Brewrey tavern Schlenkerla: Family line

Brewing and building history of Schlenkerla

The historic smoked beer brewery Schlenkerla has a long and eventful history. In addition to the old records on the estate in Dominikanerstraße 6 there are also brew-historically significant documents on Oberer Stephansberg 27-35, where still today the Smokebeer matures in the deep rock cellars.

Important Schlenkerla years since the 14th century:

1387	first documentation of the estate on Oberer Stephansberg 27/29, where still today the historic lagerings are situated in rock cellars. Already in that year it was owned by a brewer named "Eberlein Breu"
1405	first documentation of the Schlenkerla building as "house of the blue lion"
1485	first documentation of coopers and hence presumable also brewers in Dominikanerstraße 6 (cooper and brewer were usually synonimously used in Bamberg, since barrel making was THE key technology for beer making)
1538	Asmus Schneider is patron and cooper, and therefore also brewer in the "House of the blue lion"
1678	relativly short after the 30 year war coopers and brewers are again owners in Dominikanerstraße 6, which is now called "Brewery of the blue lion"
1767	Johann Wolfgang Heller is the owner as cooper and brewer and changes the name to "Brewery Heller". His family will operate the brewery for 6 generations in direct family line.
1866	The first generation of the Graser/Trum family runs the Brewery Heller: Konrad Graser. Before, Konrad was the "Bräu" in the Michaelsberg brewery, Bambergs oldest brewery (first brewing right from 1154). His son Andreas (the one with the limbing walk) will be the patron thanks to whom the Heller-Bräu receives the additional name "Schlenkerla"

The newer and hence in more detail documented brewing and building history from the 20th century onwards:

Year	Event
1920er	Schlenkerla beer cellar (i.e. beer garden) is closed, as were almost all other Bamberg beer gardens due to the economic decline after World War I
1926	lease and restoration of the Dominikanerklause
1930er	a new brewhouse is constructed on part of the site of the former beer garden
1958	building of new malt silos
1959	building of a depo for beech wood logs
1960	purchase of the Dominikanerklause together with the "house under the storks"
1962	new germination boxes
1963	new lagering tanks for the historic cellars underneath the Schlenkerla brewery
1964	new machinery for bottling
1964	opening of the Bamberg room
1965	new main fermentation facility
1966	purchase of the former sick bay building of the Bamberg dominican monastery
1972	construction of barley and malt silos
1974	new toilet facilities and a new kitchen for the brewery tavern
1979	modernisation of the brewhouse
1988	modernisation of the main fermentation
2006	measure of the cellars underneath Schlenkerla reveals, that they are in part from 12th century
2007	opening of the Schlenkerla beer garden in the former yard of the dominican monastery
2008	new lagering vessels for the historic cellars underneath Schlenkerla brewery
2009	new toilet facilities for the brewery tavern
2010	new kitchen for the brewery tavern
2010	opening of the Ulanenzimmer
2011	restoration of the historic ceiling painting in the Dominikenerklause
2011	new machinery for cleansing of wooden barrels and cleansing plus filling of metal kegs
2012	separate main top fermentation for Schlenkerla wheat
2012	new filtering cellar ein neuer Filterkeller
2013	restoration of the Schlenkerla facade
2014	new lagering vessels for the historic cellars underneath Schlenkerla brewery
2015	the gallery of ancestral portraits and the historic "Lüsterweibla" are restored
2016	new fermenting vessels and a yeast management system
2018	new pressure tanks and a new automatic bottle inspector for the filling line
2019- 2023	Renovation of the in 2017 acquired brewery adjacent building: The former rock cellar and access building of the "King Bishops Brown Beer House" from 18th century. The long sand stone stair way to the cellars is again laid open, as it was at a time when beer was transported only in wooden barrel by so called "Schröter".
2023	for the first time solar panels on the brewery roof on Oberer Stephansberg
2024	additional rock cellars underneath the Schlenkerla brewery are (re)activated: relocation of the germination boxes into the natural coolness of the rock and additional lagering vessels.