Oldest Brewer(ies) Weekend Tour!

Today my friends and I started on a journey. It was to visit 4 different breweries … we figured two a day would work for us! The rough itinerary was as follows:

SATURDAY

1) Visit Weihenstephan Brewery (oldest active brewery in the world: 1040 AD).

The “German Beer Purity Law” was announced on the steps of the Weihenstephan Monastery in 1516 … We planned on stopping here for lunch at their “Braustuberl” … it was excellent! The beer for today was actually the Weihenstephaner Vitus. “Nummy … this beer is delightful.” It is a Weizenbock (a theme for the day …) and really went down smooth.

2) Visit Schlossbrau au Hallertau (brewing since 1590 AD).

(We are visiting this place because it’s in the middle of the Hallertau hops growing region.)

After a short drive, we arrived at the Schossbrau au Hallertau … we went down into their beer cellar and took the time to enjoy one of their cold brews … very nice, very smooth. They had several interesting displays set up — many incorporated hops/hops flowers. In one of the pictures below, I’m standing in front of a large wort chiller — yes!

From here, we made our way to our hotel in Kelheim (and our hotel was actually in an old brewery …). From the hotel we walked over to the next stop on our trip.
3) Visit Schneider-Weisse Brewery (oldest Wheat beer brewery in Bavaria).

This brewery in Kelheim has been brewing wheat beer since 1607 AD. This place was the highlight of the trip! We were very lucky (in the right place at the right time) and were able to tour the brewery (that will be another post). We were also trying to find some tickets to this brewery’s annual (38th actually) Aventinus Fest — this beer is their Weizen (doppel) bock. Wow! What a kick this beer had!

We were very fortunate to meet the Braumeister himself – Georg Schneider the sixth. He was a very nice man and humored us by taking a picture with us.