Sam Adams made a big announcement recently about a collaboration with the world’s oldest brewery: Weihenstephan.
Over the years, BayernTrips has made several visits to the world’s oldest brewery, Weihenstephan. Weihenstephan has been operating since 1040. Yes, a few years before the Norman Invasion of England and some 450 years before Columbus set foot on American soil.
Weihenstephan actually has decent name recognition in the United States and Canada. Perhaps you have seen their Weissbier or maybe even their Helles beer for sale in your local beer store. They do produce the entire pallet of Bavarian beers, but the Weissbier makes up almost 75% of their production.
What many don’t realize is that the brewery is part of the campus of the Technical University of Munich. In fact, Weihenstephan is also famous as an agricultural university and makes commercial products like butter and milk that is often see on German tables.
But we love it for the beer. If you are flying to Munich, the brewery is less than 10 miles from Munich airport. Simply grab a cab or, if you’re a bit more adventurous, how on the public bus to Freising Bahnhof and connect to another bus that will take you to the foot of the hill where the brewery is perched.
Freising itself is worthy of a little visit, especially if you want to experience a typical Bavarian town that isn’t a huge tourist destination. We often stay at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof right downtown and within walking distance of the train station (a 40 minute ride away from downtown Munich).
Although you won’t be able to tour the brewery unless you come with a group and have registered well in advance, a visit is still worthwhile. The brewery runs a nice little gift shop with lots of neat knick-knacks and all of the bottled beer offered at the brewery.
But next door in a non-descript little building is the Bräustüberl. Upon entering, you’ll immediately see that thnis little pub has a ton of rooms and can house bunches of beer drinkers. They also have a great beergarden out front under the chestnut trees overlooking the city of Freising.
The restaurant has excellent food at reasonable prices. Since they are locate3d on the campus, they try to keep the prices lower so the students will come in. However, I typically see a lot more non-students here. Food-wise they are most famous for their Obazda - a sort of cheese spread that you eat with bread and raw onions. It’s really delicious. I usually order the Weisswurst since I’m often here earlier in the day and am enjoying a Weissbier.
We’ve started to use Weihenstephan as the ‘first stop” for many of our tour groups. This year we had a bunch of our guests arrive early in the day at Munich airport. I grabbed them and we all took the public bus to the brewery and were at the Bräustüberl when they opened at 10:00 AM. Vonia stayed at the airport and rounded up the rest of our guests as they arrived. This worked out extremely well – the early arrivals definitely liked waiting at the brewery better than waiting at the airport.