Just found this blog and it’s great! Most likely any comments are too late now as you are in the Heidelberg area already but some remarks: I’m from germany (born in the northern parts but now living in Heidelberg) and I’ve never ever heard “Haarschnitt” (haircut) in connection with beer. Regarding problems to get some smaller amounts of beer I’ve had that problem in Bavaria once. It was really crowded and they ran out of small glases. At normal business hours you should get a small one. But there is one problem: they have to sell everything in glases marked with a line indicating the volume of the glas (Eichstrich). And if they just don’t have 0.3l glasses they can’t sell you that. (If you ask nicely and tell them you are a journalist for a international beer magazine they will )

Have a nice stay!
Prost!

As for the only-selling-large-measures – I was just interested as to whether there was a legal backing for this. For example, when we were in France last autumn, the French government had produced a handy leaflet for British rugby world cup tourists, explaining lots of interesting rules, such as the fact that it is illegal to refuse to give you tap water or sell you a smaller measure.

For Bamberg, a trip to Nurnberg is easy and for me, worthwhile for nicely restored buildings, a very good atmosphere and some quite decent beer. From Bamberg itself, get a bus map and/or hire a bike and check out the Franconia Beer Guide site for all you need to know about where the breweries are and how to get there. Link on my blog site.

You have already committed the main cultural faux pas with your stammtisch caper – incidentally apart from a sign (obvious) – other less obvious clues are the only free table in a packed place, the only table with or without a tablecloth, the table to which the staff retreat for a sit down etc.

In my umpteen visits to Germany, apart from the odd place that just sells litres or half litres only and you can usually spot it before you purchase/order, I have never come across a reluctance to serve small beers otherwise. You just have to accept it’s their rules. Don’t like it? Go elsewhere.

There are other things that are difficult though not impossible. These include getting the beer in the kind of glass you’d like rather than the one they like. (I don’t like handled glasses, no matter what the beer.) Usually it is because it is the only glassware they have.

Anyway, I’m off there in August for two weeks to the Allgau. Can’t wait!

Enjoy your trip, I’m jealous already.

Neder’s brewery tap just has Export. A really lovely beer, especially served like it is there, straight out of the cask.

I stopped off in Mainz during the World Cup and I really liked the place, and it seemed handy as a base for exploring the Rhine. I remember the brewpub as having a rather tasty dark beer. It’ll be interesting to go again.

We had some Neder “Schwarze Anna” in one of the Landbierparadies in Nuremberg, and loved it, so Forchheim is definitely on the agenda.