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FijiFlavors · Bamberg
Dark beer with a smoky flavor, made with malt dried in the smoke of beech firewood. Bamberg tourism presents it as part of the city’s identity, and the traditional preparation is listed in the Slow Food Ark of Taste.
Traditional drink from Bamberg, Baviera
Also known as: Rauchbier, cerveja defumada de Bamberg
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Bamberger Rauchbier — Bamberg, Germany
Bamberger Rauchbier is a dark beer with smoky flavor and aroma. The secret is the malt. Instead of drying germinated barley in smokeless kilns, as is common today, Bamberg’s traditional breweries dry the still-wet malt over an open beech wood fire. The smoke passes through the grain and leaves the taste that later goes into the beer.
In the past, almost all beer had some smoky flavor, because there was no way to dry malt without smoke. With indirect hot-air kilns from the 19th century onward, smoked beer declined and remained a specialty of Bamberg. Around 1935, only two breweries in the city still kept the traditional practice of smoking their own malt; today others, in Bamberg and elsewhere, also make beer with smoked malt.
The traditional method, with malt smoked at the brewery itself, was entered in the Slow Food Ark of Taste, a list of foods and techniques at risk of being lost. Bamberg tourism presents Rauchbier as part of the city’s identity and helped spread Bamberg’s reputation as a beer city worldwide.
The flavor surprises first-time tasters. Locals often say the second mug tastes better than the first, and the third better than the second. Rauchbier is served in the taverns of the historic center, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, often drawn from wooden casks, and pairs well with the hearty dishes of Franconia, such as roast pork.
Bamberg , Baviera
Bamberg tourism presents Rauchbier as part of the city’s identity, where the traditional smoking of malt has been preserved.
Barley malt smoked over beech firewood, water, hops, and yeast.
A drink in a mug, preferably in the taverns of central Bamberg, often drawn from the cask. It accompanies Franconian dishes such as roast pork and sausages. Enjoy in moderation.
Year round.
Your questions
Because the malt is dried over an open beech wood fire. The smoke passes through the grain and the flavor transfers to the beer.
In the taverns and breweries of Bamberg’s historic center, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where it is often served from wooden casks.
It is a Slow Food list of traditional foods and techniques at risk of disappearing. Bamberg’s traditionally made Rauchbier is included.
Flavors of Germany
Aachen spice cookie, sweetened with syrup and with small pieces of brown candi sugar that crackle when you bite them. It can be hard or soft, plain, with almonds or coated in chocolate. It has a protected geographical indication from the European Union.
Fresh pasta dough filled with ground meat, spinach, soaked bread, onion and herbs, served in broth, browned with onions, or sliced and fried with egg. A Swabian dish with protected geographical indication since 2009, traditional at Easter week.
Layered chocolate sponge cake soaked in Kirschwasser, the cherry brandy of the Black Forest, with cherries and whipped cream, topped with chocolate shavings. Black Forest tourism presents it as the region’s most famous sweet specialty.
Paste of camembert or brie cheese mashed with butter, paprika and, depending on the recipe, onion, cumin or beer; eaten with bread or a pretzel. A beer‑garden dish from Bavaria, with protected geographical indication since 2015.
Sausage sliced into rounds, topped with tomato sauce and curry powder, served with french fries or bread. The creation of the sauce is attributed to Herta Heuwer, who sold it in Berlin in 1949.
Kale slowly cooked with bacon, served with the smoked sausage Pinkel, smoked pork and potatoes. Bremen’s official portal presents it as the city’s best-known specialty, a winter dish of the Kohlfahrt.
Light, pale beer with top fermentation, served in a thin cylindrical 0.2‑liter glass by the breweries’ waiter, the Köbes. It is a protected geographical indication and may only be made in Cologne and in a few breweries in the region.
Sweet Christmas bread with raisins, candied orange and lemon peel, almonds and plenty of butter, coated with powdered sugar. Mentioned in Dresden since 1474, it has had protected geographical indication status since 2010.
Amber-colored beer, top-fermented with a pronounced bitterness, brewed in Düsseldorf’s brewery-taverns from a mid-19th-century recipe. The city’s tourism promotion presents it as the typical drink of the Altstadt.
Cold sauce of seven chopped fresh herbs with sour cream, served with hard‑boiled eggs and potatoes. The mixture of the seven herbs, grown largely in the Oberrad neighborhood, has protected geographical indication.
Sweet made from fermented, laminated dough with butter, sugar and cinnamon, rolled and pressed until it takes its characteristic flattened shape. Hamburg’s official portal presents it as a specialty of the city.
Dry, acidic apple wine, fully fermented, served in the Bembel ceramic jug and in the diamond-patterned glass called the Gerippte. It is a protected geographical indication of Hesse, and the apple wine culture of the state is listed in the German inventory of intangible heritage.
Little tart of shortcrust pastry filled with marzipan, almonds and a touch of jam or a cherry, with two strips of pastry crossed on top. It replaced the roasted lark, a Leipzig dish until the hunting ban in 1876.
White veal sausage with bacon and parsley, warmed in hot water and served with sweet mustard and a pretzel, traditionally before midday. It is one of Munich’s best-known specialties.
Honey cake with spices, walnuts and almonds, often baked on a thin wafer and covered with chocolate or icing. It has a protected geographical indication since 1996 and may only be made within Nuremberg.
Pork sausages 7 to 9 centimeters long, seasoned with marjoram and grilled, served by the dozen with sauerkraut or inside a roll. They have protected geographical indication since 2003 and may only be made in Nuremberg.
Ball of strips of shortcrust pastry, fried and dusted with confectioners’ sugar, resembling a snowball. Rothenburg ob der Tauber tourism presents it as the city’s regional specialty.
Cake baked in thin layers on a spit that turns in front of a fire; when sliced it shows rings like those of a tree trunk. Made in Salzwedel since the early 19th century, it has been a protected geographical indication since 2010.
Long, thin pork sausage, 15 to 20 centimeters long, seasoned with marjoram, cumin and garlic, grilled over charcoal and eaten in a small roll with mustard. The earliest known mention dates from 1404, and the name has protected geographical indication status since 2004.
