Visiting Bamberg for smoked beer and Franconian breweries

Why Bamberg

Bamberg is a town in Upper Franconia, northern Bavaria. Its old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site and it has several working breweries within walking distance of each other. The wider region of Franconia has one of the densest concentrations of small breweries anywhere, many of them family-run village breweries serving their own tap rooms.

The town is best known for Rauchbier, a lager made with malt dried over a beechwood fire. It is also home to the Weyermann malting company, which has been producing malt in Bamberg since 1879.

What Rauchbier tastes like

Rauchbier is made with smoked malt. Before modern kilns, a lot of malt picked up smoke as it dried. Bamberg kept the tradition going. The best-known version is a Märzen-strength amber lager, around 5% ABV, with a strong smoky aroma often compared to bacon, ham or a wood fire.

The first sip surprises most people. Persist. The malt sweetness underneath comes through and the smoke settles. Our guide to tasting smoked beer explains what to look for. Two Bamberg breweries famously malt their own smoked malt and serve their beer in old taverns in town. Some pour from wooden barrels.

Beyond smoke: Franconian lager

Smoke is only part of the story. Franconian breweries make a lot of unfiltered lager. Kellerbier, cellar beer, is served unfiltered and often lightly carbonated. Some breweries label a beer "ungespundet", meaning it was matured in a vessel that was not sealed tight, so less carbon dioxide stayed in the beer. The result is soft and very easy to drink.

Expect bready malt, gentle hop bitterness and a hazy look. Many of these beers rarely leave the region, which is one more reason to go.

Beer cellars on the hills

Franconia has a tradition of the Bierkeller, a beer cellar. Breweries dug cellars into hillsides to keep lager cool before refrigeration, then put tables under the trees above them. Today the Keller is an open-air beer garden, busy on summer afternoons and evenings.

Several sit on the hills just outside Bamberg's centre and others are scattered through surrounding villages. Most are open only in good weather and from spring to autumn. Check opening times locally since they change with the season.

Getting there and around

Bamberg is on the main rail line and reachable from Nuremberg in under an hour and from Munich in a few hours. The old town is compact and best explored on foot. For village breweries, regional trains and buses reach many of them. Some visitors cycle between them on marked routes.

Do not hire a car to visit breweries. Franconian village beer is good and cheap. Plan public transport or stay overnight in a brewery guest house, which many village breweries offer.

How smoked malt is made

Smoked malt starts as ordinary barley malt. During kilning, when the wet green malt is dried, hot air and smoke from a fire pass through the bed of grain. The phenolic compounds in the smoke cling to the husk and the grain. Beechwood gives the classic Bamberg character, savoury and a little like smoked ham.

Other woods give other flavours. Peat smoke, used for some whisky malts, is far more medicinal and is rarely welcome in beer. Oak and cherry wood smoked malts are made too and turn up in craft beers around the world.

How much smoked malt goes into the beer controls the intensity. A classic Bamberg Märzen can use a very high share of smoked malt. Many breweries elsewhere use much less for a gentle background note. Tasting a full-strength Bamberg Rauchbier next to a lightly smoked craft beer is a quick lesson in how dose shapes flavour.

How to plan the days

• Day one: Bamberg town. Try Rauchbier at two different breweries, then a non-smoked lager to compare.
• Day two: a beer cellar on the hill in the afternoon, if the weather is good.
• Day three: a village brewery trip by train or bus.

Combine it with other Bavarian stops if you like. Bamberg pairs well with a few days in Munich; see our guide to Munich beer halls and beer gardens.

Training your nose for smoke

Smoked beer is a good test of a palate. Beechwood smoke, peat smoke and burnt roast malt are different notes. So is the clove-like phenol of some wheat beers and the medicinal phenol of an infected beer. Learning to separate them makes tasting in Bamberg far more rewarding.

Eat while you drink. Franconian food is hearty, with roast pork, dumplings and sausages. Vegetarians should look for cheese dishes, potato dishes and salads.

Your first step: check train times from Nuremberg or Munich to Bamberg and pick two smoked beers to try on your first evening.

Common questions

What is Rauchbier?

Rauchbier is a German lager, usually amber, made with malt dried over a beechwood fire. It has a strong smoky aroma and a malty body.

What does ungespundet mean?

It means the beer was matured in a vessel that was not tightly sealed, so it holds less carbon dioxide and tastes softer.

Is Bamberg a good day trip from Munich?

It is possible by train in a few hours each way, but an overnight stay gives you time for the beer cellars and village breweries.