While many clamored for tickets to Adele and Taylor Swift in Europe this summer, I was on my way to a Milow concert. Not heard of him? That’s okay, I hadn’t either before finding out he was headlining the Bayrischer Rundfunk Radl Tour open air concert in Ebern. Ebern is another under-the-wire entity but is a gorgeous if small medieval town nestled in the rolling hills of Lower Franconia. This event was entirely off my radar but when attending the Braufest of Bräuhaus Dörflis the previous weekend, a friend who’s a member of a neighboring communal brewery got wind of it. In addition to the free concert, Brauerei Hartleb and one of the less accessible communal breweries would be on hand pouring their beers.
lovely medieval marvel Ebern before the storm
I met a like-beer-minded friend in Bamberg and we got a train out to the the medieval marvel. He’s German and hadn’t heard of Milow either, who was obviously not the headliner for us. We were mostly looking forward to sampling the new Hausbier from the Höchstädten Bierbrauerei, one of the least active of the small group of communal breweries that dot the countryside out in these parts. We were meeting some other friends out at the festival so it was looking like a fun night. The only problem was an ensuing and progressively larger looking than originally predicted thunder storm heading our way.
gravity dispense barrels were the order of the day
We’d arrived about an hour before the gates were set to open to avoid what we had read was a later arriving smattering of rain. Instead, we stood in line with the winds whipping up and the early drops of things to come. We were told just before our hopeful entry that it would be delayed for 45 minutes so we sought refuge in Herzog Bier & Wein, a French Bistro cum English pub around the corner. By acting fast we secured a small table inside and consoled ourselves with a Gänstaller Zwickel Pils and Mahrs U. It was cozy enough and we dried out while awaiting the opening.
a couple of festival faves
Once inside the festival, we made a beeline for the coveted Höchstädter beer only to be side-tracked at the Bräuhas Brünn stand. The friendliness of the guys pouring their beer was too hard to resist and a beer that had been very disappointing at the Genussfestival a few months prior was one of the best this time around. We met up with our friends who were raving about the new Junkersdorf brew, again pushing our anticipated beer back. As we talked over the beers, those who had already tried the the coveted local Höchstädter beer were largely disappointed. I finally succumbed to the admittedly odd top-fermented 4% brew which couldn’t really be pigeon-holed into a style and found it interesting if not one I’d have another of. There was also the small micro-brewery Stöhr with their Helles on tap and the apparent crowd favorite, Hartleb.
too many beers, too little time
Too many beers, too little time was the theme of the evening but we “worked” our way through them and had extras of our favorites. Hartleb never fails to impress but I guess the consensus was Junkersdorf (an der Weisach) had taken best of show. Brünn was most improved. Sadly, the one we’d come to dance with was the most disappointing but as is the case with the communal brewery scene, it’s ever changing and experimental. That’s part of the intrigue and excitement. You may not always get the beer you want but you sometimes find you get the beer you need; the one on an ever shrinking horizon of the ones you haven’t had.
Small festivals like this give you an opportunity to enjoy what these types of events were all about before many of them became too big, too crowded and in the end, too costly. Check out the Köslau Oktoberfest coming up September 28th & 29th.
