2025 was another breakout year for Beerwanderers. Along with personally guiding 113 new proponents of Beer Hiking in both Franconia and Southern Bavaria, Beerwanderers got to 37 new-for-me beer places (20 breweries, 10 pubs/restaurants featuring beers on tap from breweries with no pubs or a good selection of regional beers and 7 Bierkellers/Biergartens). I also sampled 113 beers I’d not had before, 80 of which were on tap.These are strictly places in and beers from Franconia. 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, I’m giving out virtual awards to the best finds of the 2025. Please note, to be considered it has to be a beer or place we’d not had or been to before 2025. 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 places to drink beer in 2025
Top 5 restaurants of 2025
These are not breweries but a places featuring a particular brewery’s beer when they have no pub of their own or ones with a good regional selection):
tie 1. Graser Wirtshaus (Henrii group restaurant with Schlenkerla brewed Graser beers)
tie 1. Max-Bräu Gastwirtschaft (contract beer, tasty food & atmospheric pub)
tie 2. Weller Thalermühle (does brew beer but only for members/Weller beers served are contract-brewed/excellent food)
tie 2. Rösla (array of Günther Bräu beers on tap plus one guest beer/simple food, more a pub)
3. Spitalhaus (regional beers on tap/very nice Biergarten)
4. Conny’s Buschenschänke (small pub with contract beer)
tie 5. Gaststube Buschbeck (Bayreuth local with regional beers on tap)
tie 5. Efendi (great middle eastern restaurant with Kaiserdom beers on tap)
Top 5 Bierkellers of 2025
(a weak year so I’ve included Biergartens, which were so good they ranked higher)
1. Sachsenmühle Biergarten (scenic Biergarten or river with gravity dispense Ott beers)
2. Riedseehütte (scenic Biergarten on small late with gravity Hetzel beer)
3. Biergarten Kundigundenberg (hilltop Biergarten with possibly own or contract beer)
4. Schrauder Keller (true Bierkeller with gravity Löwenbräu beer/good Brotzeit)
5. Diller Keller (lush true Bierkeller with Hönig beer/has Bockanstich too)
Top 5 breweries of 2025
(ones with pubs next to or with official brewery taps/beer, food and pub all considered in ranking):
1. Geigel’s Gewölbe (atmospheric pub/Biergarten with great food and gravity dispense beer)
tie 2. Grüner Baum Kasendorf (atmospheric pub with great food/rejuvenated brewery)
tie 2. Brauerei Haberstumpf (renovated rustic pub, hilltop Biergarten/great food/many beers on tap)
tie 3. Schmölzer Braugarten (deck outside seating overlooking meadow with great Brotzeit and beer)
tie 3. Säger Bräu Biergarten (mini-golf course with brewery and Biergarten)
4. Drossenfelder Bräuwerck (beautifully renovated former brewpub with new brewery onsite)
5. Ban Bräu (much needed brewpub in Bad Staffelstein, more a pub but some food)
Top 5 stand alone breweries with no taproom
(these were all communal breweries this year)
1. Lindenau Brauhaus
2. Ummerstadt Brauhaus
3. Rossach Brauhaus
4. Buch Brauhaus
tie 5. Brünn Brauhaus
tie 5. Niederlauer Brauhaus
Top beers of 2025
Top 5 Weizens
5. Fäßla Weizla Dunkles Hefeweissbier
Top 5 Festbiers
tie 2. Schroll Nankendorfer Festbier
tie 3. Brauerei Witzgall Festbier
tie 3. Brauerei Wagner Festbier
tie 5. Bräustübla Reckendorf Festbier
Top 5 bottled non-Bock beers:
1. Roppelt (Trossenfurt) Füchtla Helles
tie 3. Adler Bräu Stettfelder Hausbier
4. Zum Löwenbräu Frischhopfen Pils
Top 5 light-colored Bocks:
4. Haberstumpf Maibockschlückla on tap
5. Hopfenrebell Maibock on tap
Top 5 dark-colored Bocks:
1. Köslauer Rennbock from the tank
2. Junkersdorf Weisach Maibock from gravity dispense
4. Krug (Geisfeld) Bockbier from gravity dispense
5. Bären Bräu Poldibock (Greifenklau) on tap
Top 5 amber colored beers on tap:
1. Geigel’s Gewölbe Hausbier from gravity diespense
2. Hetzel Vollbier from gravity dispense
tie 4. Kreisla 36 Berstein Lager (Schmitt/Krug/Brandholz)
tie 4. Graser Braunbier from gravity dispense
tie 5. Drossenfelder Bäuwerck Hexenwerck
Top 5 light colored beers on tap:
tie 1. Schlenkerla Lagerbier from tank on tour
tie 2. Schmölzer Gaumenschmeichler
2. Brandholz Underground Green
tie 3. Kommunbrauerei 1059 Sunna
tie 3. Graser Fränkisches Pils
4. Drossenfelder Bräuwerck Keller Pils
Top 5 dark beers on tap:
1. Ott Landbier Dunkel from gravity dispense
tie 2. Rosenauer Hofbräu Braunbier
tie 2. Bimberla Glockengießer Sud
tie 4. Günther Bräu Schwarzbier
5. Freudenecker Fischer Dunkles Lagerbier
Top 5 non-Bock communal brewery beers on tap:
1. Lindenau Brauhaus Hausbrauerbier
2. Rossach Brauhaus Hausbier from gravity dispense
3. Brünn Brauhaus Hausbier from gravity dispense
4. Hellingen Brauhaus Hausbier
5. Ummerstadt Brauhaus Haustrunk
Top new Rauchbier experience:
Schlenkerla unfiltered Helles Märzen from Holzfass
(I don’t get to try many new smoke beers anymore, certainly not 5 in one year. Leave it to Schlenkerla to come up with another winner.)
Top 5 Beerwanderers innovations of 2025
(I finally did a few Pocket Guides for areas outside of Franconia. My motivation was to help clients going to these areas. I’d always given advice and to save myself time and make the information more permanent, the guides proved very useful.)
1. Pocket Guide to Franconian Beer
2. Munich Beer, Breweries & Beer Gardens Pocket Guide
3. The Pocket Guide to Bayreuth Beer & its Countryside Breweries
4. The Pocket Guide to the Best Beer & Breweries in Salzburg
5. Prague Beer & Breweries Pocket Guide
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 the harder to reach parts of 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 113 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:
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?
Your impressive journey continues and you stated in one of your recent posts that you have no plans to stop. Cheers and Happy New Year to you and Doreen and here’s a Zehendner Hefe-Weizen to both of you.
Thanks, Don. Hopefully you’ll make it over before I’m no longer alive and kicking!