Introduction
I was asked in a podcast last year about my favourite beery destination. The answer came quickly: Belgium. My last two blogs were tributes to Bruges and Ghent accordingly.
However, in the last few months we have completed two trips that, although very different in both beer style and drinking culture, match Belgium for a beer experience. So here is the first of two blogs exploring Bavaria.
Each trip was easy and inexpensive. We’ve short-changed the culture somewhat by focusing on a whistle-stop beer itinerary, although we did include a few non-beery highlights along the way. Hopefully this might prompt a visit.
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This first part covers Munich and its surroundings in Upper Bavaria (Oberbayern in German) which, somewhat unintuitively, is actually in the south of Bavaria, with a brief excursion into Swabia to visit Augsburg.
Bavaria is the largest German state by area but only the second largest by population, so outside the main settlements it retains a distinctly rural feel.
An easy flight from Bristol to Munich Airport was followed by an equally easy drive to the beautiful small town of Erding and the Erdinger Brewery Hotel. It proved to be a well-presented place to stay with an excellent restaurant and a full card of beers.
At this point it’s worth explaining something about the itinerary. In the UK a brewery visit inevitably means a guided tour of the plumbing. Mrs TH was rather pleased that during this week we were presented with very little stainless steel at all. Instead, each brewery offered a braustubl.
A braustubl translates roughly as “beer room” – essentially a brewery tavern offering not only fresh beer but a hearty menu to accompany it. Often located in a cellar, sometimes with outdoor seating and, as far as we could tell, always open.
Erding to Tegernsee
After a short morning walk around Erding – without visiting Therme Erding, the largest spa complex in the world (naked beer anyone?) – we set off south for lunch in Aying.
Aying is a small town of ornate wooden houses and home to the Ayinger brewery. This was another theme of the visit: each small Bavarian town seems to boast its own brewery.
We enjoyed a good lunch with an Ayinger Ur-Dunkel before heading back to the car and on to Kloster Reutberg.
Kloster Reutberg is an active monastery set on a hill overlooking the mountains of the Austrian Tyrol. Expecting a quiet Monday, we were surprised to find both the large restaurant and a separate taproom busy. We settled into the latter in the middle of what appeared to be a leaving party for one of the monks – although we didn’t quite follow the German.
Kloster Reutberg beers are regulars at Beer Park, with their Helles, Märzen and Josefi Bock appearing from time to time. Looking for something slightly different, we opted for Aegidus Trunk, a beer approaching dunkel in style – and one that turned up in Llanelli about a month after we returned.
The final stop of the day was Tegernsee, a small town on the edge of a large lake with an impressive twin-towered brewery housed in an old monastery. The braustubl consisted of several large vaulted rooms plus outdoor seating for a few hundred people overlooking the lake.
Tegernsee is also a Beer Park mainstay with its Helles, Dunkel, Spezial and Max Joseph beers, and it is increasingly appearing in craft bars thanks to its distinctive ceramic beer fonts. Apart from a guest Schneider Weisse, the brewery offered much the same range we see at home, but two courses for two people plus beer came to around €60. The affordability of both food and drink proved to be a welcome theme throughout our stay.
Andechs and Augsburg
After a boat trip around the lake the following morning we set off for Andechs, spotting the hilltop monastery as we approached the village.
Once again this is an active monastery brewery. The braustubl seats several hundred people and has something of a canteen feel, although the service is impressively efficient. A pig’s knuckle and a pretzel – both roughly the size of your head – soon appeared on the table (see photograph: for scale, that glass is a full pint).
At this point it’s worth mentioning that the food offering in most breweries didn’t deviate much from traditional Bavarian fare: pork, cabbage, bread dumplings and potatoes. Rennies are therefore advised.
We were staying overnight in Augsburg but first wanted to visit the König Ludwig Weissbier brewery at its home in Kaltenberg Castle. Unfortunately some sloppy sat-nav use took us instead to the modern König Ludwig brewery – a large factory on the edge of Fürstenfeldbruck several miles away.
Augsburg proved a rewarding stop: a fairly large but attractive town with historical connections to Martin Luther and Jacob Fugger, medieval Europe’s richest man.
The evening began in the Rathauskeller beneath the town hall – actually a huge and rather fancy bar – drinking locally brewed Riegele beer. This was followed by a walk to the Thorbräu brewery tap and a late-night game of cards in the beer garden.
Weihenstephan and Munich
The following day included an unmissable stop at Freising to visit Weihenstephan, brewing since 1040 and widely regarded as the world’s oldest brewery.
Originally a monastery brewery, its formal title today is Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan as it is owned by the Bavarian State. Nationalised breweries – interesting!
After stocking up on merchandise we enjoyed a light lunch accompanied by a Vitus Weizenbock before returning the car at the airport and heading into Munich.
Munich is, of course, renowned as a beer destination, most famously for Oktoberfest. I’ve already written a blog on the world’s largest beer festival so won’t add more here.
Six Munich breweries are allowed to serve at the festival, so here’s a rundown of their taps along with a few bonus stops.
Munich’s Hofbrauhaus
Our first stop was the renowned Hofbräuhaus, home of Hofbräu beer. The brewery opened nearby in 1589 while the current tavern dates from 1828. Like several Bavarian breweries, it is owned by the Bavarian State.
This vast pillared beer hall witnessed the appointment of Adolf Hitler as leader of the Nazi Party in 1921 and was later restored after heavy damage during the Second World War.
The Hofbräuhaus can accommodate 3,500 drinkers across three floors and serves more than 20,000 customers each week. The ground floor hall alone holds 1,500 people, so although it was busy each time we visited we always managed to find a seat.
It’s peak Bavaria: a house oompah band (mercifully playing only in short bursts), roaming pretzel sellers and an excellent beer and food menu. While it’s clearly a tourist attraction, plenty of regular drinkers remain – the luckiest retrieving their personal krug mugs from one of 600 designated lockers.
Hoping for a Hofbräu Festbier, I was informed that the season had passed and it was now Winterzwickl time – a smooth, dark unfiltered lager.
This vast pillared beer hall witnessed the appointment of Adolf Hitler as leader of the Nazi Party in 1921 and was later restored after heavy damage during the Second World War.
The Hofbräuhaus can accommodate 3,500 drinkers across three floors and serves more than 20,000 customers each week. The ground floor hall alone holds 1,500 people, so although it was busy each time we visited we always managed to find a seat.
It’s peak Bavaria: a house oompah band (mercifully playing only in short bursts), roaming pretzel sellers and an excellent beer and food menu. While it’s clearly a tourist attraction, plenty of regular drinkers remain – the luckiest retrieving their personal krug mugs from one of 600 designated lockers.
Hoping for a Hofbräu Festbier, I was informed that the season had passed and it was now Winterzwickl time – a smooth, dark unfiltered lager.
More Munich Brewery Stops
We visited another eight brewery taps across the city, although Mrs TH took a day off to visit the excellent Pinakothek galleries, which house the Bavarian State art collections, as well as the Residenz – the former palace of the Wittelsbach dukes and later kings of Bavaria.
Most beer halls are walkable, although the occasional Uber helped as they are somewhat spread out.
Here’s a quick rundown.
Augustiner
Augustiner operates several venues. I had previously visited the cosy Augustiner Keller, although its biergarten was closed as many are between October and spring. This time I visited the brewery and tap on Landsberger Strasse where Augustiner has been brewed since 1885.
Augustiner is the oldest of Munich’s six breweries, founded as a monastery brewery in 1328. After secularisation in 1803 the Wagner family purchased the brewery and it remains independent today.
The essential order here is a stein of Lagerbier Hell, gravity-dispensed from an oak cask. Augustiner maintains the largest fleet of wooden beer casks in the world.
Löwenbräu, Spaten, Franziskaner and Hacker-Pschorr
The next stop was Löwenbräukeller, located on the site of the original Löwenbräu brewery, which has since moved and merged with Spaten and Franziskaner. Both Spaten and Franziskaner maintain their own taps nearby.
Spaten sits opposite the Opera House and Zum Franziskaner is less than a minute away. A short walk takes you to Hackerhaus, the tap for the Hacker-Pschorr brand. Hacker began brewing in the 15th century but is now part of the Paulaner group.
All four venues are worth visiting, although they have more of a restaurant atmosphere than a traditional beer hall.
Paulaner
Another monastery brewery turned industrial giant is Paulaner, now jointly owned by Heineken. I visited the Paulaner Brauhaus at Kapuzinerplatz which, although only around 40 years old, includes its own small brewery producing occasional small-batch beers. It is a pleasant enough bar.
Giesinger
A little further out is a brewery of a completely different scale and not one of the Munich “big six”, but well worth visiting. Giesinger offers a splendid range of beers with the bar overlooking the brew house.
Bonus Stops
As the largest city in Bavaria, Munich also hosts taps for other major Bavarian breweries. The Ayinger tap is opposite the Hofbräuhaus and the excellent Schneider Weisse tap is also centrally located.
Final Thoughts
Thus ended our trip. The one regret is that, as we visited in October, we missed out on the alfresco drinking opportunities offered by Bavaria’s many beer gardens. If you can visit in the summer, you’re in for an even greater treat.
The second half of our Bavarian excursions – and the next blog – takes us north to Franconia and the cities of Nuremberg, Bamberg and Bayreuth. The beer culture here is somewhat different from that of southern Bavaria but, with even more breweries and beer destinations, it may prove even more rewarding for the beer traveller.
In The Meanwhile – Enjoy German Beer at Beer Park.
Although in Dafen we will struggle to provide the braustubl experience mentioned above – we can provide the beer. As the stockist of the largest range of German beer in Wales you can choose from our rotating range of 140 different beers covering all of the breweries mentioned here.