Food & Beer Culture

What is the Coburg Bratwurst? A coarse, long grilling sausage made from beef and pork, seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and lemon. It's traditionally grilled on a rack over a fire of pine cones, which gives it a resinous, slightly smoky flavor. Sources give its raw length as roughly 31 centimeters (about 12 inches).

It's usually eaten in a roll with mustard, straight from the hand. Stalls line the Schlossplatz and the market square, and hardly any Coburg festival goes without it, from the Samba Festival to the Christmas market. It pairs well with beer because the fat and seasoning call for something fresh and bitter to clear the palate again.

In the tavern, dumplings and roast meat are staples, as throughout Franconia, along with a simple spread of sausage and cheese enjoyed in a beer garden or at a cellar tavern. The beer gardens around Veste Coburg are the heart of the town in summer. Sit there and you'll have the castle in view, a mug in front of you, and most likely a Bratwurst in a roll beside it, and that's really all a summer evening needs.

The half-liter is the standard pour, with the full liter Maß reserved for festivals. Whether to clink glasses is never really in question: you do it, and you look the other person in the eye while doing so.

Drunk in moderation, beer here is a companion to food and conversation, an excuse to linger rather than a contest. The Bratwurst takes center stage, the beer rounds it out, and an evening at the grill can stretch on for hours without anyone feeling rushed.