Food & Beer Culture

What do people eat in Nuremberg with their beer? Top of the list is the Nuremberg sausage — short, thin, seasoned with marjoram, and traditionally grilled over beechwood fire. Its name is protected EU-wide. Most often it's eaten as Drei im Weggla, three sausages in a bread roll, with mustard, and the malty Rotbier pairs well with it.

Why does it work so well? The sausage is savory and salty, Rotbier has malt sweetness and little bitterness, and the two balance each other out. A heavily hopped beer would tend to clash with the marjoram and the smoky char from the fire.

Served in a vinegar broth, the sausages come to the table as Saure Zipfel, with onions and bread. The tavern menu also features Schäufele, pork shoulder with a crispy crust, typically served with two dumplings and a dark gravy, sometimes made with beer. In Franconia, this is usually washed down with a Seidla straight from the cask.

The tavern here is seen as a place for conversation. Tables are shared, and guests sit down next to strangers. Hausbrauerei Altstadthof shows that it's possible without a huge brewery behind it: the brewhouse, the tavern, and the rock-hewn cellars all sit close together.

Anyone thinking of Franconia and beer also thinks of hillside beer gardens and festivals. The Bergkirchweih in Erlangen, a major beer festival held on the hill, has its own stop on this beer journey and is only mentioned here in passing.

So Rotbier isn't the mandatory pairing for Schäufele and sausages in Nuremberg. A Helles or a wheat beer works just as well, since with food this hearty, any beer that refreshes and clears the palate between bites will do the job.