Oslo Beer City 2013

While 2012 was the year the beer scene really exploded here in Oslo, with good craft beer appearing in many old pubs across the city and new dedicated beer pubs and brewpubs opening up, things have not slowed down since my last post on this topic half a year ago. So here's an update from spring 2013.

A glass of Scream Ale at the newly opened Crowbar 

Beer Palace
Address: Holmens Gate 3
Opened: 6 April 1993, renovated fall 2012 and reopened 14 November 2012
Type: Beer bar
Taps: 23 (about half with craft beer)

After extensive renovations and some structural changes, including rebuilding the bar upstairs, Beer Palace reopened in November 2012 with an extended draft beer menu and even more focus on beer related events, including beer tastings. The place now sports more than twenty tap lines and usually half of those are with good quality craft beer. The selection of bottled beer has also been expanded, with bottles from all over the world in beer coolers both upstairs and downstairs.

But I'm not all happy with the new layout. Two long shuffleboards and the extended bar take up very much space on the second floor, reducing the seating capacity and making it difficult to enter or leave on busy nights, when everyone flocks to the bar and blocks the staircase.

Still, the dedication to good beer is evident and I've enjoyed some really great craft beer on draft since they reopened, such as Nøgne Ø Two Captains IPA, Ugly Duck Imperial Vanilla Coffe Porter, Emelisse Rauchbier, Boulevard Pale Ale and Ægir Lindisfarne.

The upstairs bar the Beer Palace with shutters down

BRU: Vulkan Pub
Address: Maridalsveien 13 (next to Mathallen)
Opens: Spring or summer 2013
Type: Beer pub

This pub is owned and will be operated by the people behind Ølakademiet, who also run the Øltorget pub in Mathallen and the old Akersberget restaurant just up the hill. The pub was originally scheduled to open back in November 2012 but work has taken longer than expected, with practically no progress over the winter.

A March 7 status update on Facebook said that work has resumed and that the pub will offer about 300 types of beer, both international and Norwegian, of high quality. But no opening date has been posted yet for what will probably become the smallest pub in Oslo, only 19 square meters large!

Crowbar, The Crow or Kråka bryggeri
- the hot new brewpub in Oslo

Crowbar Bryggeri
Address: Torggata 32
Opened: 13 December 2012
Type: Brewpub
Taps: 20

There is still some confusion about its name, which is listed as Crowbar & Bryggeri in official registers, because people working there and the glassware says "Crow" while the employee t-shirts actually has "Kråka" (Norwegian for crow) printed on them. Anyhow, the brewpub, which had an unofficial opening last December, officially opened up on January 13, 2013, with a big party and the cutting of the ribbon performed by Petter Nome - the leader of the Bryggeri- og drikkevareforeningen (Norwegian trades union for breweries).

When I first heard about it, I got the feeling that they would only have 5-6 beers, just their own, on draft. That turned out to be far from the truth, the Crow has an amazing (for Oslo) 20 tap lines! On any given day, the lowest numbers - usually from 1 to 5 or 6 - will be with their own beer, though the owner, Erk Potur, hopes they can stock up enough kegged beer to actually have taps 1-10 with their own beer. The rest of the tap lines carry guest beer from craft breweries in Europe and the US. I've already enjoyed draft beer from Rogue Ales, Thornbridge, BrewDog, Evil Twin, Mikkeller, Nøgne Ø, Ægir and HaandBryggeriet at Crowbar!

Because the place is still very young, it may not have settled yet and there are some issues they're still working on, such as the food part. But it seems they'll keep a focus on grilled food, ordered and served on the second floor, where guests get a good view of the micro brewery and bar below.

Brewmaster Dave Gardonio is still experimenting with recipes to create a good line-up for the brewpub, he has made a couple of very good Experimental IPAs (with three different high alpha hops) as well as a German-style Roggen bier (rye beer), a very tasty strong red ale and a strong mild.

After just a few months in the business Crowbar attracts many beer thirsty visitors and is usually packed during weekends, so the best time for a visit is early in the week or shortly after the daily 3 pm opening.

Opening night at Crowbar with an impressive 20 draft beers

Grünerløkka Brygghus
Address: Thorvald Meyers Gate 30 B
Opened: 8 October 2010
Type: Gastropub
Taps: 8

Finally, after three years of talk, this popular pub on Grünerløkka will soon start brewing its own beer. According to a recent Facebook entry and this Ølportalen blog post, they will take over the old 700 liter test brewery from Lervig Aktiebryggeri in Stavanger. It will be installed in the backyard of Villa Import, owned by Jan "Mr Grünerløkka" Vardøen who also owns the Grünerløkka Brygghus. By the way, this backyard is also where the annual Grünerløkka Mat- og Mikrobrygg festival has been held since 2009.

Up until now their "house beers" have been brewed by selected Norwegian craft breweries, such as Nøgne Ø (Kjell Pop Single Hop IPA) and Kinn Bryggeri (Løkka Haust og Løkka Svarthumle). Now, with the help of former Nøgne Ø and Møllebyen Mikrobryggeri brewer, David Dudek, the plan is to install the new brewery and have it up and running before the summer. Of course, there are many pitfalls so we can just cross our fingers and hope that the installation goes smoothly.

The backyard where Grünerløkka Brygghus will install their
brewery is also used for an annual food & beer festival

Nydalen Bryggeri & Spiseri
Address: Nydalsveien 30A, Nydalen
Opens: Summer 2013
Type: Brewpub & brewery

Nydalen Bryggeri & Spiseri is a brand new brewery that will open up in the old Bølgen & Moi restaurant in Nydalen, Oslo. It has the same owners as the Amundsen Bryggeri & Spiseri brewpub, and the plan seems to be to use the new brewery more as a production brewery because of its larger (1000 liter) capacity.

The brewery will be in the capable hands of brewmaster John Hudson, currently at Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri, who will start working in Nydalen in May. His first task will be to install the new brewery and get it operational, which may take a couple of months, but by mid summer the Nydalen district of Oslo should have its own brewery.

As the "Spiseri" part of the name suggests, the brewery will also have an attached pub where you can enjoy the local beer along with some food.


Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri
Address: Trondheimsveien 2, Grünerløkka
Opened: 1 October 2010
Type: Brewpub
Taps: 14

After two and a half years and 250 batches of beer, Schouskjelleren brewmaster John Hudson has decided to move on, to start brewing at the new Nydalen Bryggeri. His replacement, Luca Saccomandi, is an Italian brewer who worked for brewery Le Baladin when he got the offer to brew in Norway. He'll move to Oslo in April and take over the brewing at Schouskjelleren when John Hudson moves on in May.

How the change of brewers will affect Schouskjelleren brewpub is hard to tell, hopefully the new brewer will keep making some of the old classics - such as Thunderbear Stout, Empress of India and Garden of Eden - while also making his own, signature beers.

Before John Hudson leaves Schouskjelleren he'll brew one last collaboration beer, with René Hansen from Det Lille Bryggeri in Denmark. Hansen will come to Oslo on March 26th, but what kind of beer he plans to brew is still a well kept secret. Currently, Schouskjelleren has another of its collaboration beers on draft - batch 250, a 7.5% heather blossoms and heather honey scotch ale brewed with Dave Gardonio from Crowbar & Bryggeri.

The owner of Schouskjelleren, Nevzat Arikan, is also working on plans for a new 1000 liter production brewery next to Schouskjelleren, but this brewery will probably not be operational until the fall or late 2013. In the meantime, Schouskjelleren may continue to brew and bottle some of their beer at other breweries, like they did in 2012 with Empress of India (brewed at Herslev Bryghus in Denmark) and the Juleøl (brewed at Dugges in Sweden).

The vaulted brick ceiling of the beer hall at Schouskjelleren

The Whisky Bar
Address: Rådhusgata 28, Kvadraturen
Opened: 12 May 2010
Type: Restaurant, beer and whisky bar
Taps: 12

While already a fine beer and whisky bar when it opened up summer 2010, The Whisky Bar has just upped the stakes by installing a new 7-tap beer tower, bringing the total number of draft beers up to a dozen (plus some industrial lagers I decline to include in the count).

According to the bartender I spoke with, they sell a lot of craft beer from breweries such as Ægir, HaandBryggeriet, BrewDog and Magic Rock, so there is a surprisingly good rotation of kegs - when I was there they served BrewDog Punk IPA, HaandBryggeriet Fyr & flamme, Ægir India Pale Ale, Svaneke Den Udødelige Hest Porter, Magic Rock Dark Star Stout and Lexington Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, to name a few.

And because their customers keep asking for more exciting draft beer, The Whisky Bar plans to install another 7-tap beer tower later this spring. That is, if they can find space for it in the small bar. So keep an eye on The Whisky Bar!

The new 7-tap beer tower at The Whisky Bar.

Here are the links to the original post and the update.

Enjoying Polar Beers in Tromsø

Tromsø may not be known for its beer scene, though many Norwegians will know it as the hometown of the only major brewery in northern Norway, but when I got the opportunity to visit this small city, some 300 kilometers north of the Arctic circle, I jumped at the chance.

Tromsø harbor with Tromsø Bridge seen in the distance.

Tromsø
With a population of 70 thousand, Tromsø is the largest city in northern Norway and the second largest in the world north of the Arctic circle (after Murmansk in Russia). It's located at 69.9 degrees North on the island of Tromsøya, in the Tromsøysundet strait.

Though human habitation can be traced back several thousand years, Tromsø remained a small and insignificant settlement until it received its city charter from King Christian VII in 1794. At that time only about 80 people lived on the island!

The young "city" quickly rose in importance. The Diocese of Hålogaland was created in 1804 and Arctic hunting, from Novaya Zemlya to Canada, started up around 1820. By 1850, Tromsø was the major center of Arctic hunting, overtaking the former center of Hammerfest, and the city was trading from Arkhangelsk in Russia to Bordeaux in France.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Tromsø was also used as a port to the Arctic by famous polar explorers such as Fridtjof Nansen, Roald Amundsen and Umberto Nobile who often recruited their crew here. In 1927, the Northern Lights Observatory was founded in Tromsø, starting the tradition for polar and atmospheric studies for which the University of Tromsø is well known today.

During World War II, the Norwegian parliament and royal family escaped from Oslo and ended up in Tromsø, making it the de facto capital of free Norway for three weeks until they had to flee the country in June 1940.

Since 1960 the city has been connected to the mainland via the Tromsøbrua bridge, which has become a major landmark seen from all over the city. Not far from the mainland end of the bridge you'll find the most famous building in the region, the Arctic Cathedral built in 1964-65.

Today, most tourists come to Tromsø either for the midnight sun, during the short summer months, or to ski or go on a northern lights safari during the long, dark winters. Many of them arrive on the famous Hurtigruten ferries that go between Bergen and Kirkenes. Because few other places north of the Arctic circle has such a good infrastructure of roads, airport and ferry connections, along with hotels to stay at, Tromsø has also been proposed as a future Olympic Games site!

In the 19th century, Tromsø received the nickname "Paris of the North", probably because the visitors from the south of Norway and from Europe found the citizens fairly civilized and even sophisticated. One of the civilized things the city has offered its visitors for 135 years is its own beer: Mack.

View of downtown Tromsø from Tromsø Bridge.

The Mack story
It was in this frontier boom town of the mid 19th century that German baker Georg Mack settled down to start a bakery. In 1842, the year the very first pilsner was brewed in Bohemia, his wife bore him a son, Ludwig Markus Mack. While it was Georg's wish that his son would someday take over the bakery, and Ludwig did actually apprentice as a baker, he was destined for something else.

At the time Tromsø lacked one of the most essential things that even the smallest German village had: A brewery. So in the 1870s, the young Ludwig started thinking about founding a brewery in Tromsø. He managed to raise some money and put all of his own savings into the project and in the autumn of 1877 he could proudly declare his L. Macks Ølbryggeri for opened. It was and still is the northernmost brewery in the world, a fact the brewery proudly displays on their beer bottles and glasses.

What is now known as Mack Bryggeri is still a family owned brewery, one of only three in Norway, led by Harald Bredrup - the 5th generation. Until August 2012 the brewery was located on Storgata in the heart of Tromsø, but the need for expansion, combined with local politicians who would not allow the brewery to modify its historical buildings, forced Mack to find a new location. They got an offer they couldn't refuse from the municipality of Nordkjosbotn, about an hour by car south of Tromsø, where a brand new brewery was constructed and opened up in September 2012. Thus, after 135 years Mack Bryggeri severed the ties with its birth city and moved some 70 kilometer to the south.

The Ludwig Mack Brygghus micro brewery.

While most of the old brewery buildings in Tromsø have been sold, some of it will be used for the 2014 Chess Olympiad, the Ølhallen brewery tap and a new micro brewery (the old test plant), named Ludwig Mack Brygghus, will remain at the Storgata location.

Naturally, Mack is still a dominant force on the Tromsø beer scene, as most of the draft beer served here are from Mack. To check out the selection and varity I had singled out three places beforehand: Ølhallen, Blå Rock Café and Skarven Kro.

Ølhallen
Storgata 4
Opening hours: 10-18 (Mon-Fri), 09-18 (Saturday) and closed Sundays.

The oldest pub in Tromsø, Ølhallen, actually celebrated its 85th anniversary on the first night of my visit, with a special beer session in the evening led by a journalist from a local newspaper. During this event they served the micro brewed Mack Judas Yeast on draft, a unique beer brewed with both wheat ale and pilsner yeast.

Ølhallen, which is Norwegian for "beer hall", was founded in 1928 as the official brewery tap for Mack Bryggeri and located in the basement of a neoclassical building erected in 1890 as home for the brewery founder, Ludwig Mack.

A clawless and stuffed polar bear
- on guard at Ølhallen in Tromsø

Normally, only open from 10 am to 6 pm, Ølhallen feels like a "brown" city pub and in many ways it is. The interior is slightly worn, from the clawless, stuffed polar bear to the brown, wooden furniture. And when I arrived at noon one day, it seemed the regulars were of the slightly worn type too. It's still a nice place to visit, with lots of polar memorabilia on the walls and a corner table named in honor of an old regular who also happen to be one of the most famous huntsmen from the 20th century - Henry Rudi (1899-1970).

For the moment, Ølhallen only has the regular Mack lager beers and a few types of bottled beer - including a few from Nøgne Ø, so it's not a place to get your beer muscles flexed. However, this is supposed to change. According to the bartender, they will soon start to carry draft beer from the 1000 liter micro brewery next door - Ludwig Mack Brygghus.

All in all I found Ølhallen to be a fairly nice and quiet place, where you can always find a spare table to sit down and read a newspaper while enjoying a draft beer. The main problem is the opening hours and the fact that they don't serve any food, which means you've got to squeeze in a visit between lunch and the 6 o'clock closing time - not much time to enjoy the atmosphere and (hopefully soon) more exciting micro brews.

If you exit Ølhallen and go past the micro brewery you'll find the best beer shop in Tromsø, named Kjeller 5, which is also located in an old Mack Bryggeri building.

Blå Rock Cafe
Strandgata 14
Opening hours: 11:30-01:30 (Mon-Thu), 11:30-03 (Fri & Sat) and 13-00:30 (Sun)

The appropriately named Blå Rock Café in Tromsø.

Founded in 1991 and located in a pale blue painted, wooden building in Strandgata, Blå Rock Café ("blå" means "blue" in Norwegian) has the best selection of draft beer of the pubs I visited in Tromsø. As the name implies, this place is all about rock, attracting a fairly young and often rock, punk or metal oriented audience, from time to time they even host concerts there. So, the place may feel a bit noisy for a quiet conversation, but the atmosphere is very laid back and the bartender knowledgeable about beer - so it's certainly worth a visit if you're looking for good beer.

Unlike Ølhallen, Blå Rock Café is open all night, closing well after midnight all days. On the night of my visit, they served Marston's Oyster Stout, Erdinger Hefe Weizen and a really fresh Samuel Adams Boston Lager on draft, in addition to the regular draft beers from Mack. They also had a micro brew on draft, from the test plant at Mack brewery: Mack Vinterland - a fruity and well made 6.5% IPA. On bottle, Blå Rock Café had some thirty types, including Flying Dog Gonzo and a number of not so exciting British ales.

I really enjoyed the rock atmosphere of the place, listening to Iggy Pop or Velvet Underground, while drinking some good beer. Another plus compared to Ølhallen is that Blå Rock Café also serves hot food, so you can have your lunch or dinner there.

Skarven Kro
Strandtorget 1
Opens: 11:00 every day

Vertshuset Skarven near the harbor in Tromsø.

While neither Ølhallen nor Blå Rock Café will impress the casual visitor with their bottled beer menus, there is a place at Strandtorget that will: Vertshuset Skarven. This is a multi faceted business spread over two floors in two different buildings, a yellow wooden building and, closer to the quay, a white brick and plaster building from 1908. The yellow building houses Biffhuset and Skarven Bar while the white brick building houses the Arctandria seafood restaurant on the second floor and a nice pub on the first.

This pub, named Skarven Kro, has a simple lunch menu and only Mack beer on draft, but on bottle I counted more than 70 different types; from great breweries like De Molen and Emelisse in the Netherlands, Struise and Cantillon in Belgium and Mikkeller and Amager in Denmark. Of Norwegian craft beer they sported a great selection from HaandBryggeriet, Nøgne Ø and Ægir. Even two days were not enough for me to get through all the interesting bottled beers!

The downside was that the guys working in the bar didn't really have knowledge about or even interest in the beer they sold, so I could not ask for any recommendations with the fish casserole I had one day or with the bacalao the next. Skarven Kro is also the most touristy of the places I visited in Tromsø, even though many locals come here too, so both Ølhallen and Blå Rock Café felt more authentic. Still, with such a nice bottled beer menu I can't avoid but recommend a visit to this pub, if you know your beer.


The bartender at Blå Rock Café, when asked about other good beer pubs in Tromsø, suggested Circa in Storgata. But I never got the chance to visit that place. Still, my first visit to Tromsø really whetted my appetite for more - both sightseeing, food and micro brews. I will surely be back, when the Ludwig Mack Brygghus is up and running. And when the weather is a bit warmer than in February :)

The micro brewed Mack Vinterland IPA
- full of tropical fruit flavors.

For more photos from my Tromsø visit see this Flickr collection.

At Borefts Bier Festival 2012

This post may seem a bit late, since Borefts 2012 was held back in September, but this has been a busy winter and I had to get the German road trip out of my system first. Anyhow, here is my personal recollection of the most recent craft beer festival hosted by Brouwerij De Molen in Bodegraven, Netherlands, September 28 and 29, 2012.

The old windmill of Brouwerij De Molen.

History of De Molen and Borefts
Menno Oliver started out as homebrewer and then picked up experience as a professional brewer at several Dutch breweries before founding his own brewery in 2004. He chose the name Brouwerij De Molen, Dutch for "The Mill Brewery", after the 17th century windmill De Arkduif in Bodegraven in which his small 500 liter brewery was constructed.

In control of his own brewery and with years of brewing experience, Menno Oliver started brewing more experimental beers and in the span of a few years he had created some amazing beers that got him attention far outside the Netherlands. His massive imperial stouts, in particular, were quickly picked up by word of mouth through online communities such as RateBeer and BeerAdvocate. In early 2009, De Molen was rated the 55th best brewery in the world by the users of RateBeer, a year later it had climbed to #10! De Molen is now one of the leading craft breweries in Europe with a number of world class beers, in particular their high abv imperial stouts - Hel & Verdoemenis, Tsarina Esra and Hemel & Aarde.

De Molen Hel & Verdoemenis 666
- world class imperial stout.

Along with the growing popularity and international fame of De Molen, Menno Oliver realized that his home country was in the backwater compared to neighboring Belgium, with regards to good beer festivals. He decided one was needed in the Netherlands and why not place it in his hometown, Bodegraven, which is located almost dead center between Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague.

Thus, in September 2009 the Borefts Bier Festival was born, hosted by De Molen at the windmill-turned-brewery. This was a small festival, by international standards, but the quality of the attending breweries - which saw international craft beer superstars De Struise Brouwers, Mikkeller and Närke Kulturbryggeri appear - and of the arrangement in general made it a success. Word of it to spread around the beer world. This global word of mouth advertisement ensured that more people would show up for the festival next year, and even more the year after that.

Summer 2011 saw the opening of a new and larger De Molen brewery, in a warehouse complex a hundred meters down the the road from the windmill. The new brewery gave Menno Oliver much more capacity to brew beer but also extra floor space for hosting the beer festival, so for Borefts 2011 the festival was split in two - with some breweries at the old windmill and the rest at the new brewery. By 2012, Borefts had grown into a mid-sized beer festival, where I hope it will stay.

Närke founder Håge Wiktorsson on stand at Borefts 2010.

Where to stay?
On my first two visits to Borefts I stayed in Amsterdam because the few places in or near Bodegraven sold out the moment the festival dates were published, but also because I thought it would be a lot easier to stay in Amsterdam as it was close to Schiphol airport. However, staying in Amsterdam also meant almost an hour travel time to and from Bodegraven, including a tight change of trains in Utrecht - running for a connecting train is not something you really enjoy after a long day of beer drinking!

Thus, for the 2012 festival I took the logical step and found myself a hotel in Utrecht, which slashed the travel time to Bodegraven to just 19 minutes and discarded the troublesome change of trains. Utrecht may not be as big as Amsterdam, but it's a central stop on the Dutch railways and easy accessible from Schiphol airport. It has a good selection of reasonable hotels and even sports a couple of great beer pubs. Who can wish for more? I'll return to the beer pubs at the end of this post.

So, getting to Bodegraven is all a question of taking the train, whether you come from Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Utrecht. Don't even consider driving, as there are very few places to park. And taxis are a waste of money. Trains are cheap, reliable and run all day long.

When reaching Bodegraven, get off the train and either follow the flow of visitors (you'll recognize the beer geeks, besides few other tourists ever come to Bodegraven) or find your way the roughly 600 meters west to the new brewery (just down the road from the windmill) where you have to purchase a tasting glass, with tokens and a program, for €15. Later you can purchase more tokens at several locations.

 A big, empty beer tent before the opening of Borefts 2012.

Borefts Bier Festival 2012
Like in 2011, the 2012 festival was held at two separate locations. Most of the breweries and visitors could be found in the warehouse connected with the new De Molen brewery or in the big tents outside. The other location was at the windmill, a hundred meters up the road.

Up at the windmill you could visit the stands of Dutch breweries Emelisse and Mommeriete, as well as The Kernel from England, Evil Twin Brewing from Denmark and Jester King Craft Brewing from Texas. De Molen, like in previous years, had their stand in their pub inside the windmill. This is also where the restaurant is located, where you can order light snack early in the day and hot meals after 4 pm.

A glass of Emelisse DIPA Hopserie at Borefts 2012
- it was dry-hopped on the spot with Apollo!

The majority of breweries were found at the new brewery: De Struise Brouwers and Alvinne from Belgium shared stand with HaandBryggeriet from Norway, serving beer from the überkool Taptrailer - first used for Copenhagen Beer Celebration in May 2012. Inside the large brewery warehouse you could visit the stands of Mikkeller from Denmark, Birrificia del Ducato from Italy, Gänstaller-Bräu from Germany, Buxton Brewery from England and Närke Kulturbryggeri from Sweden. Inside the brewery itself, you found Thornbridge from England side by side with Brasserie du Mont Salève from France.

All in all there must have been around a hundred beers on keg or cask, simply too many to get through in two days - even for a professional beer drinker like myself :) So the first thing to do when you've picked up your tasting glass, tokens and festival program, is to scan the program for highlights and go for the most rare or exclusive beers first - you never know when a given beer runs out. This year, Närke Konjaks! Stormaktsporter and Buxton Tsar Bomba were two such beers.

Buxton Tsar Bomba, inoculated with brett from 1978
- served from cask at Borefts 2012.

Borefts is usually less crowded on the opening day, which is always a Friday, and especially before 4 pm, because a lot of people will come after work. So I always make sure to be at Borefts before the festival opens at noon. It also makes sense to start early because you can then catch an earlier train home and so be able to start the second day better rested and more sober than if you stayed at the festival until closing time (10 pm).

Early in the day, finding a chair or bench to sit at is no problem, but later in the evening it makes sense to team up with some friends to reserve a section of a table so that you can rotate seating - while some are up to get more beer, others can sit down and get some rest. This wasn't really an issue the first few years, but with the growing popularity even Borefts may run out of seats. But this is mostly a problem on Saturday, when most of the visitors come.

Highlights from Borefts 2012
There were a number highlights at Borefts 2012 and I'm sure I've forgotten a few of them in the months that have passed. But these are the things I still remember:

- Närke Kulturbryggeri: Had an amazing stand with a large number of draft beers, cool slogans and the weirdest tap handle I've ever seen - a beer served from a Urinal! And when they served a world class beer like Konjaks! Stormaktsporter along with spruce and spice beers such as Gransus, Äljäjl and Bäver you could really spend a lot of time at their stand.

- Struise Taptrailer: First unveiled for the Copenhagen Beer Celebration a few months earlier, the 30 tap Taptrailer is a winner at any beer festival since it both refrigerates the beer kegs and offers the beer through taps along the side. At Borefts, Struise shared their Taptrailer with Alvinne and HaandBryggeriet - so brewers from all three served visitors to the Taptrailer stand. At times a bit chaotic, but the more fun for that reason. And who can complain when a stand offers 30 high quality draft beers?!

The amazing 30 tap Struise "Taptrailer" at Borefts 2012
- shared by Struise, Alvinne and HaandBryggeriet.

- Struise Pannepot Wild: One of the many great beers served from the Taptrailer was the Struise Pannepot Wild, which is the regular Struise Pannepot aged with wild yeasts. The result was heavenly, one of the most amazing beers at the festival - combining the sweetness of the original with a wonderful funky sourness.

- Buxton Tsar Bomba: When I first read about this beer, I knew I had to try it quickly before it ran out. This 9.5% abv imperial stout was inoculated with brettanomyces yeast from a 1978 bottle of Courage Russian Imperial Stout! Yes, it had that funky brett flavor - rich and flavorful. A unique imperial stout and a once in a lifetime tasting experience.

- De Molen Bommen on Cascade: Usually I like their imperial stouts the best, finding the regular Bommen & Granaten barley wine a tad sweet, but this 15.2% abv version was dry-hopped with Cascade making it an explosion of hop flavors and bitterness which perfectly matched the sweetness of the barley wine; a fresh imperial IPA on steroids!

- The atmosphere: Like previous years, what really struck me to the core was the great atmosphere. The beer geek factor may be high (I've got nothing against that, by the way), but everyone seemed so relaxed, there were no shouting or overly drunken people. People were there for the beer experience. I've shared tables with countless people I don't know at the start of the day but that I've gotten to know well over the afternoon. People from all parts of the world. People I look forward to meet again at future festivals.

- The arrangement: Borefts keep impressing me for being so well arranged. They have thought about everything, from cheap water bottles sold everywhere, finger food that goes well with beer, hot food when you get hungry, rinsing stations where you can clean your glass between tastings, toilets and urinals. And by spreading the brewery stands over two locations they spread people and reduce queues. And there's plenty of chairs and benches to sit down at, with tables for taking notes. Nothing is left to chance! Compare this to my critical remarks of the Copenhagen Beer Celebration.

Saturday was a bit more crowded, but still manageable.

In summary
Despite its growing popularity, with more visitors showing up every year, the arrangement is flawless and the festival still feels like a small and cozy craft beer festival. It is certainly small enough to allow direct communication between brewers and visitors, which I value highly. And the quality of the attending breweries is staggering, few other festivals - possibly with the exception of Copenhagen Beer Celebration - have such a high standard and such a breadth of beer styles.

There's no doubt in my mind, if there's one festival I have to attend in 2013 it will be the 5th Borefts Bier Festival which will most likely ("99% sure" according to the De Molen website) be held on September 27 and 28. So, mark those dates and make plans for a Dutch holiday this fall. UPDATE: These dates have just been confirmed on the De Molen Facebook page.

Jester King Das Überkind at Borefts 2012

Utrecht beer pubs
I promised a few words about the beer scene in Utrecht and we're basically talking about two pubs, both of a very good standard though world class may be pushing it a bit far.

Kafé België is located along a canal on Oudegracht 196 in old town Utrecht, at the time of my visit it was the highest rated pub in Utrecht (on RateBeer). I had been there once before, back in 2007, and remembered it as a nice place with a fairly good selection of Belgian beers on tap. This time, the pub turned out a lot more crowded than I seem to remember. Granted, it was Friday night - probably the busiest night of the week. Still, in the end I managed to find standing place on the side of the bar. It wasn't ideal and the noisy atmosphere made it difficult to ask about or even order beer. On a regular weekday, this may still be a great beer pub - but on a Friday you'll be better off trying the next one.

Café Derat is a small and cozy "neighborhood pub" on the corner of Springweg and Lange Smeestraat. From the outside you could be forgiven for thinking it's an ordinary café, but inside you're met with a view of old woodworks - from the solid furnitures to the bar. The walls are plastered with beer signs and on one wall hangs what looks like a huge, mummified rat in a glass encasing. And it is. It's the rat which was found dead during renovations in 1978 and thus gave name to the café, which is now run by a smiling and friendly fellow, named Eric, and his two cats, Josephine and Spot. Eric may not have the largest number of taps, but there are always something interesting on draft. And he knows his beers, often suggesting new ones to try. As the pub is fairly small it may feel crowded, but unlike Kafé België it didn't feel cramped and never so noisy you couldn't talk. Even on a Friday night. Since my visit, Café Derat has climbed the ratings and is now considered the best beer pub in Utrecht. Needless to say, I highly recommend it.

Owner of Café Derat, Eric, and one of his two cats.

More photos can be found at these Flickr sets: Borefts 2012 and Café Derat.

Counting down to Tour de Geuze 2013

For those hooked on sour beer not much comes up to the high standards of the Belgian lambics, those spontaneously fermented beers that have been brewed in Pajottenland and the Zenne river valley, just outside modern Brussels, for centuries. Lambics can be enjoyed young but they really prove their worth when blended across several vintages to create geuze or when steeped with berries, such as cherries and raspberries, to create kriek and framboise. Bottles of geuze can be cellared for decades and will often still come out sparkling and fresh.

3 Fonteinen / De Cam Millennium Geuze from 1998
- still sparkling and fresh after 15 years!

A visit to a lambic brewery is like walking back in time (the Cantillon brewery in Brussels even doubles as a museum!), with brewing equipment and traditions unchanged for generations. In most cases, it's next to impossible to get inside a working lambic brewery, the aforementioned Cantillon brewery being a notable exception, because the brewers fear anything that can possibly upset their local flora of wild yeast strains. But on one Sunday, every second year, the members of HORAL open their doors to visitors: It's time for Tour de Geuze!

HORAL and Tour de Geuze
HORAL or Hoge Raad voor Ambachtelijke Lambiekbieren is the "High Council for Artisanal Lambic beer" and consists of members from Pajottenland and the Zenne valley in Belgium. This organization was the brain child of Armand Debelder, the owner of 3 Fonteinen, who initiated HORAL with five other lambic breweries, including Boon, De Troch and Timmermans, on January 10, 1997.

Armand Debelder of Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen
- founder and leader of HORAL.

A member of HORAL must either be a traditional lambic brewer or a "geuzestekerij", a geuze blender - using real lambics to produce geuze. There are currently 11 members of HORAL: Brouwerij Boon in Lembeek, Geuzestekerij De Cam in Gooik, Brouwerij De Troch in Wambeek, Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen and Brouwerij Oud Beersel in Beersel, Brouwerij Girardin in Sint-Ulriks-Kapelle, Geuzestekerij Hanssens Artisanaal in Dworp, Brouwerij Lindemans in Vlezenbeek, Brouwerij Mort Subite in Kobbegem, Gueuzerie Tilquin in Rebecq-Rognon and Brouwerij Timmermans in Itterbeek

Three of these, prefixed Geuzestekerij or Gueuzerie, only blends geuze, using lambics bought from the other members or from Cantillon, which is not a member of HORAL.

As mentioned in the introduction, every second year HORAL arranges a special tour to allow ordinary people to visit its member breweries and blenders. The first Tour de Geuze was held back in 1997, the next one - the 9th so far - will be held this year, on Sunday April 21st, 2013.

Tour de Geuze 2013: April 21st
On the Tour de Geuze visitors are free to come by car, scooter, bike or any other means of transportation to visit those breweries that are open for the tour. The following 8 HORAL members are open this year and can be visited between 10 am and 5 pm on April 21st:

- Brouwerij Boon, Fonteinstraat 65, 1502 Lembeek
- Geuzestekerij De Cam, Dorpstraat 67A, 1755 Gooik
- Brouwerij De Troch, Langestraat 20, 1741 Wambeek
- Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen, Hoogstraat 2A, 1650 Beersel
- Geuzestekerij Hanssens Artisanaal, Vroenenbosstraat 15/1, 1653 Dworp
- Brouwerij Oud Beersel, Laarheidestraat 230, 1650 Beersel
- Gueuzerie Tilquin, Chaussée Maieur Habils 110, Rebecq-Rognon
- Brouwerij Timmermans, Kerkstraat 11, 1701 Itterbeek

Giradin, Lindemans and Mort Subite will not be open to visitors on this Tour de Geuze.

The route this year, connecting all breweries and blenders, is 62 km long - so you really need transport to get around. If you don't have your own wheels, you can sign up for one of the HORAL buses. Tickets for the HORAL buses will be made available for orders on the Tour de Geuze website, on February 21st.

Here's a Google map showing the route of Tour de Geuze 2013, with each of the stops clearly marked with a letter:

Map of the stops at Tour de Geuze 2013

The stops marked on the map are A) Tilquin, B) Boon, C) De Cam, D) De Troch, E) Timmermans, F) 3 Fonteinen, G) Oud Beersel and H) Hanssens.

2013-02-21 update:
Tickets for ten different bus tours have now been posted on the HORAL website, at €15 per ticket. No single tour covers all 8 breweries and the De Lambiek museum in Beersel, so you will have to decide which places you prefer to visit and then choose the relevant tour. But be quick, some of the buses are almost booked full (#2, #3 and #6 have just a couple of tickets left) only a few hours after the tour alternatives were posted!

After some reflections I booked a seat for myself on bus tour #3 because two of my favorite lambic breweries - Boon and 3 Fonteinen - will be visited on this tour. And it skips the lambic museum, which I plan to visit on a different trip anyway. Bus tour #3 will depart from Halle railway station at 10:15 am on April 21st and visit Tilquin, Boon, De Oude Cam, Timmermans and 3 Fonteinen before returning to Halle railway station at 5 pm.

Kelheim - a Schneider Weisse experience

Wheat beer is one of the most popular styles of beer to come out of Germany and though there are several sub categories, such as Berliner Weisse and Gose, most people think of the hazy, wheat beers from Bavaria. Weissbier is indeed a Bavarian speciality, and it may be known both as "weizen" (German for wheat) or as "weisse" (white), since many wheat beers have a pale, almost milky complexion. When unfiltered, such beers are often prefixed by "hefe" from the German word for yeast, e.g. hefeweizen.

Erdinger is probably the best known weissbier brewery from Bavaria and Weihenstephan may brew the "gold standard" of Bavarian weissbiers but it's G. Schneider & Sohn aka Schneider Weisse, in the town of Kelheim, that is the boldest and most innovative brewery - offering a wide range of wheat beers that will surprise you and amaze you in equal measures. Kelheim is also close to Weltenburg, the topic of an earlier post, so it was high on my list of places to visit during the road trip through Germany in September 2012.

Mount Michelsberg in Kelheim, Bavaria

Kelheim
Kelheim has a population of about 15 thousand and is beautifully situated on the banks of the Danube river, between Ingolstadt and Regensburg, in Bavaria. Old town Kelheim is a very scenic place to visit, even if beer is not your fancy, with cobble stone streets, colorful, old facades and fenced in by four impressive city gates of age five hundred years or more.

If you crave great views, little will surpass the view from Mount Michelsberg west of old town. There you can also enjoy the magnificent Befreiungshall, or Hall of Liberation, which is currently under restoration. It was ordered built by King Ludwig I of Bavaria to commemorate the victories against Napoleon during the Wars of Liberation in 1813-1815.

From Kelheim you can take ferries or small cruise boats up or down the Danube river. A very popular one, which I took, goes upstream through the Danube Gorge to Kloster Weltenburg, where you can visit the abbey brewery from 1050 or just enjoy a hearty meal in the courtyard / biergarten of the abbey.

Colorful facades along Ludwigstraße in old town Kelheim.

For those with just the smallest shred of interest in beer, Kelheim is important for its central place in Bavarian weissbier traditions. It's home to the oldest exisiting weissbier brewery, Weisses Brauhaus, which is currently where G. Schneider & Sohn is brewing their famous Schneider Weisse series of wheat beers.

Getting there and staying
Though it's possible to take a ferry, from places such as Dietfurt and Riedenburg, a car is really the best way of getting to Kelheim and around in the area. The nearest train station is a good 6 km away from old town Kelheim, in Saal, which is a bit far to walk.

Old town Kelheim isn't really big, less than 500 meter times 500 meter, so instead of driving along narrow cobble stone streets I stayed at a hotel near the Donautor city gate which allowed me to park just outside old town. The hotel I stayed at, the Altstadshotel Wittelsbacher Hof on Donaustrasse 22, is a bit pricey (€69 for a single, €99 for a double room) but with a great location, excellent rooms and a very good breakfast.

The Schneider Weisse story
Located on Emil-Ott-Straße 1-5 in old town Kelheim, Weisses Brauhaus was founded as a weissbier brewery as long ago as 1609 and is still in the business, making it the oldest wheat beer brewery in Bavaria. Since 1928, the brewery and the adjoining brewery tap and biergarten has been owned and operated by the Schneider family.

Weißes Brauhaus was founded in 1607 making it the
"Älteste Weissbierbrauerei Bayerns"

For a German brewery family, Schneider is a relative newcomer. Their entry into the world of beer came with Georg Schneider (1817-1890), the royal master brewer and leaseholder of the royal Bavarian Weisses Hofbräuhaus in Munich. In 1856 he received an offer he couldn't refuse.

For centuries it had been the exclusive privilege of the Royal family of Bavaria to brew wheat beers, everyone else had to stick to the plebeian beer style of lager. But with the advent of pilsner in the 1840s, lager beer rapidly grew in popularity and wheat beers went into a steep decline. Thus, it was in 1856 that King Ludwig II of Bavaria decided to get out of the brewing business by offering the rights to brew wheat beer to a commoner, his master brewer Georg Schneider.

With the wheat beer brewing rights in his pocket, Schneider got to work saving wheat beer from total extinction. He founded Weissbierbrauerei G. Schneider & Sohn  together with his son Georg Schneider II (1846-1890), and bought the old Maderbräu brewery in Tal 7, Munich, in 1872. After renovations, the brewing operations were moved from the old Weisse Hofbräuhaus to Tal 7 in September 1872. That year the brewery also introduced their Schneider Weisse wheat beer, now simply known as Original.

Since then the Schneider family has kept the wheat beer torch burning and more or less single handedly kept the old style alive, while the lager craze washed across Germany and Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century. In 1890, both father and sohn died, but the barely 20 year old grandson, Georg Schneider III (1870-1905), was able to take over the running of the brewery. He renovated and expanded the brewery around the turn of the century, and in 1894 he submitted the crossed wheat ears trademark to the Patent Office in Munich, making Schneider Weisse the oldest registered trademark for wheat beer.

The crossed wheat ears trademark of Schneider Weisse

Upon Georg Schneider III's untimely death in 1905, the running of the brewery was taken over by his wife, Mathilde Schneider. It was under her control that Schneider Weisse released their first strong wheat beer, the Aventinus weizen doppelbock, in 1907. She continued as the manager of the brewery until her son, Georg Schneider IV (1900-1991), had come of age in 1924. It's with him that Kelheim finally enters our story, when in 1927 he purchased the old Schramm brewery on Thalkirchner Straße in Munich and the Weisses Bräuhaus in Kelheim. The latter was renovated and put into operations in 1928.

In 1944, during World War II, the Schneider breweries in Thalkirchner Straße and Tal 7 were destroyed by allied bombs, causing the company to move all its beer production to the Kelheim brewery in 1946. In 1958, Georg Schneider V (born 1928) took over the brewery from his father. With a doctorate degree and also educated as a brewing engineer, he started expanding and renovating the Kelheim brewery. This work would continue for most of his time as managing director, and wasn't completed until 1998! Two years after that, he was succeeded by his son - the always smiling Georg Schneider VI (born 1965), who has overseen a growing popularity of Schneider Weisse with the relase of several new beers as well as an international collaboration - the Brooklyner Schneider Hopfen-Weisse made with brewmaster Garrett Oliver from Brooklyn Brewery in 2007.

Today, G. Schneider & Sohn is a successful wheat beer brewery with a modern and highly automated brewhouse and bottling plant, located in the oldest wheat beer brewery in Bavaria - the Weisses Bräuhaus in Kelheim.

Brewery tour and tasting
A few months before going, I had signed up via email for an English speaking tour of the Weisses Brauhaus, but when I arrived it turned out that most of the others on the tour were German natives so the tour guide was sorry to inform me that the tour would be held in German. Fortunately, the group was well disciplined so it was easy to hear what the guide said and even pose a few questions, in English, from time to time.

A 320 hl stainless steel brew kettle at Weisses Brauhaus

The tour started with a walk through the hop garden in the back of the brewery. Unlike many other German breweries Schneider offers aromatic and strongly hopped weissbiers, so good hops are important to them. From there we were led into the brewhouse, to behold two large 320 hl brew kettles in stainless steel. According to our guide, about 5,600 kg crushed malt goes into each kettle where it is boiled for up to three and a half hours, resulting in 32,000 liter wort.

Schneider Weisse uses top fermenting yeasts in open fermentation tanks, where each tank can take 32,000 liter wort. The fermentation starts after roughly one day. After 2-3 days a Kräusen is formed, on top of the wort, protecting it from micro organisms in the air. Some of this Kräusen, which is basically yeast cells floating to the top of the brew, is harvested and later reused to start fermentation in new batches of beer.

After seeing the brewhouse, we were led over to the bottling plant. This is a fully automated bottling plant with a capacity of 40,000 bottles per hour. The view from the second floor viewing platform was absolutely breathtaking. Along the viewing platform guests could also view some older bottling machines and even try their hands on a simple manual bottle filler. Part of the tour was actually to pour and cap my own bottle of Schneider Weisse Original, which I could then bring with me home as a souvenir!

The modern bottling line at Weisses Brauhaus in Kelheim

After the tour of the brewery, it was time to taste the beer so our group was led over to the brewery tap right next to the brewery. There we were given tasters of seven of the Schneider Weisse beers in order of growing strength, from the mild Kristall to rich Hopfen-Weisse.

All of the Scheider Weisse beers now have a unique Tap number, in addition to their old names, and these were the ones we got to taste:

- Schneider Weisse Tap 3 Mein Alkoholfreies
- Schneider Weisse Tap 2 Mein Kristall (5.3% filtered weizen)
- Schneider Weisse Tap 1 Meine Blonde Weisse (5.2% hefeweizen)
- Schneider Weisse Tap 7 Unser Original (5.4% hefeweizen)
- Schneider Weisse Tap 4 Mein Grünes (6.2% hoppy hefeweizen)
- Schneider Weisse Tap 6 Unser Aventinus (8.2% weizen bock)
- Schneider Weisse Tap 5 Meine Hopfen-Weisse (8.2% hoppy weizen bock)

Tap 5 is the same beer originally brewed in collaboration with Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver as Schneider & Brooklyner Hopfen-Weisse in 2007.

Bottles of Schneider Weisse tasted on the brewery tour.

After the end of the official program I moved out into the cozy biergarten in the back of Weisses Brauhaus, it was a bit quiet in late September (and cold after sunset!), but I found it a great place to contemplate the long history of this place and of Bavarian wheat beers in general, while indulging in a fresh Schneider Weisse Original from draft, the only beer on draft during my visit.

Next time I'd love to come back in July, to spend a long summer evening out in the biergarten.

Schneider Weisse Original, first brewed 1872
- in the biergarten at Weisses Brauhaus.

More photos from the visit to Kelheim and Weisses Brauhaus are found at Flickr.

Enjoying a Franken stein in Bamberg

Franconia, known as Franken in German, and in particular the small city of Bamberg has been known as a great brewing region for centuries. In fact, Franconia still has the largest number of breweries per capita anywhere in the world, with nearly 300 working breweries shared by a population of around 4 million. As an illustration, if California wanted to reach such a brewery ratio the US state would need a total of 2850 breweries!

Thus, Bamberg was an obvious place to visit during my road trip through Germany.

A beer stein at Rathausschänke in Bamberg

Bamberg
Located 60 km north of Nuremberg, in what is known as Upper Franconia (Oberfranken), the city of Bamberg lies among seven hills, just like ancient Rom, and has a history stretching back more than a thousand years.

Originally inhabited by Slavs, the town was first mentioned in 902 as belonging to the Babenberch castle. The area was subsequently Christianized and in 1007 the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II made Bamberg a family inheritance, the seat of a separate diocese. This resulted in a number of impressive cathedral and church buildings being erected, and for a while Bamberg was the centre of the Holy Roman Empire.

From the middle of the 13th century onward the bishops were princes of the Empire and ruled Bamberg, overseeing the construction of monumental buildings. This gave Bamberg status as a free city and it remained so until the secularization of church lands in 1802, becoming part of Bavaria, together with the rest of Franconia, in 1803.

Altes Rathaus in the middle of river Regnitz in Bamberg

Thanks to its remote location and lack of heavy industries, Bamberg survived World War II relatively unscatched so most of its historical buildings and the old town area are still intact. Today the city has a population of 70 thousand and attracts tourists both for its historical sites and for its still vibrant beer culture.

Despite a sharp decline in number of active breweries, from 60 back in the 1850s to 30 as recently as World War I, Bamberg is still home to eight breweries, ranging from small brewpubs to large export breweries, so it's a great place to visit in order to explore the famous rauchbier - beer brewed with smoked malt - and sample some authentic Franconian fare, such as the Bamberger Zwiebel - onions stuffed with pork farce and braised in the oven with broth and beer.

The easiest way to get to Bamberg is either by car or by train, depending on where you come from. I came by car from Munich and spent two days in Bamberg in late September 2012. Here follows a listing of some of the highlights from my visit.

Brauerei Spezial

One of the oldest working breweries in Bamberg is the family owned Brauerei zum Spezial on Obere Königsstraße 10. It was founded back in 1536 as a "Bamberger Rauch-Bier-Brauerei", a brewery of smoked beers, and has been in the Merz family since 1898.

Today, Spezial is one of the few breweries left kilning its own malt, which was the norm just a hundred years ago. For smoked malts this is particularly important since what you use to generate the smoke heavily influences the resulting aroma and flavor of the smoked malt and hence the resulting rauchbier. Like the other maltsters in Bamberg, Spezial relies on dry beech wood, usually dried for several years, to create the right smoke for its kilning. The annual beer production is just 6,000 hL (2003), making Spezial one of the smallest breweries in Bamberg, so it's mainly sold locally at the brewery tap room.

Brauerei Spezial in Bamberg, founded in 1536

Like several of the smaller breweries, Spezial is also a public house where food is served and guests can spend the night in a gästezimmer - a guest room - for a low price. Spezial have seven guest rooms on the second floor, above the restaurant, and it cost me just 35 euro per night to stay there. I highly recommend it, but make sure to book early.

The interior of Spezial looks much like a typical Bavarian bierstübl, with heavy oak furniture and hunter trophies on the walls. The indoor seating area is limited so it will quickly fill up at night, but finding a vacant spot at the end of a table is usually no problem (but do not try to sit down at the stammtisch, the regulars' table!). Food is served all night and is both tasty and plentiful, and reasonable.

The beers offered at Spezial (with prices for half a litre, like in the rest of this post):

- Spezial Rauchbier Lager (4.6%): €2.40

- Spezial Rauchbier Märzen (5.3%): €2.50

- Spezial Weissbier (5.3% smoked hefeweizen): €2.60

- Spezial Ungespundetes (4.9% lager): €2.40

Ungespundetes means unfiltered, so an ungespundetes lager is slightly hazy from the yeast and will usually have a fuller mouthfeel and a richer flavor than filtered lagers. It was the only beer on their menu that was not brewed with smoked malt.

The Merz family also run a large biergarten, Spezial Keller, on top of the Stephansberg hill in Bamberg, commanding a great view of the city. Unfortunately, after huffing and puffing up the steep hill, I found a note at the gate saying the keller was closed until mid October because of "urlaub" (German for holiday). Thus, I never got the chance to try out the biergarten, just admire it through the fence.

Brauerei Fässla

Fässla, meaning "little cask", is a family owned brewery and public house, with sleeping accommodations, on Obere Königsstraße 19-21.

Brauerei Fässla in Bamberg, founded in 1649

Though not quite as old as Spezial, just across the street, Brauerei Fässla dates back to at least 1649 when Büttnermeister Johann Kauer bought the property to start a brewery. Büttnermeister, by the way, is German for a Cooper, someone building and repairing wooden staved vessels, used for storing liquids - such as beer. 

The brewery and public house continued under various owners and by 1796 it was known as Schwanen- und Fässleinswirtshaus which then morphed into just Fässla. In 1978, Fässla was purchased by Sebastian Kalb and the Kalb family is still the owners of Fässla, now with Roland Kalb at the head of business.

Fässla has a 50 hL brewhouse producing 16,000 hL annually (2003), some of the beer gets bottled and shipped to other pubs in Bamberg and probably outside the city. Unlike Spezial, Fässla do not brew with smoked malts. The interior of Fässla is fairly typical of a German beer stübe, but out back they have a small but nice open air yard with shady trees and artwork on the walls, and despite a bit of smoking I enjoyed myself there.

Fässla served two beers on tap, both gravity fed from large oak casks:

- Fässla Gold-Pils (5.5%): €2.40

- Fässla Lagerbier (5.5%): €2.40

On bottle they offered the popular Fässla Zwergla (6%) dunkel, for €2.40, and the famous Fässla Bambergator (8.5%) doppelbock was also on the menu but wasn't available until mid October.

Klosterbräu

Situated in an old lagerhaus from 1500, on Obere Mühlbrücke 1-3, Klosterbräu claims to be the oldest brewery in Bamberg with almost 500 years in the brewery business.

Brauerei-Gaststätte Klosterbräu in Bamberg

The history of Klosterbräu Bamberg dates back to 1533 when the Fürstbischöfliches Braunbierhaus ("Prince-Bishop Brown Beer House") opened up as a state-owned brewery at this location. 

For a long time the brewery remained in the possession of the Bamberg Prince-Bishops, but in the late 18th century the brewery started losing money and in 1790 it was sold to a private brewer by the name of Johann Georg Behr. 

Since then the brewery has remained on private hands but it was sold in 1851 to one Peter Braun, the son of a pharmacist from Kitzingen. It was under his ownership that it acquired the current name of "Klosterbräu", inspired by the nearby Franziskanerkloster. The Klosterbräu is still owned by the Braun family and is currently headed by the 5th generation, Frau Anne-Rose Braun-Schröder.

Even though I found the old interior charming the weather was sunny and warm so I sat down outside, by the small square between Klosterbräu and the Altstadthotel Molitor. Klosterbräu serves good food in addition to a number of their own beers, but no smoked beers:

- Klosterbräu Pils (4.9%): 2.30 euro

- Klosterbräu Schwärzla (4.9% schwarzbier): 2.90 euro

- Klosterbräu Braunbier (5.7%): 3.10 euro

- Klosterbräu Braun's Weisse (4.9%): 2.90 euro

- Klosterbräu Bockbier (7%): 3.30 euro --only available in October

- Klosterbräu Schwärzlabock (7%): 3.30 euo --seasonal

- Klosterbräu Maibock (7%): 3.30 euro --only available in April/May

According to their beer menu, the Braunbier is made after a 450 year old recipe and is unique to Bamberg (see my review).

Brauerei Heller - Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier

It may not be the oldest or the biggest brewery in Bamberg, but Brauerei Heller of Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier fame has one of the most attractive tap rooms in the city, on Dominikanerstraße 6. Here, many a tour group stops for a taste of the famous rauchbier, while locals protect their stammtisches with angry looks if any ignoranimus should dare to sit down there.

Founded in 1678 and owned by the Heller-Trum family for the last 150 years, Brauerei Heller has become the golden standard of Bamberg rauchbier and is known all over the beer world for the strong smoky character of their Aecht Schlenkerla series. Brauerei Heller, just like Spezial, kiln and smoke their own malts. All beers named "Aecht", which means "real", are brewed with their own smoked malt.

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen
- served from oak cask at the brewery tap

While the modern brewery and maltings are located on the Upper Stephansberg hill, a kilometer to the south of Dominikanerstraße, the old brewery has become the tap room and this is where most visitors come to get a taste of the famous Schlenkerla rauchbiers. 

At the brewery tap you will always find oak casks serving beer with the help of gravity only, when I was there they had Aecht Schlenkerla Märzen on cask; an elegant rauchbier, with a wonderful smoke and caramel balance.

The name Schlenkerla is supposedly a reference to Andreas Graser, who took over the brewery in 1877. According to one story, one of his legs got run over when some horses bolted while he unloaded kegs at the brewery. The injured leg caused him to walk with a limp and dangling arms for the rest of his days, in the Franconian dialect this kind of limping walk is known as "schlenkern" - hence Schlenkerla.

The Schlenkerla tap room is located near the tourist trail in Bamberg, so it will feel a bit noisy at times when one or more groups of chattering tourists enter. But in the morning, they open at 9:30 am, it's nice and quiet, and you can sit by a window, watching the Dominikanerstraße come to life and then, a little before 11, witness local workers enter to have a quick snack and a beer or two for lunch.

At the time of my visit, they offered the Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen (5.1%) for €2.50 per half litre, it was served from an oak cask using gravity only - as shown in the photo.

Rathausschänke - Haus der Kaiserdom Privatbrauerei

The history of the largest brewery in Bamberg, the Kaiserdom Privatbrauerei, dates back to 1718 when Georg Mohr was given the rights to set up a brewery in the 12th century buildings of the Benedictine abbey on Sankt Michaelsberg. In 1910, the brewery was bought by Georg Wörner and it became known simply as Brauerei Wörner and a bit later as Bürgerbräu.

In 1969, the sons of Georg Wörner - Theodore and Ludwig - were forced to move the brewing to a larger facility, in order to keep up with demand. The new brewery is located in the Bamberg suburb of Gaustadt, some 3 km north west of old town Bamberg. When Ludwig unexpectedly passed away in 1978, his son - Georg - had to abandon his studies and return to the family company to take over the reins as Georg Wörner II.

The Rathausschänke on Obere Brücke in Bamberg

Today, Kaiserdom Privatbrauerei is fully owned by the Wörner family and still headed by Georg Wörner II. The annually production of Kaiserdom beer is 350,000 hL, almost fifty times more than Brauerei Spezial, and the beer is exported to 33 countries around the world.

Even though Kaiserdom is now located outside central Bamberg, its tap room - the Rathausschänke - is still found in the heart of old town near the Obere Brücke - the bridge which takes tourists across the Regnitz river to the Altes Rathaus. In the summer season, you can sit at tables outside, on the cobble stone street, and enjoy the view of the river, the old town hall and all the weird tourists walking by.

As for the Kaiserdom beers I tried two nice ones from draft, the Meranier Schwarzbier (5%) and the Alt-Bamberg Zwickl (4.8%), and one from bottle, the Alt-Bamberg Dunkel (4.8%), which disappointed me as thin and tasteless. But I still enjoyed myself at Rathausschänke and had a pretty good lunch there too, a tasty Champignon-Rahm-Schnitzel.

Café Abseits

Even though most of this blog post has been about breweries and their tap rooms, Bamberg also sports some very decent beer bars and one in particular: Café Abseits on Pödeldorfer Straße 39.

The unasssuming entrance to Café Abseits

Café Abseits is the oldest student café and speciality beer bar in Bamberg. It looks very much like a student café inside, artsy with a young clientele and usually loud, modern music. But it also sports a cozy biergarten out back, where people can cool down, under shady trees, in the heat of the summer.

During my visit, the café had six different beers on tap, nothing really fancy but the Gänstaller-Bräu Zoigl was a nice surprise. They also had about 40 different beers on bottle, including five from Weyermann Versuchsbrauerei, the research brewery of the local malt producer Weyermann, where they test the quality of their malts by brewing small test batches of beer.

I spent a quiet afternoon in the biergarten, enjoying a number of good beers as well as the food provided by their kitchen. This really is a good beer bar and I can understand why, in the most recent annual RateBeer poll (January 2013), Café Abseits was rated the best beer bar in Germany.

Zoiglstube Gänstaller Drei Kronen

If you have some time to spare, which I know is unlikely in a city like Bamberg, you may consider taking a bus from near the Bahnhof Bamberg railway station to the small village of Schesslitz-Straßgiech. It's about 10 km east of Bamberg and is home to the newly opened Zoiglstube Gänstaller Drei Kronen. The buses leave frequently and take only half an hour to get there, and the bus stop in Straßgiech is within sight of the Drei Kronen, so it's really not so difficult.

Zoiglstube Gänstaller Drei Kronen in Straßgiech

Located in Drosendorfer Straße 24, with a sign on the wall saying "Brauerei Drei Kronen Gasthaus", this 700 year old brauhaus was recently purchased by Manuela and Andreas Gänstaller. The latter is the founder and brewmaster of Gänstaller-Bräu, one of the most exciting new breweries in Germany and the main reason I took the bus trip from Bamberg to Straßgiech. The couple renovated the interior of the old Drei Kronen buildings and reopened the pub in 2011 as the Zoiglstube Gänstaller Drei Kronen - the official tap room for the Gänstaller-Bräu brewery. As they put it:

We, Manuela and Andreas Gänstaller, had more than half a century of Frankish brewing experience when in 2011 we decided to breathe some life into Drei Kronen in Straßgiech. With our Zoiglstube concept we combine self-brewed beer of the highest quality with a "beery" kitchen. That means we do our utmost to serve you the freshest beer.

The restaurant part of the Zoiglstube can take 70 guests, the bar another 20 and the outdoor Bräuhof terrace around 90 guests, in the summer season. The Bräuhof terrace was not in use when I was there, though it looked like a great place to enjoy a beer, so I settled for a table inside. 

Even though the building housing the Zoiglstube Gänstaller Drei Kronen is very old, the interior is clean and new with golden wood panelling on the walls and ceiling and solid wooden furniture for the guests. It had a "homey" feel to it, with old art and deer antlers on the walls, big grandfather clocks, and flowers and tiny tablecloths on the tables.

While Andreas Gänstaller, naturally, is responsible for the beer at Zoiglstube, his wife Manuela is responsible for the Franconian fare on offer (though I spotted at least one male cook in the kitchen, when I arrived, so she does get some help with the cooking). In addition to some really good draft beers I tried their special Schnitzel dish, which instead of bread crumbs was coated in spent malt before the deep frying: It was just delicious, the malt adding a mild sweetness to the meat.

Gänstaller-Bräu Birra Kultura Scura
- a tasty Vienna lager at the Zoiglstube

Here are the four beers they had on tap during my visit:

- Gänstaller-Bräu (Drei Kronen) Kellerbier (5.3%): 2.00 euro

- Gänstaller-Bräu (Drei Kronen) Zoiglbier (5.8%): 2.20 euro

- Gänstaller-Bräu (Drei Kronen) Zwickelpils (5.1%): 2.00 euro

- Franz-Xaver-Gänstaller Märzen (5.6% rauchbier): 2.40 euro

The bottle menu was very limited, but they did have the local Hartmann Felsenweiße (5.2%).

Recently, RateBeer published its annual top lists and the Zoiglstube Gänstaller Drei Kronen in Straßgiech was rated the best brewpub in Germany in 2012, so it's well worth a visit if you're in Bamberg with an afternoon to spend.

Bamberger Zwiebel, a hearty Franconian speciality
- at Scheiners am Dom in Bamberg

For the rest of my photos from Bamberg see this Flickr set.