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Welcome!
Welcome to the first comprehensive guide for the beer tourist of the breweries of Franconia. We hope you will find it useful when planning your next trip to this beer heaven.
Search the Database
We have a complete list of the nearly 300 operating breweries in Franconia. You
can browse by city name, district,
or by how to get there. Currently most of this
guide is written as if you were using Bamberg as your base, but it still very
helpful if you are basing your trip out of other cities such as Nürnberg
or Würzburg. As time permits we will be updating the links to train and
bus schedules.
We have added GPS co-ordinates
for many breweries to better locate them on the Map24 maps. Look for the 
symbol
on the brewery listings.
NEW! You can now purchase for $5 The Beer Drinkers Guide to Bamberg a downloadable booklet you can print and take with you.
You can also look for breweries with hotel rooms.
Message Board
Discuss all aspects of life and Franconian beer here.
News
Weyermann Malting Celebrates 125 Years. The famous maltings in Bamberg recently celebrated its 125th Anniversary. Tom Rierson gives a report of the festivities
New Self Guided Bamberg Beer Tours. The Bamberg tourist office introduces a couple of new programs for beer tourists.
Tag des Deutschen Bieres Celebrated in Bamberg. Scott Rankin visited the annual celebration of Bamberg's beers and filed this report.
New Book by Lieselotte Tomaschek. The second edition of Mrs. Tomaschek's book Bamberger Dialekt in Deutsch and English has just been published. Surprise the locals on your next trip to Bamberg with your mastery of the local vernacular.
Bamberg Named World Beer City. The European Beer Consumers Union names Bamberg its first World Beer Heritage City.
Road Trips
Taken a beer trip recently? Send us your trip report and we'll gladly publish it here.
Nürnberg, Bamberg & Munich by JezzaP. Jeremy takes a break from his usual beer haunts in Belgium to make his first visit to Bamberg.
A Zoigl Tour by Mat Wilson. A visit to the nearby region of Operpfalz in search of that rarest of beers.
A Tour of the Countryside by Scott & Kelley Rankin. A visit to some of the small village breweries near Bamberg.
A Epic Swedish Tour of Bavaria and Franconia by Jan-Erik Swensson. Swedes have been visiting Franconia for hundreds of years. Jan-Erik lead a group on a beer tour that is nothing short of awesome. He kindly shares his tasting notes with us.
A Visit to Annafest. Fun, Food, Music, Great Company and Great Beer. What more could you ask. Some pictures of Annafest 2003. (Lots of images so it may be slow to load on a dialup connection)
A Visit to Southern Franconia by Paddy O'Brien. Paddy spent some time in the less frequently visited southern part of Franconia and shares his finds with us.
How I Spent My Franconian Summer Vacation by Bjarke Bundgaard. Bjarke tells us of his adventures, among them trying to track down some Franconian Steinbier.
Road Trip to Northern California. What does this have to do with Franconian Beer? Read on, there is a connection.
Feature Articles
Historical Bamberg Breweries: Brauerei Kleebaum. John Conen contributes a fine article on the Bamberg brewery that was bombed during World War II.
Günther Heizel 's Top 10 Picks. Dr. Günther Heinzel is a dentist living in the Ruhr valley of Germany. He travels extensively throughout Germany and Europe in search of beer. He shares his Franconian favorites with us.
Historical Bamberg Breweries: Brauerei Michaelsberg. The fourth in our series of articles on historical Bamberg Brewers. Brauerei Michaelsberg was originally a monastic brewery that survived well into the 20th Century.
Bamberg's Fabled Tenth Brewery. by Frank Wetzel. You can't buy it (yet) but if you run into Brewmaster Robert Pawelczak he might just invite you over to drink some of his fine brew.
Bamberg Guidebook 1918. Ron Pattinson kindly shares with us scans of a 1918 Guidebook to Bamberg. Its in German, but the advertisements are worth seeing.
The Best of the Best. A summary of the seven "Top 10 Brewery" articles reviews the multiple pick favorites.
Drinking Beer in Bamberg. A visit to some of the pubs and resturants in Bamberg that serve good and hard to find beers.
Historical Bamberg Breweries:The Breweries of Sandstrasse. The third installment of the series of articles on historical Bamberg breweries.
Historical Bamberg Breweries:Bamberger Hofbräu. The second in the series of articles on historical Bamberg breweries.
Historical Bamberg Breweries: Brauerei zum Polarbär. The first in a new series of articles on historical Bamberg breweries.
Bamberg, A Beer Miracle by Tom Perera. Originally published in the April 2003 issue CAMRA's What's Brewing, Tom writes why he loves Bamberg.
Jan-Erik Svensson's Top 10 Picks. Jan-Erik Svensson of Stockholm, Sweden is a Swedish beer writer and judge. He shares his Franconian favorites with us.
Jos Brouwer's Top 10 Picks. Jos Brouwer of the Netherlands is well known on the European Beer scene. He shares his favorite breweries with us.
Andreas' Top 10 Picks. Andreas Gündel from Güttersloh is one of the most traveled German "Beer Hunters" around. He shares his favorite Franconian breweries.
Tom's Top 10 Picks. Tom Clark from Minnesota is an American brewer who worked at a Fraconian brewery. He shares is favorite breweries from the area around Bamberg.
John's Top Picks. John Conen of Farnham Common, England shares with us his favorite Franconian Beers. John is the author of Good Beer in Bamberg and Franconia.
A visit to Brauerei Schrüfer. We stop by for a refreshing beer and take some pictures (mostly pictures, not so many words).
Frank's Top 10 Picks. Frank Wetzel of Bamberg (and proprietor of www.BierRegion-Franken.info) shares his ten favorite Franconian breweries with us.
Beer Drinking Customs in Franconia. The customs and traditions of our favorite beverage.
The Breweries of Bamberg A visit to the nine breweries of Bamberg.
Don's Top 10 Picks. Don Scheidt of Seattle shares his list of ten breweries not to miss.
A Tour of Brauerei Spezial (Updated 05Feb03). A peek behind the scenes at one of Bamberg's most unique breweries.
Brewery Rankings
Every site seem to have user rankings, so we have jumped on the bandwagon. Check out the stats here.
Special Thanks
Special thanks are in order to Frank Wetzel of www.BierRegion-Franken.info for the use of his coaster images and to Bjarke Bundgaard and Søren Hansen for providing many fine images of their recent Franconian visit. They have a very nice beer site www.GLocalBeer.dk so check it out if you have a chance (its in Danish, though). And to Bo Kullmar for sharing GPS waypoints from his last trip.
If you have pictures of breweries you'd like to share, please send an email to the webmaster.
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We're very interested in your news, notes, comments and questions, so please feel free to contact the Franconia Beer Guide. Or you can add your comments to the Guest Book.
Website © 2002-2006 by Fred Waltman. All rights reserved. Content Copyright by the authors.