Well, it's no secret that we like to indulge in the occasional delicious beer around these parts. What's better after a long stressful week (or day!) than a nice cold one with friends, music, and good conversation? This is not a new practice by any means, people have been doing it as long as people have known the magic of fermentation, and have been producing it since at least as far back as the 5th millenium BC. In fact, back when water still presented a danger in Europe, people brewed beer as their primary form of hydration in the form of small beer (with big beer at night ;). Check it out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_beer
Men, women, children, people of all classes, all drinking beer all day, at least in places where grapes were not readily available for wine. Crazy? True story. In the country people brewed their own, in the cities the brewers were important and often wealthy craftsmen, and it was quite common for monasteries to brew beer as well. Many of the oldest existing breweries have monastic origins. Some sources might suggest that people did drink water too, but that is not what we're talking about right now.
One of the things we love about German beer is that they've actually maintained a law since 1516 ensuring purity standards, so you know that there are no unwanted chemicals or additives in your beer. It's just beer and the ingredients that should go in it. How cool is that?! Germany is also one of the major opponents of genetically modified food in Europe, with the EU already having one of the most stringent GMO regulations in the world (again, backing this up with Wikipedia... that's valid, right?). Plus, if you've ever seen the water flowing down from the Alps in Bavaria, you know why the beer is so tasty! Pure, delicious beer.
We happen to have an amazing selection of German beer at our disposal via the amazing Vendome down the street, where we can pick up a couple of half-litres at a time to share and sample. And we've noticed in our "research" that many breweries claim to be the oldest.... The oldest in Munich, the oldest in Bavaria, the oldest in Germany. And we've been wondering, here at the Ms. Schnitzel tasting room, which really IS the oldest?
Take the lovely at the top - the Augustiner Bräu Edelstoff - we really loved this beer. It was light like a lager, a Helles Lager to be exact, but had a bit of the flavor of a hefeweizen - very smooth, a hint of citrus or something sweet, no bitter aftertaste. Refreshing, oh so tasty, one of our faves. Is this really the oldest in Munich, as the packaging brazenly claims?
So if you're a history nerd and love beer, this is the post for you!
Weihenstephaner - Yay! We love this brewery, the hefeweizen is really what made Jen begin to love beer! This is in fact the oldest brewery in Germany, actually the oldest existing brewery in the world, tracing its monastic roots to 768. The monastery was originally dedicated to St. Vitus, hence the shout out with their very strong, might we warn you, Weihenstephaner Vitus. Later it was dedicated to St. Stephen, and so the name of the brewery. The brewery was licensed in 1040 by the City of Freising, which is the founding date claimed by the modern brewery. If you haven't tried any of their beers yet... Well, you haven't really lived, have you.
So that answers the question of the oldest brewery in Germany, and apparently Bavaria. So what's up with Augustiner's claim to being the oldest brewery in Munich? Well, Weihenstephaner is actually about 25 miles outside of town. So Augustiner is actually Munich proper's oldest brewery, dating back to 1328. That's still pretty old.
Weltenburg, which we have yet to try, was actually founded in 1050 - so not far behind Weihenstephaner - while Gaffel (1302), Franziskaner (1363) and Spaten (1397) are formidable institutions as well. We know we love Weihenstephaner, Augustiner, Franziskaner, and Spaten, bring on the Weltenburg and Gaffel! So now you know what we'll be looking for next.
Prost!
