Bamberg’s Beer Underground
~Cult Classics Beyond Bamberg’s Famous Breweries~
Coming into Focus
One of the things I love about cities is how they absorb you over time. At first it’s just a passing acquaintance with the place. The main sights, the famous museums, maybe a popular café or ice cream shop. Eventually you start burrowing deeper into the layers of the city, discovering the vitality of the neighbourhoods, the offbeat cafes and taverns, the nooks and crannies that make it all tick. Like a great Gothic cathedral, the details emerge slowly, and only after several visits.
I have a similar relationship with beer towns, some of which, like Munich or Prague or Brussels, are great cities in their own right. These relationships don’t blossom overnight.
Take Bamberg, for example. I first visited in 1992 when a longtime friend and I spent the summer driving my grandma’s 1977 Reneault 5 all over Central Europe. We saw the Altes Rathaus straddling the Regnitz. We saw other things. And we went in search of Rauchbier because some guy in a Prague pub told us that it was weird.
Several more visits, a few extended sojourns, and a few more layers. The elusive Altenburg rising up like a mirage in the autumn mist, the late-great Café Abseits, the Franconian Brewey Museum, a few fine cafes (coffee’s always de rigeur), ice cream (Bamberg has some awesome ice cream shops!), and all the famous breweries of Bamberg.
But like any beer city worth its salt, there’s always more, those local cult classics you won’t find in guidebooks or even in most online resources dedicated to beer in Bamberg. These are the kinds of places you hear about from friends and acquaintances who either live in Bamberg or have a deep acquaintance with the city.
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*With apologies in advance about the quality of some of the photos. My old iPhone 8 doesn’t have the bells and whistles of later models when it comes to dimly lit interiors.
Beer Underground
Sure, just about every city has a clutch of alternative bars where students and intellectual types congregate. But no other city plays host to off-beat establishments that also preside over beer lists that feature a bounty of Franconian beers.
Welcome to the world of Bamberg’s beer underground, a motley crew of beer-serious taverns and cult classics that line the city’s lanes. Some are up stairways, some are a few steps out of town, some are hiding in plain sight. They bear names like Weinstube Pizzini, Pelikan, Galerie am Stephansberg, Rotenschild, Catwheezle’s Castle.
Beyond Bamberg’s Famous Breweries and Beer Gardens
Weinstube Pizzini
Isn’t a Weinstube the kind of place where they serve wine? You wouldn’t be wrong in thinking so. But this place has long since morphed into something else, a kind of “Montreal meets the Kiez pubs of Berlin” scene pub. The outlines of the old Weinstube are there, but these days it’s a place where young and hip students hang out with left-leaning intellectuals clad in black, and where the old DJ from the 68er generation spins tunes ranging from funk to disco to alternative.
Like so many Belgian beer cafes, like the pubs of Edinburgh, and like the best Wirtshäuser and Czech pubs, Pizzini embodies the kind of ambiance that would-be interior designers simply can’t conjure into existence. Well-worn tables and chairs, old musical instruments, a green-tiled Kachelofen. Old prints and woodcuts and placards for contemporary art exhibitions. A lively student vibe. And plenty of wood — that warmth of wood that always takes the chill off of a rainy evening in late November.
For the beer-inclined among us, Pizzini is also a place where you can find tasty Franconian beers as the evening wears on. Spezial’s Rauchbier is a staple alongside Keesmann’s Herren-Pils, and you might also find beers from places like Hönig east of Bamberg.
It may seem odd to describe this pub on the Altstadt’s lively strip as an “insider tip,” but there you have it. If you’re contemplating your third or fourth visit to this fine city, why not change it up a bit?
Open evenings, closed Sunday and Monday.
Der Pelikan
Pelikan has reeled in locals, students, and stray beer travelers to their wood-paneled tavern and vine-covered courtyard garden for more than four decades. The pelican mascot presiding over the Wirtshaus sets the tone for one of the more unique places you’ll stumble upon in Bamberg.
A few blocks beyond the diminutive Church of St. Elisabeth and the nighttime activity along the Sandstrasse, Pelikan serves up traditional Franconian beer with a twist. Their tagline is “frische fränkische Wok-Küche” — fresh Franconian wok cuisine. Decent Thai cuisine served in a dimly lit traditional Wirtshaus. Alongside a fine selection of Franconian beer. Not something you see every day.
Huppendorfer Vollbier, Mönchsambacher Export, and Zirndorfer Urhell anchor the taps, with a fourth handle of rotating seasonal beers from Upper Franconia. If that’s not enough to entice you those few blocks out of the Altstadt, Pelikan also hosts an annual Bockbier tapping in November, a raucous affair that packs out both the Wirtshaus and the small courtyard out back, even in sub-zero temperatures. If you don’t have time to get out to the various tappings in the countryside around Bamberg, this is your ticket to taste a dizzying array of Franconian Bocks.
Open from 5pm. Closed Wednesdays.
Rotenschild
Rotenschild is one of those beloved hangouts that you won’t find without the help of a local or a “Bamberg lifer.” It’s right on Bamberg’s busy Altstadt nightlife lane near Schlenkerla, but it’s not immediately visible from the street. Rather rare for Europe, it’s up a creaky staircase on the second floor.
After a few twists and turns you’re in the dimly lit inner sanctum filled with dark wood and a ramshackle collection of mismatched furniture, an ancient tavern that looks like it hosts gnostic sects and political conspirators.
To say that the clientele is an eclectic mix is an understatement. You’ve got your students that keep these places perpetually young despite the age of the building. You’ve got a few beer folks who have found their way here for Brauerei Zehendner’s Mönchsambach Lagerbier from barrels tapped on Friday and Saturday evenings. And you’ve got barflies like the crotchety fixture who reads Goethe’s Italienische Reise in between sips of beer and intellectual banter with anyone willing to take the bait.
If you can’t manage to wedge a bus or bike trip to Mönchsambach into your Bamberg itinerary, Rotenschild is, perhaps, the next-best choice. Perhaps … because the casks they tap here every weekend are sometimes on point, sometimes not.
Beer consistency aside, this bustling walk-up tavern on Sandstrasse makes for a fine place to welcome the wee hours. If you’re not in town for a cask night, you can still order up bottles of Mönchsambacher Lagerbier and Export, along with the likes of Metzgerbräu up north and the ubiquitous Herren-Pils from Keesmann.
Open from 8pm, closed on Sunday and Monday.
Galerie am Stephansberg
Just up the hill from the Altstadt on the way to Spezial Keller and Wilde Rose Keller, Galerie am Stephansberg is a funky bolt hole, a laid-back affair that attracts a bohemian clientele.
An upright piano and a standup bass form a kind of ensemble with the well-worn furniture. Contemporary photographs, some of the absurdist variety, invite conversation among the cast of characters holding up the bar.
People come and go for a quick pint, spilling onto the lane out front as the place fills up. We strike up a conversation with two middle-aged gents at the bar, one a photographer and the other a double bass player in the Bamberg Symphony, an apropos set of interlocutors given the décor. We spend the rest of the evening conversing about the photos, and then about the finer points of Germany’s Grundgesetz (Basic Law, or constitution) — as one sometimes does at these kinds of places. The owner, too, is a gem. Schräg (off-center), as the Germans say.
For beer folks, Galerie am Stephanberg’s calling card is the Kellerbier from Brauerei Sauer (Roßdorf) served from a cask. There’s Scotch and local wine if you ever tire of that wonderful Kellerbier.
And trust me, you won’t have to spend the evening talking about constitutional theory if that’s not your thing.
Open daily from 7pm till late.
Catwheezle’s Castle
It was already turning into one of those epic Franconian days. After hiking from Bischberg to Weiher, after a lunch and a few beers with local beer historian Christian Fiedler at Kundmüller, after a few Bocks at Sonne to round out our hike, and after what we swore would be our last beers at Spezial before turning in for the night, we bumped into Christian again, who was having beers with some friends.
Our quick nightcap at Spezial was quickly spinning into something more. Why stop now? That’s when Christian told us about Catwheezle’s Castle, just down the road.
There’s no sign out front. It’s one of those “secret” spots hiding out in plain sight. I don’t know how many times I’ve walked past Catwheezle’s during the day, never once suspecting that a cozy late-night tavern lay concealed behind the unassuming façade — and one with a fine list of Franconian beers to boot.
Find it we did eventually did. Lit by candlelight, Catwheezle’s was as dark inside as it was out. We installed ourselves at the polished mahogany bar that divides the place into discrete nooks, ordered our first round, and let the details of this cozy heavy-beamed tavern emerge from the shadows.
Catwheezle’s has been doing its thing since 1992. A plant nursery and stable until the 1970s, this ancient building was meant to become an apartment — that is, until a construction party on the site took things in a completely different direction.
Coming up with a name for the tavern proved difficult until one of the founders returned disheveled from a vacation down south. One of his friends exclaimed that he looked like Catwheezle, the medieval wizard who was the main character of a TV series. The name stuck.
“Just a quick one for the road” turned plural as we listened to an ensemble playing Irish folk music to a packed house where students mingled with middle-aged bespectacled intellectual types and few random characters thrown in. One beer followed the next, and the evening wandered off into the night. So it goes at Catwheezle’s.
Open daily from 8pm till late. Keesmann’s Herren-Pils, Spezial’s U, and Sonne’s Hell are on tap alongside bottled beers like Huppendorfer, Klosterbräu’s Schwärzla, and a host of other rotators.
Solacing the Night and Welcoming the Morning
Bamberg’s sterling beer reputation precedes it, so much so that its extraordinary abundance of breweries, inns, and beer gardens obscures the fact the city also presides over a host of off-beat taverns that stay open late and serve up a fine selection of Franconian beers into the bargain.
Bamberg’s “beer underground” picks up where the classic Wirtshäuser leave off. These night spots probably won’t be your first stops if you’re new to Bamberg. But at some point you, like many others, will find yourself in Bamberg for your fourth, fifth, or umpteenth time, burrowing ever deeper into the layers of Bamberg’s beer scene. These are the kinds of places that keep this fabulous beer city fun and even a little weird.
Sources
Der Pelikan (website)
Catwheezle’s Castle (website)
Related Posts
Bamberg’s Beer Gardens: A Bierkeller for All Seasons
Lommerzheim: Kölsch Beyond Cologne’s Altstadt
Päffgen, Cologne’s Neighbourhood Pub
Bamberg’s Storied Rauchbier: A Brief History of Smoke and Beer
Photos by Franz D. Hofer. (It’s worth noting that the dim lighting in most of these establishments severely challenge the abilities of my old iPhone 8. Might be time for a new phone/camera.)
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