Schloßbrauerei Kaltenberg

The era of kings, nobility and the court has long been a thing of the past – at least in Germany. The last monarch swung his scepter in 1918, after which the country became a democratic republic. What remains is a series of noble families that hardly have any political function these days. Instead, the princes and princesses are businessmen or do charitable work. Luitpold Rupprecht Heinrich Prince of Bavaria, for example, studied law and today runs both the Nymphenburg porcelain factory and the König Ludwig Schloßbrauerei Kaltenberg.

A brief outline of royal beer history

Long before the current Prince of Bavaria was even born, his ancestors were already steering the brewery's fortunes. Duke Ludwig II commissioned the construction of the Fürstenfeld monastery after he had his wife executed for reasons that later turned out to be false. The castle brewery is located there today. He was also the one who brought the brewing business to Munich: in 1255 he ordered the construction of a ducal brewery and thus laid the foundation for the city's beer history. And the development of Munich into the wheat beer capital of the world is also thanks to a Wittelsbach monarch. In order to get a large mountain of debt under control, Maximilian I of Bavaria established wheat beer, which had previously been largely banned. With ducal privilege, he granted boiling rights and catapulted the beer style to the top. A positive side effect was excellent income, which brought the state budget back into balance. Another relative of the current managing director is the founder of the Oktoberfest. The occasion of the first grandiose celebration on what is now Theresienwiese was the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Another king with a strong influence was King Ludwig II, who was interested in science as well as art and music and supported the establishment of the Royal Polytechnic School in Munich. Beer research has been carried out there from the very beginning and the key figure in modern refrigeration systems, Carl Linde, presented his discoveries about the refrigeration machine during a lecture there. During all this time, the finest beer was brewed in the König Ludwig Schloßbrauerei Kaltenberg.

The best of eight centuries

However, it was Prince Luitpold of Bavaria who led the company to true success. The comprehensive modernization is thanks to his tireless efforts. The prince put his horses on dark beer, which was rather unusual at the time, and achieved great success with it. Today the brewery's range consists of a selection of hand-brewed specialties that are produced using modern technology and selected raw materials. The brewery team draws its knowledge from an incredible 800 years of brewing experience that you can taste!