Exploring Bavaria’s tradition of beer

Nowhere in Bavaria is the local art of beer brewing more multifaceted than here, in the most historical city on the River Isar. The earliest written sources of brewing in Freising are from 825. Later, in the eighteenth century, the city had 18 breweries. Today only two have survived: the privately owned Gräfliches Hofbrauhaus Freising and the state-run Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan. From the nineteenth century onwards, Freising began to build a reputation as the scientific centre of beer brewing.

Weihenstephan Hill, its university institutions and brewing courses is now world-famous. Close to this seat of brewing expertise, several Freising-based companies manufacture and export brewing equipment and machinery all over the world. And just a few kilometres outside the city are the hop fields of Hallertau, the world’s largest continuous plantation growing the “soul of the beer”. Only a short distance lies between Freising’s beer gardens and the great hop growers with their fields of lofty frames and poles. Freising combines traditional brewing and beer with characteristic Upper Bavarian hospitality. The perfect place to start exploring Bavarian beer culture!