Ambling for Beer in Oberammergau and Kloster Ettal

An Upper Bavarian Idyll

Rays of sunshine pierced the clouds above the marshlands of Murnau as the train trundled along the Loisach valley. As we dipped into the basin that cradles Oberammergau, the sun emerged in full splendour, illuminating the tusk-shaped Kofel that towers over the valley.

Oberammergau is everything you’d imagine a Bavarian alpine village to be. Chalets with carved balconies and flower boxes. A church steeple in the center of town. And mountains all around. Ettal is Oberammergau’s opposite number to the south, and home to a majestic monastery.

For the imbibingly inclined among us, there are breweries and Wirtshäuser in both villages. And for those who like wandering, both places are close enough to each other that you can traverse the distance on foot in a matter of hours.

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Oberammergau was relatively quiet on this late October morning, most of the tourist shops already shuttered for the season. Maxbräu was also closed for the day. Undaunted by this discovery, we forewent our morning beer, tightened our boots, and made straight for the monastery at Ettal. Surely we’d find some liquid sustenance there.

Local Colour in Oberammergau

Oberammergau is one of Bavaria’s more touristy destinations, due in large part to the fame the village has garnered for its Passion Play. Chalets lavishly decorated with Lüftlmalerei (wall frescoes) are also part of the village’s calling card, as is woodcarving.

The origins of the Passion Play mingle history and legend. An outbreak of the bubonic plague befell the region in 1632, claiming countless lives. The villagers vowed to perform a play depicting Christ’s suffering and death if God spared them. Legend has it that nobody in town died of the plague after that vow. The villagers kept their word, performing the passion play for the first time in 1634, and more or less every decade since.

If the Passion Play brings in the visitors once per decade, Oberammergau’s Lüftlmalerei draws a steady stream annually. Lüftlmalerei is a folk variation of Baroque-era trompe-l’oeil, its motifs ranging from biblical stories to fairy tales to scenes from everyday rural life. Particularly impressive are the ones along Etaller Strasse depicting scenes from Hansl and Gretl and Little Red Riding Hood.

Like most Bavarian towns, Oberammergau has strong ties with beer and brewing. Besides the Ammergauer Maxbräu brewery, the town boasts another connection with Bavarian beer culture. Ludwig Thoma, renowned chronicler of everyday life in Bavaria, was born here in 1867. It was Thoma who created the figure of Aloisius, the grumpy protagonist of his humourous satire, “A Munich Man in Heaven.” If you’ve been to Oktoberfest, you’ll know Aloisius as the “beer angel” floating in the rafters of the Hofbräuhaus tent, dressed in white livery and red cap and playing his harp for all eternity.

An Easy Stroll to Ettal

Your amble begins in the center of town at the Church of St. Peter and Paul, a Gothic church with a glittering baroquified interior. If you prefer breweries to churches, start at the opulent Hotel Maximilian (home of Maxbräu) next door. From there, wind your way past frescoed chalets toward the Ammer river and follow it south out of town.

After about 2 kilometers and dozens of chances to stop and drink in the splendid views of the Kofel, look left for the underpass that leads under the road to Ettal, then continue toward Ettal along a path near the roadway. This short stretch takes you past the Bärenhöhle (Bears Hollow) before banking left and up into the woods.

Once in the woods, take the Höhenweg that wraps around the monastery rather than descending straight into town. The path here is dotted with interpretive panels about regional tree species and the animals that inhabit the woods (foxes, red deer, badgers, chamois, wood grouses, among others).

Soon, visible through the trees in the valley below, there it is! — the splendid dome of the Kloster Ettal basilica framed by gentle blue-green mountain slopes.

The monastery complex is not only a place of meditation, but also one of Benedictine industriousness: a flourishing brewery and distillery, a cheese factory, a publishing house, and a hotel named after the emperor that granted the monastery its charter.

Kloster Ettal and Its Brewery

The Benedictine monastery was founded in 1330 by Ludwig the Bavarian, but its present form dates to the high Baroque. Following a fire in the mid-1700s, architects and artists orchestrated a symphony of white, gold, and coral-coloured marble crowned by a frescoed dome representing the skies opened to heaven. Ettal was already one of the Alpine region’s significant monasteries; with its Baroque rebirth, it only grew in stature as a place of pilgrimage.

Pilgrims need lodging, food, and drink, and the monks have obliged for centuries. The Klosterbrauerei Ettal was founded in 1609. Monks still helm the brewery, offering a small selection of traditional beers.[1]

Sustenance at Klosterhotel Ludwig der Bayer

Speaking of Benedictine hospitality, the Ludwig der Bayer hotel and its Bräustüberl sit directly opposite the monastery. This elegant hostelry exudes the atmosphere of times past, a mélange of Bavarian Gemütlichkeit and old-time hotel charm. Stone pillars hold aloft the Bräustüberl’s vaulted ceiling, and engravings line the wood-paneled walls. The service is friendly but formal, the guests well heeled. Unlike your traditional Wirtshaus, this isn’t the kind of place where you’d while away the afternoon drinking beer.

But beer you can still order here, and fine food, too. Even if the décor betrays no trace of the hunt, the seasonal menu does. If you’re here in autumn, order the Ragout vom Ammentaler Hirsch, a rich deer stew in a cranberry-juniper sauce. For vegetarians, the Ettaler Rösti, a dish consisting of grated and fried potatoes, comes topped with mushrooms and spinach.

Kloster Ettal’s beers pair well with the food at Ludwig der Bayer. The Kloster-Hell is a golden beer with notes of freshly baked bread drizzled with honey, flavours that complement the Rösti. A subtle but crisp bitterness accented by citrusy hops make this plush Helles the kind of beer you’d want to drink on the hotel terrace on a warm day.

The Kloster-Dunkel, an attractive bronze beer with mahogany highlights, takes it up a notch, with undertones of cocoa powder, pecans, and baking spice that enhance the dark bread and Ovaltine maltiness. What really elevates this beer is its subtle baking chocolate-like bitterness, making this a thirst-quenching beer worth the walk from Oberammergau. And it goes wonderfully with the deer ragout.

Back to Oberammergau via the Ettaler Mühle

Once you’ve settled up for your meal, follow the Notalmweg toward the mountainside, then bank right (north) along the path through the meadows until you arrive at the Ettaler Mühle, a grand old country inn next to a quaint mill on the edge of the marshlands.

Another beer in the inviting beer garden certainly wouldn’t do you any harm, especially in such a relaxing setting near the creek. Though Benediktiner Weißbier isn’t quite top shelf, its subdued honeyed maltiness, subtle clove and coriander spiciness, and banana custard with a twist of lemon is solid enough to take took the edge off your thirst.

From there it’s just shy of an hour back to Oberammergau through the Ettaler Weidmoos nature conservation area, with views of the Kofel as your beacon. The floodplain is sparse but eerily beautiful, traversed by crystal-clear springs feeding the Ammer river.

Hearty Post-Hike Fare at Zur Tini

The sun had dipped below the Kofel and the lamps of the village were starting to flicker on. We called in at Restaurant zur Tini, already bustling with families digging in to their meals and regulars chatting with friends over beers. This chalet restaurant is everything you could want from a Bavarian Wirtshaus. A green-tiled Kachelofen warms weary wanderers, while ample wood paneling and whitewashed walls make for a cheerfully bright ambiance.

And the food? Bavarian classics abound, along with less common dishes like Kasseler Ripperl, a succulent pork cutlet brined and smoked. Then there’s the Bayrische Milzwurst, a dish made from spleen. It’s much tastier than it sounds, and reminds me of Leberkäse.

The stars were shining brightly by the time we had washed down our meal with plenty of Paulaner. A quick round of schnapps, and we were on our way to the train station for the ride back to Murnau.

Odds and Ends

You could just as well take a bus between Oberammergau and Ettal, but the walk is a better way to see the landscape and work up a thirst. (Note that tours of the brewery in Ettal are available only for groups.) The 14-kilometer loop hike starts and ends in Oberammergau, the terminus of the trainline from Murnau. Oberammergau is close enough to Munich that you can visit as part of a long daytrip. Garmisch-Partinkirchen, Mittenwald, and Murnau are also nearby.

Sources

Daniela Schetar, Oberbayern (DuMont, 2015).

Kloster Ettal website (basilica and brewery).

Related Posts

Bad Reichenhall: Beer in an Upper Bavarian Spa Town

Of Zoigl and Primeval Forests: Beer Hiking in the Oberpfalz

Breweries and Beer Hikes in Murnau

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[1] The Benediktiner wheat beer you’ll see in the region and beyond is a more complex story than the local Ettal beers. Benediktiner Weißbier Ltd. is based in Ettal, but has licensed the Benediktiner brand to Bitburger, which brews the beers in Lich, a town near Frankfurt. The Benediktiner line of beers uses Ettal recipes and yeast, and Benedictine monks oversee the process — but that’s as close as the beer gets to Ettal’s ecclesiastical Alpine idyll. For more, see the Bitburger website.

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