Schlenkerla and Rauchbier
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
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Transcript
Bamberg is famous for Rauchbier — ROWKH-beer — made with malt dried over wood smoke, giving the beer a distinctly smoky character.
Historically, direct-fired kilns often imparted smoke to malt. As cleaner kilning technologies spread, smoky flavour disappeared from much brewing. Bamberg breweries preserved it as a local speciality.
Schlenkerla’s brewery history is documented back to the early fifteenth century. The popular explanation that the name came from a former brewer’s swinging or limping gait is local tradition rather than securely documented biography, so treat it as a story.
Beer culture matters historically because brewing required grain, water, fuel, regulation, taxation and tavern life. It is an urban industry, not liquid folklore.
Taste if appropriate, but the guide ends here regardless of whether the beer tastes like bacon. Sensory evidence is personal.