Region & History

Anyone climbing the mountain from Lake Ammersee first sees the towers of the pilgrimage church, and only then the brewery. That's the right order, because Andechs was a place of pilgrims long before it was a place of beer. According to the monastery, the faithful have been coming to the Heiliger Berg since 1128.

Benedictines have cared for guests there since 1455. Anyone looking after many hungry and thirsty pilgrims needs beer. In 1458, Duke Albrecht III granted the monastery the Taferne zu Andechs, along with the right to serve drinks and a tax exemption in Erling, as the monastery brewery itself tells it. Pilgrim catering gradually grew into a full brewing operation.

Monastic life first came to an end in 1803, when secularization dissolved the monasteries in Bavaria. Since 1850, the mountain has belonged to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Bonifaz in Munich, and a community of monks still lives there today. That sets Andechs apart from many breweries that carry the word "Kloster" in name only.

By its own account, Klosterbrauerei Andechs is one of the few breweries owned by a living Benedictine community rather than a corporation. According to the monastery, it brews more than 100,000 hectoliters a year. That's a lot for a monastery, but modest for a major Munich brewery.

Andechs has no protected designation of origin of its own. As a Bavarian beer, it falls under the EU designation "Bayerisches Bier," registered in 2001 and applicable to breweries throughout the entire state. The Fünfseenland around Lake Ammersee and Lake Starnberg, by contrast, is excursion country without a major brewing town, and the Heiliger Berg is its most famous beer destination.