Weihenstephaner

Germany

Weihenstephaner is a Bavarian brewery based in Freising, just north of Munich, widely regarded as the world's oldest continuously operating brewery, with records of brewing at the site dating to 1040. That year, Abbot Arnold granted a brewing licence to the monastic community at Weihenstephan, a Benedictine foundation on Nährberg Hill established by Saint Corbinian and twelve companions. After centuries of monastic operation, the site became the Bavarian State Brewery Weihenstephan in 1923. Today it is owned by the Free State of Bavaria and operates in conjunction with the Technical University of Munich as a state-owned teaching brewery, producing both alcoholic and alcohol-free beers. Josef Schrädler has served as director since 2000.

Weihenstephaner brews in accordance with the Reinheitsgebot, the German Beer Purity Law, using only barley, hops and water. For its alcohol-free range, the brewery uses vacuum falling film evaporation, a dealcoholisation technique developed together with the Technical University of Munich-Weihenstephan, in which alcohol is removed from the beer through controlled evaporation under low pressure. Weihenstephaner also maintains the Hefebank Weihenstephan, a yeast culture collection, and its W-68 yeast strain is widely used in the brewing industry.

The alcohol-free range sits within a broader portfolio of over 15 Bavarian beer varieties. Weihenstephaner exports to over 60 markets and opened a €16 million logistics centre in 2019.

At a Glance