Franconia´s Jerusalem

A cab driver told me that they've called Bamberg Franconia's Jerusalem since the crusades. He said it was because it was a beautiful as Jerusalem.

It is pretty, but when I started seeing things like this,

and this,

I had to wonder, especially considering how Jews were treated in this part of Germany during the crusades. But this isn´t Worms, Speyer, or Mainz so I had to look into it.

It turns out the hexagram has been used by brewers almost as long as it has been used by Jews, dating to the 14th century. The two have nothing to do with each other and those were just breweries. That is just fine considering that is why I came here in the first place.

German beer is usually bad, of course. Bamberg may be one of the few exceptions. It has eight centuries-old breweries and they actually make interesting beer. The beer above was just called ungespundet or unfiltered. It must have been a lager but it was surprisingly good for one. All these beer gardens were attached to small breweries like this one called Mahr´s. The most famous beer from Bamberg is the dreaded Rauchbier (smoked beer).

It shows you how far the German´s will go to get flavor into their beer that they stupidly made tasteless with the Reinheitsgebot. This is a märzen flavored with smoke. You can also get smoked weizen and even lagers that aren´t smoked but pick up the flavor from the equipment. Not as gross as I´ve had smoked beer in the U. S.

What do they eat with this smoked beer. Well they call them baggers in Germany, but they look a lot like latkas to me.