Weihenstephaner
Bavarian State Brewery Weihenstephan
Postfach 11 55
D-85311 Freising, Germany
Tel: +49 (0)8161 5360
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Brewery
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WeihenstephanerBavarian State Brewery Weihenstephan Postfach 11 55 D-85311 Freising, Germany Tel: +49 (0)8161 5360 |
To Brewery Page |
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Brewery |
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European Breweries History: Weihenstephaner
The Bavarian State Brewery Weihenstephan. Nearly one thousand years ago it was the monastery brewery of the Benedictine monks, then the Royal Bavarian State Brewery. Today, as a regulated enterprise of the Freestate of Bavaria, it is a company run according to the precepts of private business. As the oldest existing brewery in the world, the Weihenstephaner brewery occupies an exalted site atop Weihenstephan Hill in the Bavarian city of Freising, surrounded by the comparatively still very young Weihenstephan science centre of the Technical University of Munich. Yet it is precisely this unique combination of tradition and custom, proven knowledge, and modern science, which gives the brewery its incomparable identity and permits it to brew beers of the highest quality. In 1040 beer brewing officially began at Weihenstephan. That year Abbot Arnold succeeded in obtaining from the City of Freising a licence to brew and sell beer. That was the birth of the Weihenstephan Monastery Brewery. A milestone for the art of brewing - right at the doorsteps of the Weihenstephan Monastery: in the year 1516 Duke Wilhelm II of Bavaria issued the Bavarian Beer Purity Law. From then on only barley, hops and water were to be used in Bavarian beer. He thus founded the world reputation of Bavarian and thus Weihenstephan beer. In 1852 the Central Agricultural School moved from Schleissheim to Weihenstephan - and with it the Bavarian brewing students. In 1895 the school became an academy, and was elevated in 1919 to the University for Agriculture and Brewing which was incorporated in the Technical University of Munich in 1930. Thus Weihenstephan developed into the centre of world brewing technology. A fact that did much for the outstanding reputation of the Bavarian State Brewery of Weihenstephan. The Bavarian State Brewery Weihenstephan, as the oldest brewery in the world, is today also one of the most modern. The unique combination of tradition and state-of-the-art science explains the incomparable identity of the top-quality Weihenstephan beers. Hundreds of master brewers who have learned their craft at Weihenstephan act as ambassadors, spreading this knowledge throughout the world and thus contribute to the unique reputation of the Bavarian State Brewery Weihenstephan. |