Visited on: Saturday 28th July 2018
Bob Thompson
This was the third visit of the day to a small village brewery in Oberfranken (Upper Franconia). I travelling with a group in a chartered coach. The reason being that in this area public transport is almost non-existent.
The hamlet of Steinfeld in located on the main road from Bamberg to Hollfeld, the A22. Those in the know will stop here, the rest just drive through. The reason to tarry awhile here stop here is the Brauerei Hübner with its lovely gastätte and biergarten.
The brewery was founded in 1720 and is has been in family ownership since 1820 with the Hübner family being in control since 1904.
There is a church, a bakery and another pub (selling Grasser-Huppendorfer beer) but that’s all in this hamlet. However, it is well known to discerning drinkers around the district.
In part this was due to the presence of Otto Hübner, a well known character who was in charge of the brewery until 2003. In fact the beer is still referred to as Otto-bier. His nephew Thomas Will is now in charge.
As we approached the brewery we could see that the production buildings were on the left side of the road.
In front was a steeply cobbled road. Turning into this we found the pub further up on the left with the biergarten between it and the main road.
The gastätte we found to be very traditional and had one main room and there seemed to be others not in use at that time.
Our party ate here. There is a very basic menu available yet the quality was very high. The centrepiece of this are the cold meats and cheeses, some of them home-made.
These cold cuts are known as Brotzeit (bread time) as they are served with traditional brown bread. Several were home-made, such as dosenfleisch (pressed pork); Göttinger (smoked sausage); sülze (brawn) and pressack (black pudding). There were two types of ham and salami. Cheeses were Limburger, Emmental and a local soft cheese.
Hot food was mainly sausages. The bratwurst was home-made although Wienla (Vienna) came from the local butcher as did the Leberkäse (pan fried pork meatloaf).
You could also have two fried eggs with pan fried potatoes. On Wednesdays from 11.00, they offer a half chicken and on Fridays from 17.00, pizza.
There is just one draught beer in the pub and that is Helles Vollbier (5.1%) and it was very good. However there are several seasonal offerings such as Kerwa Festbier (5.5%) for the festival of the village’s church re-dedication; Jubilaümsbier (5.0%), a dark unfiltered lager for Lent and Easter; Helles Bockbier (6.7%). for Christmas and New Year.
Finally there is Festbier (5.0%), which I guess is for the Autumn. All of their beers are available in bottle at the pub and all around the area in many supermarkets.
Just another great village pub and brewery in this beeriest area of the world. It has a great biergarten which is open from May to September. Don’t be deterred by the single draught beer because it is very good.
Important Information:
Hübner Bräu, Steinfeld 69 96187 Stadelhofen. Tel: 09207 259. Web: huebner-braeu.de
Hours: Monday-Wednesday/Friday-Saturday: 10.00-23.00; Sunday and Holidays: 10.00-12.00/13.30-23.00;
Thursday: Closed. Except for Thursdays January-March when it’s open for a “pigeon market”.
Presumably this refers to racing pigeons. When this occurs they are closed on Friday.