Augustiner, Munich’s Retro-Hip Brewery

Augustiner is Munich’s retro-hip brewery. That wasn’t always the case. Until relatively recently, Augustiner-Bräu was considered a dusty old brewery. There’s no denying its age: Founded by monks in 1328, Augustiner is Munich’s oldest brewery. But conceptions of tradition change. Today, the brewery’s use of wooden barrels, its retro bottles and labels, its rejection of mass advertising, and its engagement on behalf of Munich’s architectural heritage has garnered the brewery a cult following thanks to its sense of tradition.

Augustiner attaches a high degree of importance to draught beer in wooden barrels. The Lagerbier Hell is served from wooden casks at the Augustiner Bräustuben, the Edelstoff makes a cask appearance in the warmer months at the Augustiner Keller, and the Oktoberfest beer flows from wooden barrels on the Wiesn. The brewery also malts its own grain in its historic threshing floor malt house on the brewery premises. Despite the extra effort, the folks at Augustiner are convinced that the investment in this traditional malting process is worth the return in flavour. All of this care and attention to detail takes extra time, and it adds up to a defense of brewing tradition at a time when many breweries their size look more to the bottom line.

Though considered one of Munich’s “Big 6” breweries, Augustiner-Bräu is still a relative David in a field of Goliaths. Rapid growth and expansion has long since taken a back seat to brewing tradition. It’s one of only two of the “Big 6” that hasn’t been swallowed up by a larger entity (Hofbräu, in state hands, is the other). Remarkably, the foundation that runs the brewery eschews mass advertising, preferring instead to let the quality of the beer proclaim its ethos. The foundation’s commitment to charitable work doesn’t hurt either. Nor does its decision to continue selling its beers in the stubby 500-mL bottle nicknamed the “Bauarbeiterhalbe” (construction worker’s half liter) — itself a subtle form of telegraphed marketing.

But how did we get from Augustine monks to locally beloved foundations that carry on the work of the man whose initials still grace the Augustiner logo? And who was J.W.?

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The Augustiner Brewery in Munich: Back to the Origins

If we want to understand Augustiner Bräu’s commitment to Munich’s civic brewing history and tradition, we need to embark on a journey back in time to the Middle Ages. In 1294 the first Augustine hermits arrived in Munich from Regensburg, beckoned there by Bishop Emicho of Freising and the Wittelsbach Duke Rudolf. The monks first built a chapel on the Haberfeld meadow just outside what was then the western city gate, completing their monastery complex in 1315. The outlines of their monastery complex are still visible on contemporary maps of Munich, and the chapel still stands today, even if it now serves more secular purposes as the site of the German Hunting and Fishing Museum.

As with so many venerable old German breweries, Augustiner’s founding date is an approximation at best. In the Augustiner Brauerei’s case, we have plausible documentary evidence in the form of a fire, bakers’ guild records, and a tavern. A massive fire engulfed the city in 1327, forcing the bakers’ guild to move their gathering place from the Heiliggeistspital to the Bräustüberl at the Augustiner monastery in 1328. Back then, the safe bet was that where there’s a tavern there’s a brewery.

Whatever the case, the beer brewed by the Augustine monks of Munich soon enjoyed a reputation well beyond the walls of the monastery. In return for Augustine support of the House of Wittelsbach during the Avignon Papacy (both the Holy Roman Emperor at the time and the duke of Bavaria were Wittelsbachs), the duke called upon the monks to provision the court with beer. This salutary arrangement continued right up to the time the Wittelsbachs established their own court brewery, the Hofbräuhaus im alten Hof, in 1589. But the loss of such an important customer didn’t do much harm, for then as now the beer flowing forth from the Augustine monastery was already one of the most popular in Munich.

During the secularization of ecclesiastical estates in 1803, the Augustine monastery was dissolved. The brewery fell into a state of disrepair, and its new owners decided to pack up the kettles and move to a new building a few hundred meters away in the direction of Karlsplatz. In 1829, Anton and Maria Theresa Wagner acquired the Augustiner, ushering in the Wagner era of ownership that has continued in slightly altered form to the present.

After Anton passed away, Maria Theresa acquired a cellar in 1857 in what was then the industrial outskirts of the city near the Oktoberfest grounds. As demand for Augustiner beer outstripped the capacity of the brewery on Neuhauser Strasse, Anton and Maria’s son Joseph (1809–1900) began the long process between 1884 and 1890 of building a state-of-the-art industrial-sized brewery at the Landsberger site. The old location remained a tavern and restaurant, and is the current site of the Augustiner Stammhaus. The brewery flourished under Joseph Wagner’s leadership, his significance immortalized by his initials on the Augustiner logo. Though the brewhouse has been updated over the years, the brewery itself still stands at this location today, a monument to nineteenth-century industry and technology.

The Augustiner Today: Augustiner-Bräu Wagner KG

The Augustiner remains in private hands thanks to the energy of Ferdinand Schmid. Schmid was regarded as the “patron saint” of Munich beer, not only for his defense of Bavaria’s brewing tradition, but for convincing Edith Haberland-Wagner, the last direct heir of Joseph Wagner, to establish a foundation to run the brewery prior to her passing.

When Joseph Wagner’s grandson Rudolf died in 1981 without heirs and a will, ownership passed to a community of heirs consisting of Wagner’s cousin Haberland-Wagner (granddaughter of Joseph) as majority stakeholder, along with an assortment of other cousins. On the advice of Schmid, who was both a shareholder and the managing director of the brewery, Haberland-Wagner established the non-profit Edith Haberland-Wagner Foundation, to which she bequeathed her majority shareholding. The maintenance of the historic brewery and its own malting facility are also stipulated in the foundation documents. Schmid was appointed head of the Edith Haberland-Wagner Foundation, which holds a 51% ownership stake in the brewery.

Shortly before passing on, Schmid arranged for Catherine Demeter, a seventh-generation member of the extended founding Wagner family, to take the reins. Under Schmid and Demeter, the aim of the foundation has been to resist the trends that have swallowed other large and mid-sized breweries. Instead of pouring money into advertising, they put their energy and resources into upholding traditional brewing methods. The remainder of their resources are dedicated to a range of civic initiatives, from support for senior citizens to charity work, from architectural heritage preservation around Munich to protection of the environment — the kinds of initiatives that have secured Augustiner the well-being of a vast swath of Munich’s beer drinkers.

Where To Drink Augustiner

Augustiner Stammhaus (Neuhauser Str. 27).

Located in one of Munich’s last remaining examples of Jugendstil architecture, “Zum Augustiner” (as it’s known locally) is arguably one of the most splendid drinking venues in all of Munich. One door off the main entrance opens onto to an ornate restaurant that leads to an Italianate arcade garden surrounded by frescoes. The other door off the main entrance leads to a more standard beer hall ringed with low ceilinged nooks and crannies seemingly tailored for deep philosophical discussions. The building served as the location of the Augustiner brewery from 1817 to 1884 before its transformation into a magnificent “beer palace” in 1896/1897 by the renowned Munich architect Emmanuel von Seidl. Crowned by a steel-and-glass cupula and bathed in natural light, Seidl’s opulent Muschelsaal decorated with seashells has lost none of its charm.

Augustiner Bräustuben (Landsberger Str. 19).

The Augustiner Bräustuben is both a beerhall exuding Gemütlichkeit and current location of the Augustiner-Bräu brewery. It’s a classic beer hall with character to spare, more down-home than other beerhalls in the city. And no wonder it has a rustic feel. This lively and sometimes raucous drinking establishment occupies what was once the brewery’s stable for its dray horses. Transformed from barn to beerhall in the mid-1990s, the green cast-iron columns and orange-brick vaulted ceilings of the building recall both the shape of the stable and the industrial architecture of the nineteenth century. Post-equine touches such as the gleaming copper kettle repurposed as a bar leaves no doubt about what you should order once you find a seat. The Lagerbier Hell here is served from a wooden cask, which makes the place popular with beer aficionados.

Augustiner-Keller (Arnulfstrasse. 52, 80335 Munich).

One of Munich’s quintessential beer gardens, Joseph Wagner acquired both the brewery and the surrounding property in 1862. At the time, only the small horse shoe-shaped area above the cellar was planted with trees, while the rest of the site was a meadow. Wagner went on a foresting spree, and now over a hundred stately chestnut trees cast their shade over a space large enough for 5000 beer garden aficionados. The combination of beer garden ambience and stellar cask-conditioned Augustiner Edelstoff doesn’t get any better than this. On warm, sunny days, take a seat in the beer garden oasis in the middle of the city and forget the hustle and bustle of the city passing by just beyond the outer reaches of the garden. If a storm happens to be rolling through, head inside to the traditional beerhall, which culminates in a stage at the front for Lederhosen-clad musicians performing oompah band classics. Both the beer garden and the beer hall are boisterous in that uplifting kind of way. The food is on point, too.

Augustiner Bräu’s Beers

Lagerbier Hell: Known affectionately as “Grüner August” due to its green label, which has remained unchanged for several decades. Soft, elegant, with a hint of honey-graham cracker sweetness and hops with a suggestion of spice in the background, all rounded out by a country-bread richness.

Edelstoff: A helles-hued Export beer with a slightly higher starting gravity than the Lagerbier Hell (12.7ºP to the Lagerbier’s 11.5ºP). It’s also slightly more potent. What this all translates into is more honeyed malt sweetness and a bit more weight and richness on the palate. One of my personal faves from Augustiner.

Pils: Crystal clear gold and effervescent, its crisp, clean finish, slender body, and complex hop-forward aromas of pepper, herbs, and spice will have you ordering another glass before you’re done the first.

Weißbier: Creamy and rich, the aromas and flavours of this honey-beige Weizen are like a cross between banana custard with a sprinkling of light brown sugar and creamed butter with cloves over country bread.

Maximator: Deeply hued mahogany-copper beer crowned by a prodigious monk’s cap of chestnut foam. Lush aromas of malted milk and fruity dark chocolate with a suggestion of licorice and aged sake, followed by subtle but distinct spicy-herbal hop scents further into the depths. Malt-forward, with country bread, toast, and a mild caramel note tinged with dark cherry and plum. Ends with a mildly bitter flourish reminiscent of bread crust.

A Few Last Drops

Slow and steady wins the race, and the hipply retro Augustiner is right there at the finish line. Not only was Augustiner Bräu among the last of Munich’s historic breweries to move out of the cramped city center, today’s brewery ensemble is the only completely preserved Munich brewery from the nineteenth century. If the Augustiner was once perceived as a dusty relic from the past, its defense of Munich’s brewing heritage has given it a certain cachet. In the face of relentless consolidation, the notion of tradition has taken on a new meaning and urgency among contemporary drinkers. Just as it was during the days when the monks tended the kettles, the Augustiner remains a vital part of Munich’s cultural fabric.

Sources

Astrid Assél and Christian Huber, München und das Bier, 2^nd ed. (Munich, 2012).

Assél and Huber, “Bier: Historische Biertour durch Münchens Altstadt,” map (Munich, 2010).

Astrid Becker, “Zwei Schutzpatrone und ein Kultbier,” in Mir San Bier (Munich, 2013).

Augustiner Brauerei (website)

Augustiner Stammhaus (website)

Augustiner Bräustuben (website)

Edith Haberland-Wagner Stiftung

Graham Lees, Good Beer Guide to Munich and Bavaria (CAMRA, 1994).

Wiki, “Augustiner-Bräu”

All images by F.D. Hofer

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Kloster Reutberg: Magnificent Alpine Views and Beers Worth the Hike

Augsburg, Historic Beer Town on Munich’s Doorstep

Traunstein: Beer in the Foothills of the Bavarian Alps

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