Regensburg, Eastern Bavaria’s Beer Hub

Just ninety minutes from Munich by train, Regensburg is an eminently walkable city where you’re never far from a brewery, beer garden, or Bierkeller. It’s also an ideal base for visiting Kloster Weltenburg and Schneider Weisse in Kelheim, and for exploring the woodlands cradling the Zoigl tradition of the Oberpfalz. Though not a beer pilgrimage site like Munich or Bamberg, Regensburg boasts nearly half a dozen breweries, a Bierkeller, and the famous Wurstlkuchl, a tiny Bratwurst house adjacent to the Stone Bridge. But it’s Regensburg’s riverside beer gardens that really shine. Both the Spitalbrauerei and Alte Linde beer gardens serve up stunning views of the cathedral, the Stone Bridge, and the medieval Altstadt — some of the best beer garden views anywhere in Germany.

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Scenic Regensburg lies at the crossroads where the Bavarian Forest meets the fertile flatlands of the Danube and the rolling hills of the Franconian Jura. The Cathedral of St. Peter’s twin spires dominate the skyline of this city crisscrossed by cobbled streets, and the Stone Bridge spanning the Danube is testament to the city’s one-time significance as a commercial hub. Built between 1135 and 1146, the Stone Bridge was a marvel of medieval engineering that opened major international trade routes between northern Europe and Venice.

Regensburg’s long history reflects two thousand years of political, economic, and religious developments from Roman Antiquity through the Middle Ages to the present. Regensburg was once the capital of Bavaria — an honour it held well into the thirteenth century — and was named Free Imperial City in 1245 in recognition of its status as a trade center. The city declined in importance after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 but maintained its regional significance as a bishopric and capital of the Oberpfalz region. Today, Regensburg is home to regional offices for companies like Siemens, and has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 2006.

UNESCO world heritage status isn’t Regensburg’s only claim to fame. Regensburg is a solid beer town, one with a long and illustrious history. Some scholars even claim that the Romans built a brewery here when they founded Regensburg as Ratisbon in the second century CE. Whatever the case, beer has flowed through Regensburg’s veins since at least the thirteenth century, when the Spitalbrauerei was founded. Regensburg is also home to Germany’s richest and last feudal aristocratic family, the princely house of Thurn und Taxis. The family made its fortune as postmasters generals running a private postal monopoly that spanned Central Europe until 1867. They also happened to brew beer. We’ll meet this illustrious family again below.

The Beers of Regensburg

Spitalbrauerei

It’s a sunny afternoon with a light breeze stirring the leaves overhead. If I close my eyes, I can imagine a bustling scene on the Stone Bridge just beyond the beer garden as merchants cart their wares across the bridge. It’s a long way from the Alps to this northernmost stretch of the Danube, and hard work hauling goods from points north to the docks in Regensburg. Still others arrive by boat from as far away as Vienna downstream, decks piled high. Noon approaches. Merchants and dock workers alike make their way to the Spitalbrauerei at the northern end of the Steinerne Brücke to quench their thirst and satiate their hunger. Some return later in the evening for more merrymaking with a view of the city across the river.

Situated in the heart of the picturesque Stadtamhof district with its colourful four-story houses, the Spitalbrauerei on the grounds of the St. Katharine Hospital has been serving up beers with city views for eight hundred years. It’s also the last in a line of Central European hospital breweries founded in the Middle Ages that served beer to the poor, the sick, and the aged. When Bishop Konrad IV established the St. Katharine Hospital in 1226, the founding documents even stipulated that hospital inhabitants and benefices were to receive beer as a nightcap.

At first, the monks brewed just enough beer to fulfill the brewery’s charter. after the Thirty Years’ War, they and the secular brewers who had joined them began selling beer to finance their charitable endeavours. To this day, you’re supporting the efforts of all five institutions under the Katharinenspital aegis when you eat and drink here: the parish church, the St. Katherine pensioner’s home, a forest, a regional archive, and, of course, the brewery and its beer garden. So bottoms up!

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Spitalbrauerei’s Helles is a superb example of the style, its hint of residual malt sweetness tempered by smooth bitterness. This classic beer garden sipper combines mild spicy hops and geraniol floral notes with freshly sliced country bread and a whiff of sulfur minerality — perfect on a warm, sunny day. The Weizen, a well-spiced affair that features clove and allspice layered over vanilla, custard, and caramel, finishes with a restrained acidity that balances the honeyed malt. The Pils is less impressive — soft and a touch buttery, and lacking that distinctive Pils crispness.

You won’t go hungry with the Spitalbrauerei’s ample food portions. The Obatzda comes with three huge dollops of luscious cheese spread accompanied by a perfectly soft and chewy pretzel, and the creamy Matjes (pickled herring) will please the pescatarians in the crowd.

Brauerei Bischofshof

Bischofhof’s courtyard garden in the shadow of Regensburg’s cathedral is the epitome of tranquility. Vine-covered trellises and colourful flowers surround the cobblestone terrace, and a few large chestnut trees provide shelter from the sun. You could do much worse than order a beer and give yourself over to contemplation of the cathedral’s ornate Gothic towers right above you.

The Hefeweizen Hell, a Weissbier with a distinctive citric zing, is a good place to start. Even if the caramelized lemon zest doesn’t quite meld with the complex herbal spice ensemble of clove, mint, and cinnamon, the beer’s unique and worth a try, especially if you’re a fan of brighter wheat beers.

Bischofhof’s Zoigl is a tasty hazy amber Kellerbier that isn’t a “true” Zoiglbier. Be that as it may, Bischofhof’s interpretation offers aromas of malted milk, Leibniz biscuits, and herbal hops reminiscent of green tea sprinkled with pepper. Malty toast and caramel notes feature on the palate, but it’s a maltiness balanced by peppery hops and a lightly piquant effervescence.

Kneitinger/Alte Linde

Brauerei Kneitinger has garnered a loyal local following as a result both of its charitable work and its beer — in particular, its Bock. And the goats. Goats, you ask? Every October, Kneitinger taps its Bock after parading a ceremonial cask through town on a cart drawn by a team of goats.

Sure, you can drink Kneitinger’s beers to your heart’s content at the “Mutterhaus” on Arnulfsplatz, but the scenery at the Alte Linde beer garden (a Kneitinger outlet) is the better choice on a fine day. It’s as if the city with its spires, medieval tower gates, and stone bridge were painted on a canvas backdrop framed by tree boughs arching overhead. This is one of Central Europe’s best beer garden views. Kneitinger’s chocolatey Dunkel Export with roasted notes of dark cocoa makes for a fine sipper while you watch the Danube flow by. The Helles is cleanly brewed if somewhat of a wallflower. As for the food? Save your appetite for the historic Wurstkuchl Bratwurst house adjacent to the Stone Bridge.

Wurstkuchl

Originally, this small building abutting the city wall served as an office during the construction of the Stone Bridge. Later, the building became an inn catering to masons working on the cathedral, sailors passing through Regensburg, and dock workers who loaded and unloaded the barges that kept commerce flowing across the Holy Roman Empire.

Today’s tavern seats a mere twenty-eight guests. The food selection beyond bratwurst is limited, but you’re really here for the bratwurst. Beers on the menu come from the Familienbrauerei Jacob in Bodenwöhr, a village deep in the woods of the Oberpfalz.

A Regensburg Footnote: Thurn und Taxis and Roggenbier

The Thurn und Taxis dynasty once presided over two renowned breweries and marketed one of the last widely available Roggenbier (rye beer) in Germany, a beer that caught the attention of the late British beer writer Michael Jackson. He wrote the following in 1998:

“The oddly-named royal family Thurn und Taxis for many years owned a well-known brewery in Regensburg, Bavaria, and a smaller one not far away in Schierling. The latter, which had its origins in a thirteenth-century convent, became known in the late 1980s for a beer made with a blend of 60 percent rye and wheat. This brew [was] intended more as a distinctive variation on a dark wheat beer […] with a bittersweet rye character. In the late 1990s, the Thurn und Taxis brewing interests were acquired by Paulaner of Munich.”

The story doesn’t end there, but let’s first take a quick step back in the history of this “oddly named” family. Back in the fifteenth century, Franz von Taxis (1459–1517) set his family on an illustrious path when Emperor Maximilian tasked him with establishing the first European postal system. The arrangement benefitted both parties handsomely, and the Thurn und Taxis dynasty eventually grew incredibly wealthy off of their postal monopoly.

The Thurn und Taxis family lost its postal monopoly when the Free Imperial City of Regensburg become part of the Kingdom of Bavaria. As compensation, King Max I Joseph (the same Max who influenced the history of beer gardens) ceded the former Benedictine monastery of St. Emmeram in Regensburg to Prince Karl Alexander von Thurn und Taxis in 1812. With the castle came the erstwhile monastery brewery of St. Emmeram, the first of many the family acquired over the course of the nineteenth century.

Fast forward to the 1990s, a decade when the Thurn und Taxis’ profligate spending caught up to them. When the succinctly named Prince Johannes Baptista de Jesus Maria Louis Miguel Friedrich Bonifaxius Lamoral, the 11^th Prince von Thurn und Taxis, Prince zu Buchenau and Krotoszyn, Duke zu Wörth und Donaustauf died, his young widow Princess Gloria discovered a mountain of debt. She began selling off family possessions, including the breweries. Kuchlbauer took possession of Schierlinger in 1996, and Paulaner acquired the Regensburg brewery and the rights to the Thurn und Taxis label in 1997.

The Thurn und Taxis label is still headquartered in Regensburg, but the brand no longer has any connection with the Thurn und Taxis dynasty, nor with the Brauhaus am Schloss, the tavern on the grounds of the Thurn and Taxis familial castle.

As for that Roggenbier? For a time in the 2000s, Paulaner brewed the Roggenbier under its own name, eventually ceasing production entirely in the 2010s. At a time when craft brewers the world over strive to revive historical styles, it’s rather perplexing that Roggenbier has all but faded away. Perhaps it’s time to start convincing German brewers to revive the style.

Sources

Spitalbrauerei and St. Katharina Hospital: https://www.spitalbrauerei.de/

Wurstkuchl: https://www.wurstkuchl.de/

Thurn und Taxis history: https://www.thurnundtaxisbiere.de/brauerei/historie-des-hauses

Susanne Wiedemann, “Das Schatzkästchen aus der Römerzeit,” Mittelbayrische (19 September 2014).

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All photos by Franz D. Hofer

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