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How
I Spent My Franconian Summer Vacation
Bjarke Bundgaard is the owner of GlocalBeer ApS of Copenhagen, Denmark (URL www.GLocalBeer.dk ) and a frequent visitor to Franconia.
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I've spent some of my summer vacation in Franconia - near Bamberg to be exact. We came across a small brewery named Brauerei Friedel in the village Schnaid. The brewery was closed, but an old guy - who was sweeping the yards - said that the brewer was at his 'Keller', at a place called Kreutzberg just outside town. Of course we had to find this place and as it showed up Kreutzberg was a bunch of biergartens run by three local breweries - including Freidel - situated on the edge of a 12th century chapel. Sehr schön.... |
Both the Freidel brewer and his wife were at the place, readying their part of the biergarten for the day... It was 10:00 am, the sun was shining and I ordered a Kellerbier. Nomally I don't drink before noon - but I had a gut feelin' about this place...
My god... what an experience. It was superb.... nothing less. Foamy, Creamy, freshly bittered, and extremely tasty - all at the same time. I didn't move until I had finished it...
Make yourself a promise... I you ever come across the village of Schaid,
do yourself a favour, stop by at Kreutzberg and taste Freidel's Kellerbier.
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One day I stopped by at the Brauerei Schrüfer in Priesendorf. The brewer was in quite a hurry that noon - three locals at the stammtisch and his grumpy old father waiting for assistance to get out of his car (probably anxious to get a hoppy refreshment). Nevertheless the brewer found both time and interest in showing us his brewery and explain the basics. Clearly he was a proud man...
Among things he explained that - like many other brewers in the region
- he used Hallertau Traditionel. However he was not sure that he could
afford using this type in the future. He told that the market price of
euro-hops had raisen in correlation to the increased american demand,
which again could be explained by last year's strong position of the dollar.
Who would have guessed? The global dynamics of financial transactions
may actually lead to a change in the contents of Priensendorf's vollbier.
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Brauerei Schrüfer in Priesendorf (photo by
Tom Rierson)
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The last day of our trip we decided to try locate a working steinbier brewery in Franken.
First we drove to Weissenbrunn near Kronach, hoping to find Brauerei Weissenbrunn. Of course we soon learned that it pays to make one's homework before driving sixty kilometers just to find a permanently closed brewery. People in the local grocery store told us that the brewery had been closed for years and apparently they didn't miss it - they both remembered the steinbier as 'sehr schlect'...
Next place was Neustadt bei Coburg where we thought the Brauerei Rauchenfels was easily found. But no - we didn't even find the supposed location of this brewery. Neither was there any sign of Steinbier in the local 'getränkmarkt' (But there was huge selections of Schwarzbiers from Thüringen - apparently these beer have gained momentum since Binding acquired Köstritzer).
This could have been a rather bad day if we hadn't found Brauereigasthof Grosch in Rödental (I really liked the Fuhrmannstrunk) and the klosterbrauerei at Vierzehnheilegen monastry (Don't buy the gift pack at the klosterbrauerei - it cost 5,10 euros for four beer. You can buy the same for half the price in a getränkmarkt close by).
Well... my conclusion was that I think its safe to assume that no brewery in Franken produces Steinbier anymore.
To my knowledge the only place that actually produces Steinbier nowadays in Germany is Brauerei Franz Sailer in Marktoberdorf-Leuterschach.
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Brauerei Grosch in Rödental
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