Two breweries, nine hundred people
The village is a parish in its own right, with the church of Kreuzerhöhung standing in the middle of it, and a few streets of farmhouses around. There is a bus stop, a hall, and no shop worth the name. In a region where almost every village once brewed, Merkendorf kept two, and both still make beer in the building where they sell it.
Wagner, at Pointstraße 1, has brewed since 1797 and has belonged to the same family since 1919. The output is around 17,000 hectolitres a year, which makes it a substantial village brewery rather than a hobby: lorries leave for the region most mornings. The taproom is a few steps from the kettle, and the beer garden behind the house sits under old trees, with a playground beside it.
Hummel, at Lindenstraße 9, is the older of the two and the smaller. Beer has been brewed on the estate since 1556; the family bought it in 1846 and is now in the seventh generation. There is a Gastwirtschaft, a Bräustübla for about eighteen people, and a beer garden for the summer. It closes on Tuesdays, which is worth knowing before you get on a bus.
The village year
Two dates organise the year. Wagner's Kirchweih falls on the second Sunday after Assumption, in late August, and the Bockbieranstich on the Friday before Buß- und Bettag in November, when the dark Bock goes on tap and the taproom fills with the village. Both are ordinary Franconian customs, and both are a better reason to come than any weekend in between.
The rest of the year the village is quiet. You can walk the length of it in ten minutes, past the church and the last houses, out to where the fields begin and the orchards stand in rows. There is nothing to see, which is the point: the taproom is the sight, and the beer is brewed on the other side of the wall.
Getting there and eating
Bus 917 stops at Merkendorf (Memmelsd.) Kirche, which is as central as the village gets. There is no station, and the service is thin at weekends, so check the return times before the first beer rather than after. A car makes both breweries in one afternoon easy, and the drive from Bamberg takes about fifteen minutes. From Memmelsdorf the walk over the fields takes about forty.
Food is the reason to stay past one beer. Wagner cooks Franconian roasts and Klöße from a menu that changes daily, with Leberkäse on Wednesday and fish on Friday, and serves Brotzeiten all day. Hummel does roasts, a Fleischspieß the house is known for, and its own Kellerbier alongside. Neither is a destination restaurant; both are village kitchens that happen to brew.