Ciao Mondo! : Beer, Beer Beer Said the Sergeant!

The next day in Bamberg, I got up bright and early to meet my friend Brooks for our beer tour. I needed to get tickets from the tourist center.

The day wasn't looking promising. It was pretty rainy and chilly. I had a hard time finding the place, but I eventually did. For only 20 euros, we were given a backpack, a beer stone, a map with the breweries pinpointed, and 5 tickets for a beer at each place. We began our morning with a breakfast of traditional weiss sausage (white sausage) and pretzel.

We felt kind of nerdy and touristy with our backpacks, but as we discovered at our first stop, we weren't the only ones doing the "tour."

Where is the schmuck? Schmuck actually means jewelry in German.

Our little backpack and beer stone.

Our first stop was the Greifenklau Brewery. It has been around since 1595. We had to walk quite a bit up Kaulberg Hill, where the views are supposed to be really nice. Since it is away from the main tourist area, the brewery is populated mostly by locals. Mostly, since we spied another older gentleman with his little beer tour backpack. It started pouring rain a few minutes after we got there, so we chose seats on the balcony, but under an awning so we wouldn't get drenched.

Our first stop, Greifenklau Brewery.

Brooks just ahead of me with his beer backpack.

Our next stop, I think, was Klosterbrau. The rain was coming down and it was pretty cold. It is the oldest of the Bamberg breweries; making beer since 1533. Their specialties are Braunbier (brown beer), and Schwarzla (black beer). We also decided to have a small lunch that wasn't so small of more sausage and salad. This was after the sushi we had in the afternoon because Shelly was craving rice.

Enjoying beer at Klosterbrau.

Next we bee-lined it all the way to Fassla Brewery; 1695. They have a cute logo of a gnome rolling a beer beer barrel. Here we had some "Weissbier" or white beer.

At Fassla with their cute little beer barrel rolling gnomes.

Already at this point things were becoming blurry. Brooks was navigating, so I wasn't really paying attention to where we were going. Our next stop was for the famous Rauchbier or smoke beer at Schenkerla Brewery. It tastes a bit like beef jerky. It was actually good, but I don't think I could drink it all night. The place was packed with people and very warm and inviting inside. The tavern used to be an old monastery with Gothic vaulting and wood paneling.

At this point we were running late. We had budgeted time for Shelly to take a nap and it was time to meet her, so Brooks ran off to their B & B to get her while I saved our table.

Smokey Rauchbier at Schenkerla Brewery.

The interior was nice and warm on a cold, rainy day.

And last was...was...hmmm...I'm guessing we ended up at Ambrausianum because it was right across the street. Just founded in 2004, its microbrewery equipment is right in the middle of the pub. We had dinner there, again. We ordered this big dinner for 2 people of pork shoulder and pork knuckle and I think some kind of beef with semmel. It was all so good and I was so stuffed.