MARCH/APRIL 1999

VOL.4 NO.2

Bamberg, Germany - Part II: What's So Spezial About Schlenkerla?

Our first rauchbier stop was Spezial, where my wife, Christine, and I were also to be staying for a couple of nights in one of the seven rooms located above the brewery. Check-in was simple enough -- we knocked on the window next to the entrance to the pub, told our names to the woman who answered and were handed a room key before the window was summarily closed. After that rigorous procedure, we dumped our bags in the room and hurried right back downstairs for some food and our first half-litres of draught Bamberg rauchbier.

Unlike the more famous Schlenkerla, Spezial does not export its beer and so we were quite unfamiliar with it before we arrived. Which was and is a pity, because the Spezial lager is something indeed very special, with a mildly smoky, earthy-sweet nose and a fabulously drinkable smoky, cured leaf and roasted chestnut body. Not nearly as intense as either the Kaiserdom or the Schlenkerla, it is a beer perfectly designed for hours of sociable quaffing, which is exactly we did with great pleasure in the company of our newfound Bamberg friends that night at the pub.

The next day we first paid a visit to Greifenklau, where the wursts were good but, as previously mentioned, the alleged smokiness of the otherwise very enjoyable lager proved quite elusive. Later, after a day spent exploring all the visual wonders that are Bamberg, we repaired to Schlenkerla for a late dinner and a date with the most famous of all Bamberg brews, the Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen.

To my surprise, I found the draught Schlenkerla milder in both aroma and taste than the bottled version. Nevertheless, I still found it to be hugely enticing in a much different way than the Spezial lager: fuller bodied, more intensely smoky, bigger in character. Where the Spezial catches your interest from time to time with a re-recognition of the taste, the Schlenkerla is unrelenting in its command of your attention. Each mouthful of the marzen brings new realization of the style, each sniff announces its presence with an explosion of smoke. With an aroma that can legitimately be described as meaty, and a taste carrying notes from anise to earth to singed wood, this is most definitely a beer which, once tasted, is neither easily nor soon forgotten.

The final, smoky punctuation to our visit came from the unexpected but quite welcomed appearance of the Schlenkerla UrBock, a seasonal beer even bigger than its marzen cousin. Available only in Bamberg, the bock hits the drinker first with a sweet, slightly plummy, and intensely smoky nose and then follows on the palate with a complex mix of red and black licorice, roasted malt, port-like alcohol and, yes, smoke. Alas, it was at this point that the staff decided to close the pub, so my first half-litre of this oily jewel was also my last.

Which, come to think of it, is yet one more reason to return to Bamberg just as soon as I am able.

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