The audience for Schlenkerla

They're smoking something at both these breweries.....MALT!

 

The one place I most want to go that I have not been yet (beer related wise) is Bamberg. I'd love to be a beer drinking tourist there someday! There was a documentary produced about Bamberg and its beer culture. More information can be found here: http://www.bierfilm.com/

 

The Helles Lagerbier is still one of the best lagers I've ever had. Fell in love with the first sip, and it is now a "refrigerator regular" to this day.

 

Those two kids down the street that nobody likes but they got a bunch of cool shit so you still hang out with em.

 

I just had it for the first time a month back. Absolutely delicious.

I don't know what "tourist beer" is, but I can only imagine it's a beer brewed for people who normally wouldn't buy it but because they are on vacation somewhere they'll go for it. I can't imagine a beer with as strong of a flavor as the stuff from Schlenkeria would ever be brewed with the intention of getting the random tourist dollar. I don't know.....

At the end of the day everything I have had from them has indeed been quite intense. More importantly, all of them have been awesome and I absolutely love each of the one's that I have tried. So keep making tourist beer Schlenkeria!

(by the way, how do you pronounce this brewery? Could someone write it out phonetically?)

 

Kinda just how it looks if you slowly sound it out:
Shh-lenk-er-la

I'm sure a native German would be able to provide deeper nuance, but that's the only way I've heard it pronounced (which actually contained all of the "L's") and have seen it described here a few times over the years...

 

Pretty much the way it is spelled:http://www.forvo.com/word/schlenkerla/

Cheers!

 

While I'm sure Schlenkerla gets more tourists than Spezial, I'm not sure how anyone can question the quality of their beers. For the record, I prefer Spezial to Schlenkerla by a pretty decent margin, but that's personal preference and in no way indicative of quality. I guess the breweries like Keesmann, Faessla, Klosterbraeu, Ambraeusianum, and Greifenklau must be super extra special since they don't distribute outside of the region if at all.

 

I love Schlenkerla's beers. I know the OP asked us to leave Shelton Bros. motivations out of it, but their competitor, B. United, imports the Schlenkerla range, so their motivation is relevant. Shelton Bros are the distributor of another uniquely flavored brand, Cantillion. Are the beers of Cantillion for tourists like the smoked beers from Schlenkerla?

 

I was going to make a comment about how surprised I was to see the Sheltons shit talking a competitor's products, but then I saw this part.

As for whether or not they're touristy I cant really say, but I can tell you that 4 of their beers (Eiche, Marzen, Urbock, and Helles) are in the top 20 selling German beers at our shop out of the roughly 100 varieties that we stock. FWIW, Spezial comes in at #21, two spots below the Urbock.

Oh, and in case anyone's curious, the top 5 are Weihenstephan Kristall, Erdinger Dunkel, Weihenstephan Vitus, Radeberger Pils, and Reissdorf Kolsch.

 

In Bamberg we stayed at Fassla so Spezial was a tad closer(across the street) but my wife and I preferred walking all the way across town for a glass of the Marzen at Schlenkerla. The Spezial was good, but just not as good.

 

I love this Schlenkerla. All of them. For me it is quintesential rauchbier. My wife and I went their (as tourists). The place was wall to wall locals and we couldn't get the menu in english at the time. We had a great experience of food and beer.

 

Tell us more....

 

Marketers will market. But unfortunately some think that should also include denigrating the products that their competition markets.

 

I've had Marzen, Fastenbier, Eiche. All phenomenal beers. I've tasted a few American attempts, nothing close the craft of Schlenkerla.

I have Helles and Urbock sitting at home, which I've been trying to find some time to get to.

 

Kalik Gold

 

ISO

 

“ …nothing close the craft of Schlenkerla.” If you ever make it down to SEPA you should check out Sly Fox and Iron Hill, they both make Rauchbiers that are very good. Iron Hill also bottles their Rauchbier.

Cheers!

 

It's a Heineken-owned brand. Used to be imported by their secondary US import division, Star Brands, before it folded. Now imported by United States Beverage