The Hofbräuhaus and the Origins of Bock Beer
The Horns of a Bock-Like Dilemma
Duke Wilhelm V found himself caught between a rock and a hard place in matters of beer.
Despite the promulgation of what we now call the “Reinheitsgebot” by his forebears in 1516, and despite subsequent attempts to regulate the quality of beer in Bavaria, the regional draught was variable at best. That wasn’t the case with beer brewed in northern Germanic realms at the dawn of the early modern era. Particularly well-regarded was the rich and strong beer from Einbeck, a Hanseatic town near Hannover — so much so that the Bavarian court ordered shipments of the beer for festive occasions.
Duke Wilhelm knew a good beer when he tasted one. Yet this precursor of Bockbier from the Protestant north was problematic. First, the cost. Importing Einbeck beer across numerous customs zones meant that it arrived in Munich nearly double the price of the local beer. Wilhelm, not known for his financial acumen, faced increasing difficulties in provisioning his court with beer, especially after committing vast sums to the building of the magnificent Church of St. Michael. Supplies began to dwindle. Second, the Jesuit-educated Wilhelm understood himself to be the protector of the “one true” Catholic faith. Importing beer from lands “hostile to the faith” just wouldn’t do for this champion of the Counter Reformation.
But Wilhelm’s court and citizens were thirsty, and he hadn’t helped Munich’s beer supply by sacrificing three local breweries to the building of the Church of St. Michael. What was a pious, impecunious duke to do?
Wilhelm solved both the supply issue and the pesky problem of expensive Protestant beer by building his own brewery. On 27 September 1589, he established the Hofbräuhaus at the “Alter Hof” (old court), the Wittelsbachs’ former Munich residence. There, about two blocks removed from today’s famous Hofbräuhaus beer hall, the first brewmaster Heimeran Pongratz set to work brewing a steady flow of Braunbier, the precursor of Munich Dunkel.
Just like the dazzling Church of St. Michael, the Hofbräuhaus was a bold venture. But unlike the church, the brewery eventually generated a tidy sum of cash for the Wittelsbach dukes. In fact, the proceeds from Bockbier and (later) wheat beer helped Wilhelm’s son Duke Maximilian I exit the devastating Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) with 1.6 million guilders in the state coffers.
Of Bocks and Billy Goats
What about that beer from Einbeck I mentioned above? Despite the popular local Braunbier, people missed the strong beer imported from up north. There was such a clamour for the beer that Wilhelm’s son Maximilian I enticed a brewmaster from Einbeck, Elias Pichler, to come to Munich and brew at the Hofbräuhaus. First tapped in 1614, Pichler’s “ainpöckishes Bier” became known in the Munich dialect as “Oanbock” (Einbeck), which sounded like “ein Bock” (billy goat). The nickname stuck — hence the imagery associated to this day with Bockbier.
The Hofbräuhaus’s contemporary Maibock is a descendant of that first Bockbier brewed exclusively by the Bavarian court brewery until 1810. Nowadays, the Bavarian finance minister, in his/her capacity as the head of the Hofbräuhaus, kicks off the Bockbier season with the tapping of the first keg in late April/early May. Redolent of rich caramel yet deft on the palate, this amber-hued seasonal straddles the threshold of April showers and warm beer garden afternoons.
(This year’s Maibock-Anstich (tapping) planned for early May at the Hofbräuhaus won’t go ahead, not due to Covid, but rather as a gesture of solidarity with Munich’s sister city, Kyiv.)
***
I’ll close with a brief aside: Contrary to what many of us in North America have learned, Maibock and Heller Bock (light Bock) are not identical. The Hofbräuhaus’s Maibock is a case in point. As a matter of fact, Bavaria is brimming with Maibocks ranging in colour from burnished gold to copper-bronze, so get out and explore next time you’re in the region during late April or early May. Prost!
Sources
John P. Arnold, Origin and History of Beer and Brewing (Chicago, 1911; reprint 2005).
Astrid Assél, and Christian Huber, München und das Bier: Auf großer Biertour durch 850 Jahre Braugeschichte (Munich, 2009).
Horst D. Dornbusch, Prost! The Story of German Beer (Boulder, 1997).
Ursula Eymold, (ed.), Bier.Macht.München: 500 Jahre Münchner Reinheitsgebot in Bayern, exhibition catalogue (Münchener Stadtmuseum, 2016), especially p.148 and pp.318-323.
Rainhard Riepertinger, Evamaria Brockhoff, et. al. (eds.). Bier in Bayern, ex. cat., Haus der Bayrischen Geschichte (Regensburg, 2016).
A brief note on dates and numbers
For more on how beer helped the Wittelsbach finances, see Assél and Huber, p.53. The money figure for the Thirty Years’ War is from Tobias Schönauer, catalogue text, Bier in Bayern, ex. cat., p.158.
Assél and Huber (pp.47-49), whose work draws heavily on scholarly sources, cite the year 1589 as the founding date of the Hofbräuhaus. So, too, do the curators scholars responsible for the well-received Bier.Macht.München exhibition held at the Münchener Stadtmuseum in 2016 (see Eymold [ed.] p.148). The Hofbräuhaus website cites this date as well.
John P. Arnold’s older account (1911) differs somewhat from the narrative I’ve traced here. He states that Wilhelm V’s court chamberlain wrote to Wilhelm on 27 September 1583 advising him that it “would be useful and expedient” for the duke to build his own brewhouse to provide for the needs of his court. According to Arnold, the brewery didn’t open until eight years later, in 1591 (Arnold, p.313). Dornbusch follows Arnold in stating that the Hofbräuhaus brewed its first beer in 1591 (Dornbusch, pp.64-65). Until I’ve had a chance to view the primary sources for myself — in particular, the letter that Arnold mentions — I’ve chosen to follow the more recent literature in stating that the Hofbräuhaus was founded in 1589.
Image credits
Images by F.D. Hofer, except for:
Johann Wilhelm Preyer, Münchner Bockstillleben (1839), Münchner Stadtmuseum. Source: Ursula Eymold (ed.), Bier.Macht.München (2016), p.320.
Placard for Augustinerbräu-Bock, ca. 1910. Source: Ursula Eymold (ed.), Bier.Macht.München (2016), p.322.
Related posts
“A Heavenly Drink, Like Concentrated Sunshine”: Vienna Lager Past and Present
Where the Wild Beers Are: Brussels and Flemish Brabant
***
Love beer travel spiced up with beer culture? Subscribe to my quarterly Beerscapes Newsletter for more on the fascinating world of beer, along with travel tips about where to find the best beer experiences in Europe, North America, and beyond!
***
©2022 Franz D. Hofer and A Tempest in a Tankard. All rights reserved.
I would love to go there. Unfortunately, my one experience with Hofbrauhaus was just south of Cincinatti. I love great Sauerbraten, but this wasn’t marinaded. Almost like a slightly sweet gravy at best.
Sorry to hear about your Sauerbraten misadventures! I’ve never really been all that impressed with the “cookie cutter” versions of itself that Hofbräu opens around the world. Most of them come across as quite anodyne. The “real deal,” though touristy, is worth a visit someday.
For another perspective, take a look at this article from a few years ago:
The Beers of Martin Luther, https://faithfulreaders.com/2012/05/01/the-beers-of-martin-luther/
Sincerely,
Peter A. Ensminger
Syracuse, NY
Thanks for sharing that, Peter. Fascinating stuff! It really rounds out and gives background to what I talk about here. Prost!
I am from a town near Einbeck and was told this story a little different. From what I heard was beer an Munich so bad that they had to hire a Brewer from Einbeck to make brew something drinkable. Those feuds between the north and south have deep roots 😀
Hi Philipp,
You’re right on both counts. Indeed, beer quality in 17th-C Bavaria was variable at best, which is one of the reasons why Duke Wilhelm V built the Hofbräuhaus (partially as a means to oversee quality), and why Maximilian I had Elias Pichler brought from Einbeck to Munich (the elite missed that good, rich beer from Einbeck). As for the deep roots of those rivalries between north and south? True, indeed. I’ve seen some pretty humourous placards dating from the “Süßbierkrieg” just after WWII that don’t exactly depict the “Saupreußen” in a great light. I’ve also seen newspaper articles in which the northern Germans return the favour, calling the Bavarians a drunken and unruly lot who spend too much time rioting about beer prices. 🙂