerla is also to the East of the Rhein-Main-Donau Kanal (Rhine-Main-Danube canal). Using the canal, one could take a boat journey from the Black Sea to the North Sea.

The full name of the Schlenkerla is the Brauereiausschank Schlenkerla, which implies, as is the case, that brewing does not take place on the premises, but that it is the brewery's principal outlet, the brewery tap. Although the Schlenkerla is not the nearest outlet to the brewery, the usual place for a brewery tap, its historical associations with the brewery, clearly give it such status. A typical Brew Pub would have a name such as Brauereigastätte or Hausbrauerei (House Brewery). Note that brewery is Brauerei in German, pronounced "Brow Er I", but brew is Bräu, pronounced broy, the Umlaut on the "a" changing its sound; Umlaut means change sound. Thus, the well-known German Pils, with two umlauts, seen everywhere in Britain, Löwenbräu (Lion Brew), is pronounced Leuven broy. The moderate Stella Artois is brewed in Leuven, in Belgium by that load of Bankers, InBev, who also now own the Munich Löwenbräu. Until 1993, there was a Löwenbräu brewery in Bamberg. It had no connection with the large one of the same name in Munich, which, rather sadly, is now owned by that load of bankers, InBev. The Bamberg one has been converted into flats; they are a little further up the hill from the Heller Brewery, at Obere Stephansberg 40, on the other side of the road.

As stated above, in 1907, Michael Graser, the son of Andreas Graser, took over Heller/Schlenkerla. Well before the start of the 2nd World War, Michael Graser's daughter, Elisabeth, and her husband Jakob Trum took the helm. In 1967, they handed the brewery and its tavern over to their son, German Trum, the father of Matthias. The present name of the brewery is "Heller-Bräu" Trum. German's Swedish wife was in charge in the Schlenkerla; in March, 2003, Matthias, their only child, started working in the family business, having just finished his studies at the world famous Weihenstephan Brewing School (www.wzw.tum.de), in Freising, in Bavaria, which incorporates the world's oldest brewery (www.brauerei-weihenstephan.de). Weihenstephan is a famous source of yeast for Bavarian-style Wheat (White) Beers, although the Schlenkerla one is based on yeast from the Herrenbräu Bürgerliches Brauhaus, a brewery in Ingolstadt. Matthias took over the running of the Heller Brewery and the Schlenkerla, in April, 2003, at the age of twenty-seven; as is the tradition, on his appointment, Matthias moved into the Schlenkerla, his parents moving into a nearby apartment. By the time he is sixty-five, Matthias expects that his successor will be at the helm; he will still be around to change the odd barrel or whatever, but will have no responsibilities!

Heller's brewer is Martin Knab, a fellow graduate of Weihenstephan. Martin is on the right, in the photo to the left, which was taken in the brewery's yard. Note the legend "Verkauf" (Sales) above my head. This is the brewery's beer shop. At Weihenstephan, Matthias, who is also in the photo, did a thesis on beer history. Whilst doing this he found no evidence to show whether wood other than beech was ever used for malting in Bamberg. Matthias did a year of compulsory military service prior to spending three years doing business studies at Bamberg University, before spending two and a half years at Weihenstephan. The photo was taken by Jez (rauchbier) Blake, see above, on an August, 2004 White Beer Travels group Beer Hunt; click here for more details of it.

The Schlenkerla is open between 9.30am and 11.30pm, every day except Tuesday; hot food is available until 10pm. Most other Bamberg pubs have one day a week when they are not open. This is usually advertised in the window as the Ruhetag or Rest Day. The Schlenkerla is generally closed on the 24th, 25th and the 26th of December and on the 1st of January. It is also usually closed in early January for two weeks. Such dates can be confirmed on the place's website.

Of course, Schlenkerla Beers are imported around the world, the US importer being B.United International, www.bunitedint.com (see the Schlenkerla website for the importers for other countries). It is even available in Belgium, which is not a big importer of Speciality Beers, having such a big selection of its own, but, as can be seen from the photo to the left, Schlenkerla Rauchbier is available in what the Belgians call the Bierland. The photo was taken by Joyce White, in July, 2004. In it, John White and Dominiek Geers, of Dranken Geers, a beer warehouse, in Oostakker, near Ghent, are standing in front of crates of Schlenkerla Rauchbier. English suppliers include: www.easy-wine.co.uk, London; www.the-offie.co.uk, Leicester; www.beersofeurope.co.uk, King's Lynn; and www.onlyfinebeer.co.uk. Those with a location given can be visited. UK Pubs featuring Schlenkerla Beers include: The Devonshire Cat, in Sheffield, www.devonshirecat.co.uk. The English outlets are supplied by Kaiserdom or by Olaf Schellenberg, of Perth, in Scotland.

Smoke Beer, the Schlenkerla, etc, in Books and on the Internet

The excellent Bamberg Tourist Information Office (the Fremdenverkehrsamt, which is on an island in the Regnitz, near the Town Hall, at Geyerswörthstrasse 3, tel 0951 29 76 200, www.bamberg.info) have produced an excellent thirty-six page, fully illustrated, leaflet, Bamberger BierschmeckerTouren, costing €3; there is also an English version, Bamberg Beer Tasting Tours. This has details of all the city's breweries, with tasting notes on all the beers that they produce. It has good maps, with the Beer Tasting Tour of the title marked, and, as well as covering beer, it describes general tourist attractions on the route. For €20, one gets the book, a glass beer mug, which has the logos of nine of Bamberg's ten breweries on it (Ambraeusianum, see above, not having commenced operation when it was produced), a selection of beer mats (coasters), five 50cl beer tokens, an excellent large postcard, and a special rucksack with a Bamberg logo. The tokens are used for one of two beer tasting tours, on either side of the River Regnitz. The left bank one covers Schlenkerla, Klosterbräu (www.klosterbraeu.de), Greifenklau and Kaiserdom (www.kaiserdom.de); the right bank one covers Spezial, Fässla, Keesmann (www.keesmann-braeu.de), Mahr's Bräu and Maisel (www.maisel-braeu-bamberg.de). Only one token can be used in each outlet, except that for the left bank tour, as there are only four participants, one can use two tokens in one of them. Clearly, since one is getting beer worth over €10, plus the beer mug and the rucksack, which make for excellent souvenirs, as does the booklet, the €20 option is a real bargain. There is a link on the tourist office's website's Home page, giving further details. The booklet can be downloaded, without maps, by clicking here. In 2004, the Bamberg Beer Tasting Tours initiative was judged to be the "Goldene BierIdee 2004" (Golden Beer Idea 2004) by the Bayerischer Brauerbund (Bavarian Breweries' Association) (www.bayrisch-bier.de or www.bayerischerbrauerbund.de).

Excellent Internet sources of information on beer in Bamberg and the rest of Franconia are: Fred Waltman's www.franconiabeerguide.com; Bierland Oberfranken (Upper Franconia Beer Land), www.bierland-oberfranken.de, which has tons of information on the beer scene in places such as Bamberg, Forchheim, Kulmbach, etc; Bamberg local, Frank Wetzel's www.bierregion-franken.info, which is in both German and English; www.bierstadt.de, the "Beer Town" of its name being, of course, Bamberg, this German-language site also having an associated, locally available booklet, Bambergs Brauereien - Biervielfalt Erleben & Geniessen; the Bamberg page from Ron Pattinson's essential European Beer Guide site, www.europeanbeerguide.net/bambpubs.htm; and Elmar Göller's "Fränkische Brauereien. Braukulturland Franken" (Franconian Breweries. Beer Culture Land Franconia), www.braufranken.de. Note that Frank Wetzel has an excellent apartment that can be rented for stays of two nights are longer, which is only around 150 metres/yards from the Schlenkerla, i.e. it is right in the city centre. Further details, including contact information, are available on Frank's website; click here to go direct to the appropriate page.

Klaus Ehm has a website with a great number of scans of beer bottle labels, etc from a number of places, worldwide, www.klausehm.de; Germany is covered in the most detail. The site is an essential source of information on the chronology and changing names/ownership of breweries, past and present, for example, if you want information on Bamberg breweries, click on "Historisches Brauereiverzeichnis Deutschland" (Historical Brewery Directory Germany) (www.klausehm.de/Uebersicht.html), and then on "Bamberg bis Bayenthal" (www.klausehm.de/B6.html).

The essential book on the subject of Smoke Beer, Bamberg and the Schlenkerla's most famous beer style, is Smoked Beers, by Ray Daniels and Geoffrey Larson (ISBN 0-937381-76-4). It is one of a number of books in the top-class Classic Beer Styles Series, published by "Brewers Publications", which is a division of "The Brewers Association" (www.beertown.org), who are based in Boulder, Colorado, in the  USA. Note that "The Brewers Association" was formed from the January, 2005 merge of the "Association of Brewers" and the "Brewers' Association of America". This 2000 book can be obtained from the Brewers Publications website for $14.95, from www.amazon.com, for $10.47, from www.amazon.co.uk, for £9.45, and from Beer-Inn Print (www.beerinnprint.co.uk) for £11. Ray is the organiser of the Chicago Real Ale Festival (www.realalefestival.com (stopped working in September, 2006, see the Chicago Beer Society's website, www.chibeer.org) and Geoffrey Larson is the co-founder/brewer at Alaskan Brewing Company (www.alaskanbeer.com), in Juneau, who produced the renowned Alaskan Smoked Porter (6.1%), from malt smoked using burning alder wood in Taku Smokeries, whose main function is the production of Smoked Salmon from the same wood. The 274 page book covers: the classic producers of Smoke Beer, including, of course the two in Bamberg; History of Smoke in Beer (the title of the sixty-one page long, superbly researched Chapter 1); The Chemistry of Smoke (the title of Chapter 4); recipes for brewing your own Smoke Beer; and even how to smoke your own malt.

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