There are even more distilleries than breweries in Franconian Switzerland – there are said to be around 300, making the region one of the areas with the highest concentration of distilleries in Germany. Most are small businesses, often attached to a farm or an inn.
🍒 Fruit brandies & sloe
This tradition is rooted in centuries of fruit-growing. Single-variety spirits are distilled from plums, cherries, Williams Christ pears and Mirabelle plums. One speciality is the sloe: it is harvested only after the first frost, when it is milder, and processed into sloe brandy. Many distilleries open their doors for guided tours and tastings. Once a year, Distillery Day is also celebrated in the villages bordering the Walberla.
🥃 Distilleries
- Sponsel Distillery and Inn, Kirchehrenbach
- Blaue Maus Whisky Distillery, Neuses near Eggolsheim – Germany’s oldest single malt whisky distillery (since 1983) – fleischmann-whisky.de
- Erlwein Fine Spirits Distillery – brennerei-erlwein.com
- Die Kleinbrennerei – die-kleinbrennerei.de
- Particularly worth mentioning here is the Mollebusch, a single-variety pear brandy that is exceptionally aromatic.