Food & Beer Culture

Traditionally paired with Bamberg Rauchbier is the Bamberger Zwiebel: a large onion, hollowed out and filled with ground meat, braised in the oven and served with gravy. Since the meat can also be smoked, the smoke in the food meets the smoke in the glass.

Schäuferla and Franconian bratwurst go well with it too, since smoke and meat have gone hand in hand for centuries. Bamberg was also long a city of market gardeners: they grew vegetables and potatoes, including the Bamberger Hörnla, a potato variety often eaten as a salad alongside sausage.

The tavern is a world of its own. In the Schlenkerla taproom, strangers and regulars sit side by side at long tables, shuffling together and striking up conversation. Outside on the cellar hills, people sit beneath the trees, and the beer arrives at the table in a stone mug.

The biggest festival is the Sandkerwa. It takes place in the old town around the Sandstraße at the end of August — in 2026, from the 20th to the 24th, marking its 76th edition. It features a fishermen's jousting tournament, music, and fireworks. Around 200,000 visitors attend each year.

In Franconia, the standard is half a liter as a Seidla, or a mug. The festival and the beer are meant to stay compatible, so the same rule applies here as everywhere: if you drink, you don't drive. On the Stephansberg and the other cellar hills, people sit out into the evening when the weather's good, and the Kerwa returns to the same corners every year. Anyone exploring the city on foot passes one brewery after another and can spend the whole day, unhurried, with a Seidla and an onion.