(Hopfen und Malz- Gott erhalt's!)
(hop and malt - God should keep it!)
For the Romans who were used to drink almost only wine, beer was something disgusting and linked to the barbarians. Tacitus mentioned beer in his report about the Teutons. He described beer as an awful brew made of barley or wheat and very different to wine. According to the Edda (Nordic epos) wine was destined to the gods, beer was consumed by the mortals and met was drunken by the habitants of the realm of the dead. In these times, beer was brewed by women.
| history of beer | This changed when close to the turn of
the millenium monasteries were established and were spreading all over Europe.
The monks were dealing with the art of brewery. When Charlemagne became Holy Roman Emperor in 800 there were 300 monasteries
only in Bavaria and in some of them beer had been brewed for 150 years.
By paying a fee the monks could get the right to brew beer and to sell it.
Therefore some of the monasteries became successful enterprises. In 1040
the bishop of Freising gave the right to brew and sell beer to the Weihenstephan
monastery. Weihenstephan is the oldest existing brewery which is still working
today.
By the way: The clinking of glasses as a sign of trust in the Middle Ages became later a common custom. In the middle age it was not unusual to assassinate people by poisoning their drinks. Because of this people clinked their beer glasses heavily. In this procedure the beer from one class swashed into the others and one could feel be certain that there was no assassin amongst the people one was drinking with. People who did not clink their class you could not trust. Contrary this means you could only trust people you were drinking beer with. Sometimes it happened that in the brewery process something went wrong and the beer was spoiled. Even in the late Middle Ages herbs and cultic objects were put down around the brew kettles to avoid bad spirits. This superstition went that far that sometimes women were blamed for failures, they were called "Brau- oder Bierhexen" (brew- or beer witches). The last burning of a beer witch took place in 1591. The end of this superstition came through the introduction of hop. The brewery process became more safety and stabile and beer could be conserved longer. The beer was comparable in taste to our present beers. Duke Wilhelm IV. of Bavaria introduced in 1516 the "Reinheitsgebot" (purity requirement) for beer to set up a special standard and to secure safety and quality. It included that it was only allowed to use barley, hop and pure water. Yeast was not known yet. |
| beer in Passau | Today Passau is the home of five brewerys (Innstadt Brauerei, Hacklberg Brauerei, Löwenbräu, Peschl Brauerei und Andorfer Brauerei) and is therefore known as a famous place for beer. Breweries in monasteries and houses belonging to the bishops boosted especially during the barock. But brewery has a long tradition in Passau. The first historic remarks about a brewery at the so called "Kuhstein" in the Passauer Old Town were made at 1333 and the Peschel brewery has already been founded in 1259. The Innstadt brewery is mentioned in the books of the St. Johannes-Spitals The building was ‘enhalb der Innpruck’ in 1318. Today it is proved that the mentioned brewery is at the same place as today and has been there for almost 700 years. In documents it is written down that beer has been brewed in the Hacklberg brewery since 1618. There has been a brown brew house in the Ilzstadt and close to the Hackelberg castle has been the white brew house. The last prince bishop of Passau Leopold Leonhard von Thun-Hohenstein removed in 1798 the brown brew house to the white one. |
Conclusion: It is absolutely impossible here to tell everything about beer and its history in Passau. For further information please visit www.bier.de and
worked out by: Moritz Klötzner
translation by: Moritz Klötzner
(2004/19.8.2005)