Weihenstephan

The Bavarian state brewery, Weihenstephan, was established by Benedictine monks in Freising in 1040 as a brewing monastery. Today, it is the oldest brewery in the world.

In 1516 in nearby Ingolstadt, Duke Wilhelm IV decreed the famous Bavarian purity law, which was adopted into German law in 1916 and subsequently translated into EU law.

Since 1852, the Brauerei Weihenstephan has also played a significant role as a training centre for each new generation of beer brewers – firstly as a main agricultural college, later as an integral part of the Technischen Universität München (Munich technical university).

Consequently and in large part thanks to a marriage of tradition and future oriented research, Weihenstephan has become one of the world's most important centres where brewing is practiced as an art form.