"Weisse Taube" – A new beer for Bamberg
Christian Klemenz (left) and Georg Rittmayer at the site of the resistance memorial in Bamberg's Harmoniegarten.
A master brewer from Hallerndorf and the founder of the Bamberg Bierothek are restoring a historic beer brand to its former glory. The wheat beer "Weisse Taube" is back on the market after many decades. The first tapping took place on November 25th in Bamberg.
Around 1818, the "Zur weißen Taube" brewery was the largest brewery in the cathedral city. With 1,379 buckets of full-strength beer and 689 buckets of "Nachbier" (a combined annual production of almost 1,400 hectoliters), Georg Rittmayer was at the forefront of Bamberg's breweries, followed by the breweries "Zum Mondschein," "Zum Storchenpeter," and "Zum Specht." All four companies have in common that they no longer exist today. But when Georg Rittmayer from Hallerndorf recently learned that his namesake was the market leader in the cathedral city 200 years ago, the master brewer researched his ancestral lineage. It emerged that the Bamberg brewer at the time originally came from the Forchheim area, suggesting that the historic Rittmayer brewery in the World Heritage city and Rittmayer's current brewery in Hallerndorf shared common roots many centuries ago. In his attic, he even found a mug from the old Bamberg brewery with the name "Georg Rittmayer" inscribed on it. Reason enough for him to revive the historic wheat beer from the "Zur Weiße Taube" brewery. Rittmayer found a partner in the cathedral city in Christian Klemenz of the Bierothek, and together they created the new, old wheat beer "Weisse Taube," which is now available again in Bamberg.
Closely linked to the history of the "Zur Weissen Taube" brewery, which was forced to close its doors in 1917, is the fate of Bamberg's Jews and other victims of the Nazi regime. The old brewery, with its huge beer garden, where Bamberg's Theatergassen (theater alley) now stands, served as a meeting place and municipal administration for the Jewish community. The premises even housed the Jewish elementary school. After 1933, and especially after Kristallnacht, during which the Bamberg synagogue burned down, Jewish families were forcibly housed in the former inn. It served as the last "Jewish house" in Bamberg before the Jewish citizens were deported en masse to the extermination camps. Georg Rittmayer and Christian Klemenz are aware of the historical responsibility associated with the name of their revived beer. Therefore, they will donate a portion of the sales proceeds to support projects of the Bamberg Jewish community and to support the laying of further Stolpersteine in Bamberg and Hallerndorf by the Willy Aron Society.
Klemenz and Rittmayer presented their wheat beer "Weisse Taube" on Saturday, November 25, at the Bamberg Bierothek. Around 30 spontaneous and invited guests were the first to taste the new wheat beer and were thrilled. According to Rittmayer, the secret behind the recipe is the special malt blend combined with the unique fermentation process, which is based on the historical production method. The "Weisse Taube" is now available at the Bamberg Bierothek and at the Rittmayer Brewery in Hallerndorf.
Beer sommelier Markus Raupach (far right) was also invited to the tapping and was happy to have another Bamberg beer.
Text and pictures: Markus Raupach
