In Bamberg and its surrounding area - as was the case almost everywhere else - brewing was essentially influenced by the monasteries. In general the monks grew wine and by cultivating hops they supported the art of brewing; after all beer was not only a nutritious drink during Lent but also a very tasty one throughout the whole year. An early document for an operating brewery dates back to 1122 when the Bamberg bishop Otto the Saint (1102 – 1139) granted “dimidiam carratam cerevisiae” and with it the brewing rights to the Steward of Gestungshausen (district of Coburg).

The right of serving food and drink

Commoners were only allowed to brew beer with a special permit, the so-called “brewing rights”. Making beer was initially restricted to one’s own personal use. Whoever owned these brewing rights could sell his surplus beer to the public. Thus the beginnings of commercial beer production developed. To indicate the serving of beer to the public the landlords attached signs (“Gastfrieden”) to their house walls. Later from this the so-called “Schildgerechtigkeit” developed, i.e. fixing an emblematic trade sign to the house front which advertised the sale of beer.

The cooper’s craftsmanship

The bourgeois tradition of brewing beer is closely connected with the cooper’s craft. This close relationship between the two crafts finds its expression in the names of two well-known local breweries: “Fässla” (little barrel) and “Ecken-büttner” (cooper at the corner). The art of brewing received an important impulse by the “Purity Law”, issued in 1516.

Until the middle of the 19th century the Bamberg brewing tradition developed parallel to the cooper’s craft. Only the increasing industrialization changed the master brewer into a profession in its own right and enforced mass production. The traditional craft of the coopers became obsolete at the end of the 20th century. On October 1st 1993 Max Saam, the last Bamberg cooper, died.

Bamberg’s “beery” specialities

One peculiarity of the Bamberg beer was the storage and cooling in subterranean rock cellars and the ensuing consumption “on” the beer cellars. As early as two hundred years ago Johann Albert Joseph Seifert described these beer cellars as “peculiarities of the Bamberg beer production”. Besides Michelsberg, Kaulberg, and Jakobsberg the largest number of rock cellars existed on Stephansberg. A large number of trees provided additional shade for the subterranean storage rooms. The idea of serving the cool beer in a garden “on” the rock cellars came into existence almost inevitably. The beer cellars lost their centuries old function only when Carl Linde developed the refrigeration machinery. The tradition of going “on to the beer cellar”, however, has survived to this very day. 

Smoked beer – a speciality of the region

For hundreds of years a special beer has been brewed and served in Bamberg which is widely unknown in other areas; smoked beer. This fully-flavoured beer receives its taste from the wood fire used when the kilned malt is dried in a special smoke stove. In Bamberg there are only two breweries left producing smoked beer: “Schlenkerla” and “Spezial”. Until 1935 the “Polarbär” and “Greifenklau” breweries also produced only smoked beer; the other breweries each offered at least one kind of smoked beer.

Breweries

The start of industrialization had a tremendous impact on the local structure of breweries. The centuries old craft was – within a few years – confronted with completely different production processes. Breweries which had not invested in new machinery in time did not find entrepreneurial successors and were forced to close down. Thus the number of breweries was continually reduced. The greatest loss of breweries, however, was seen between 1915 and 1920, i.e. during the time of World War I and the ensuing economic depression. Within these five years twelve breweries had to close down in Bamberg alone – one brewery in three was shut down. The lack of agricultural produce and of fuel had particularly dramatic consequences. During the following decades as well the number of Bamberg breweries steadily decreased

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