2023 was another breakout year for Beerwanderers with both locals and travelers fully back in the swing. In fact, it was every bit as good as 2022 especially considering I was much busier with tours as well. Germany ushered in a 49€ monthly ticket with a yearly subscription and I took advantage of it to expand my horizons into a big chunk of Lower Franconia. Beerwanderers got to 27 new-for-us beer places (15 breweries, 8 restaurants featuring beers on tap from breweries with no pubs and 4 Bierkellers/Biergartens) and sampled 209 beers we’d not had before.These are strictly places in and beers from Franconia. I did a lot in Bavaria too. Obviously, there were lots of bottled beers in the mix. Some friends helped out with car excursions and bringing back beers from their beery exploration. I sure couldn’t have covered so much ground or tried so many new beers without them. To help make all this new information on Beerwanderers more easily found and to commemorate the momentous year, we’re giving out virtual awards to the best finds of the 2023. Please note, to be considered it has to be a beer or place we’d not had or been to before 2023. In instances where a beer was had on tap when it had previously been only sampled in bottled form, it was considered a new “beer experience” and included. Links go to the entries on the site for further elaboration. Here goes:
Top 5 Restaurants (not a brewery but a pub featuring a particular brewery’s beer when they have no pub of their own):
1. Taube “Kette” Hotel/Zorbas Restaurant (closest thing to a brewery tap for Spessart even if across the river in Wertheim)
2. Keiler Brauhaus (Würzburger Hofbräu brews most of the beers but the small onsite brewery does their Kellerbier/excellent food)
3. Kommune Benaburger (Brunnhuber) (formerly part of communal brewing group but now serving a contract beer by Kaiser-Bräu/good rustic food)
4. Landwehr-Bräu am Turm (good place to sample Landwehr beers in Rothenburg proper/tasty vegetarian fare)
5. Schwarzer Adler (former brewpub with contract beer/excellent food)
Top 5 Bierkellers (a weak year so I’ve included Biergartens):
1. Scheubel-Keller (only true Keller in list and one of the very best)
2. Krautheimer Biergarten
3. Martinsbräu Biergarten
4. Unter den Linden
5. Sadly, even with the inclusion of Biergartens, Beerwanderers did not get to five new venues. I’m running low on this shrinking group of places but have my eyes set on some for 2024.
Top 5 Breweries (ones with pubs next to or with official brewery taps/beer, food and pub all considered in ranking):
1. (tie) Brauereigasthof Zum Löwenbräu
2. Martinsbräu Bräustüble
3. Rother-Bräu Braüstuble
4. Zum Roth
5. Häffner Bräu
Top 5 bottled light colored Bock beer:
5. tie Hütten Bock/Düll Krautheimer Heller Bock
Top 5 bottled dark-colored Bock beers:
Top 5 Weizenbocks:
5. Maisel’s Bajuwarus Weizenbock
Top 5 Festbiers:
1. (tie) Wagner Oberhaider Mühlenbier/Roppelt Trossenfurt Festmärzen
2. Schwanen-bräu Weihnachtsfestbier
5. Hönicka Hönicklaus Festbier
Top 5 bottled light-colored non-Bock beers:
1. (tie) Rhönbrauerei Dittmar Pils/Hölzlein Rauch
5. (tie) Kesselring Landbier Hell/Rhönbrauerei Dittmar Hell
Top 5 dark colored non-Bock beer bottles:
1. Rhönbrauerei Dittmar Urtyp Dunkel
4. Roßfelder Brauhaus Kellerbier
5. (tie) Häffner Schwarzberger Gold/Strecks Ostheimer Dunkel
Top 5 Weizens on tap or bottled:
1. Schlenkerla Rauchweizen on tap
2. Köslauer Rennweg Brauer Weißbier on tap
3. Zum Löwenbräu Karpfen Weisse on tap
5. Spessart Hefe Weizen on tap
Top 5 light-colored Bocks on tap:
1. Zehendner Maibock from gravity pour
4. Wagner (Merkendorf) Hellerbock
Top 5 dark-colored Bocks on tap:
3. (tie) Schrüfer Fastenbock/Düll Gnodstadt Bock
5. (tie) Greifenklau Roter Bock/Zum Goldenen Alder Doppelbock
Top 5 Best Looking Beers:
3. Häffner-Bräu/Hopfenstopfer Incredible Pale Ale
4. Martinsbräu Weizen Hefe Hell
5. Wittelsbacher Turm Bräu Vollbier
Top 5 light colored beers on tap:
1. Stern-Bräu Vollbier gravity
4. Strecks Brauhaus Burgherrenpils
Top 5 dark colored beers on tap:
2. (tie) Schlenkerla Weichsel /Schlenkerla Erle
4. Martinsbräu Landbier Dunkel
5. Köslauer Rennweg Brauer Kellerbier
Top 5 Adventures:
1. Something’s missing in Spielbach
2. The Main thing about Unterfranken
3. (tie) Salty Patch on the Unterfranken Express
3. (tie) A Münchener goes to the Oktoberfest… in Köslau
4. A military assault on Rothenburg ob der Tauber
5. The Häffners and the Häffner nots
I know I have a tough job but someone has to do it. It does cost money visiting the various breweries, especially as Beerwanderers goes further into Lower Franconia. Hopefully, this information will be helpful for your future planning. Please consider buying me a beer 🍺!
Beerwanderers was busy not only exploring new beery locations but also showing 152 people new to the area the wonders of our beer hiking paradise. I won’t even try to pick a Top 5 of the wonderful groups I’ve had the pleasure to get to know but I will post a few photos to show the good times we had:
Want to learn more about Franconian beer styles: Try ABeerC.
Heading to Bamberg. Don’t leave home without The Pocket Guide to Bamberg’s Best Beer.
Looking for someone to take you there? How about me?
