40 Years in Beer (Book II), Part 65: Smoky treats, a 9-hour, 9-brewery, 9-beer Bamberg stroll in 1996
Reign of the garden gnomes at the late, lamented Maisel Keller.
Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book II), Part 64: The 2,301 day McOldenberg Brewmall 1990s vigil.
Faithful “40 Years” readers will recall my first-ever visit to Bamberg, Germany in 1991 alongside cousin and mentor Donald Barry. Think of it as a student-professor, Boswell-and-Johnson reprise with amazing beer.
During subsequently journeys I’ve spent as much time in Bamberg as anywhere in Europe apart from those longer-term gigs in East Germany and Slovakia, but it remains that there was a time when my love for this city and its beer culture was new.
Early explorations of Bamberg made a deep and lasting impression on me. Of these the 1996 visit tops the chart by virtue of a single, earth-shattering revelation: Yes, it was possible to experience the city’s nine breweries on foot in a single day (with an asterisk), enjoying at least one half-liter of beer at each, and live to tell the tale, if groggily.
Thus the Smoky Treats brewery crawl of Bamberg unspooled successfully, with a resumption of beer drinking before noon the following day. I cannot in good conscience recommend such a tourist regimen to anyone, although it worked well enough for me. In...Read more