“Time is always good for the beer,” says Martin Hofmann, fifth-generation owner and brewer of Brauerei Hofmann in Gräfenberg-Hohenschwärz, Germany, as he pulls a chestnut-colored dunkel lager with a rich head of aromatic foam from the tap. He’s referring to a slow cooking process he uses that’s now become uncommon. I think he must be right as I take a deep draft and feel a wave of goose bumps.
It’s not even noon yet, but I’m already one mile and two breweries into a 12-mile guided hike, listening to Hofmann describe his deliberate approach to crafting the drink. Among his manually laborious brewing practices is heating his brewing system entirely with wood he chops himself. (“Crisis-proof,” he calls it, after the COVID-19 pandemic and Russian war convinced him not to upgrade his power source to oil or electricity.) This method caramelizes and deepens the malt flavors over eight or nine hours, whereas most modern breweries finish the job in two or three hours.
But Hofmann’s statement could just as easily apply to the entire culture of beer here in Franconia, the northern part of the central state of Bavaria, where a robust network of hiking trails links the world’s highest-density collection of breweries. Most are as anachronistic with brewing as Brauerei Hofmann; they sell their beer on-site only, which encourages drinkers to roam from pint to top-notch pint across the softly rolling countryside. It’s a task that Germans—whose remarkable passion for hiking gave us the word wanderlust—undertake with relish.
For almost 30 years, my guide, an amiable rambler originally from Philadelphia named Rich Carbonara, has done just that: He pursued a hiking-and-beer hobby that became a calling. Today, Carbonara shares well-marked routes, research, and resources on his website, Beerwanderers; in his book, Beer Hiking Bavaria; and on his guided tours.
This region in Bavaria combines hiking, beer, medieval towns, and castles such as the Rothenfels Castle.
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Carbonara splits his time between Munich and Bamberg, a city in Franconia, running small, customizable tours out of both locations. He is available for day trips and multiday hikes, as long as guests are willing to pack lightly enough to carry everything they need. A three- or four-day excursion might cover a relaxed total of 15 to 20 miles. You can also contact the Tourist Board of Franconia directly for help booking beer hiking tours through local guides or navigating the area on your own.
For Franconian adventures, Carbonara recommends weekend trips during the high season (roughly May through October) that begin in Bamberg. The dreamy UNESCO World Heritage city, with seven hills surrounding the Regnitz River, is a well-loved tourist destination, so “rooms are easier to get and offer more variety” than the many brewery inns in the countryside. One of the most inviting is Welcome Hotel Residenzschloss Bamberg, housed inside a baroque building that was once a hospital, which provides an elegant and central base.
Beer and history fans will love walking between some of Bamberg’s dozen-plus breweries, including the famous rauchbier (smoked beer) specialists Schlenkerla and Spezial, which have kept the ancient art of brewing with smoked malt alive for hundreds of years. Bamberg’s tourism office can pair you with an English-speaking guide, such as Dirk Hirsch, for a walking tour that provides access to Schlenkerla’s historic and still-active beer cellar, as well as to other city sights. The churches atop these hills, including the 1,000-year-old Kloster Michaelsberg, are spectacular as well. Michaelsberg recently reopened to the public after 13 years of renovations. Don’t miss the herbarium-like Himmelsgarten (Heaven’s garden) painted across the entire ceiling.
Bamberg is a college city of 80,000 residents, which means it’s lively every day. The rural beer destinations have much more limited hours of operation, so Carbonara typically takes people out on weekends, when they have the best odds of catching businesses open.
The relatively flat Franconia makes for easy hiking and easy drinking.
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“These places are largely small, family-run brewpubs with very reasonable prices,” he says of the region’s special charm. “The landscape is gently beautiful, and the hiking isn’t overly strenuous.” Many of the paths are wide, paved, and well maintained, whether you’re crossing a flowering meadow alongside a burbling creek or following a sidewalk through a tiny town with colorful homes towered over by medieval castles that you can easily detour to. The Brauereienweg trail goes through Aufseß, which has two impressive castles, four breweries, and a population of 1,500, earning it the Guinness World Record for most breweries per capita. You shouldn’t even need hiking boots unless it’s raining hard and the unpaved sections of trail through hushed forests get soggy.
“The countryside is a glimpse into another time,” Carbonara says. Hikers typically wend from Bamberg through towns such as Memmelsdorf, where you can sip and stay overnight at a bucolic spot like Hotel & Brauereigasthof Drei Kronen or Hotel Brauerei Gasthof Höhn. This route culminates in Rossdorf, where you’ll find local specialties like Schäufele (roasted pork shoulder with a crispy fat cap) and a pale, unfiltered Urbräu lager at Brauerei Sauer. Spend your time at the establishment’s felsenkeller, a Franconian term for both a cellar in the hillside where beer used to be aged before refrigeration and the seasonal biergarten where you can enjoy a drink under the chestnut trees hanging over said cellar.
The most popular day-trip hike from Bamberg is the Fünf-Seidla-Steig trail, which includes the aforementioned Brauerei Hofmann plus four other acclaimed breweries. In addition to offering fantastic beer and food, Thuisbrunner Elch Bräu makes world-class spirits, including hyperlocal Scotch-inspired whiskey smoked with German peat.
Lindenbräu may be the last German brewery still floor-malting some of its own grain, and it’s a lovely spot for a hot meal of schnitzel or a brotzeit (literally “bread time,” a German smorgasbord including cold cuts, pickles, and sharp mustards) under the grand linden tree out front. The establishment also offers overnight stays in understated rooms with retro touches, such as an egg-yolk yellow bathtub.
Brauerei Friedmann, founded in 1875, has been run by the women of the eponymous family since 1982, when Sigi Friedmann became Germany’s youngest female brewer; her daughter, Barbara, now leads daily operations. Klosterbrauerei Weißenohe, named for the next-door former monastery, is run by a father and son who credit Franconian stubbornness for the region’s enduring character, even as they turn heads with their playful yet skilled experimentation with modern hops and styles.
Franconians, with their hundreds of breweries and affinity for roaming, have perfected the art of beer trekking, modeling an ideal way to embrace nature with a drink in hand. After all, when time has done all this work for us, the least we can do is slow down and appreciate it.
