Bamberg

Bamberg is royally cool. It’s laid back, the food is good, the hotels are reasonable and the beer is exquisite if you’re a smoke lover. Bamberg rivals Munich for the world’s beer king city. In Germany it’s really more famous because the beer history goes back farther.

Klosterbrau is the oldest. The brewery at this location was first recorded in city records in 1333. They claim a date of 1533 since it was 200 years before the brewery actually got an owner and a name – Prince Bishop’s Brown Beer House. 22 prince bishops held sway until 1790 when the church secularized it. Peter Braun bought the place in 1851 and it’s now in the 5th generation of that family.

Amazingly parts of the current gasthaus are original to the 1500s. Rooms have names like Tithe House, Decoction House, Little Brown Beer Room, Little Yard, and Vault.

• Maibock – This is the very end of the season and it was pretty stale. The bitter was overpowering and also quite sour.
• Schwarzla – Pure black and very roasty.

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