Region & History

Anyone ordering a beer in Coburg is drinking in a town that didn't even belong to Bavaria until 1920. For centuries, the Coburg region was Wettin territory, later the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg, and looked toward Thuringia. Only after a referendum in November 1919 did it join Bavaria, with the union taking effect on 1 July 1920.

This had consequences for beer. Thuringia had its own brewing regulations, some of them older: Weimar issued rules on ingredients in 1348 and Weißensee in 1434, long before the Bavarian state ordinance was drawn up in Ingolstadt in 1516. With the union, Bavarian law took hold in Coburg, under which even top-fermented beer must do without sugar.

In the 19th century, the town grew into a ducal residence with its own brewing industry. Coburger Bierbrauerei AG was founded in 1858, registered in 1863, and went on to acquire several smaller breweries in Coburg and the surrounding villages by 1940. Of the many beer cellars that once dotted the town's outskirts, from Coburger Hofbräu to Adamiberg, hardly anything remains today.

How many breweries still operate in the district depends on who's counting. One survey lists seven. In the town itself, Brauhaus zu Coburg does most of the brewing, while family businesses carry on in the Itzgrund and surrounding villages: Brauerei Schleicher traces its roots to 1880, and Brauerei Scharpf in Heilgersdorf to 1805.

Coburg beer has no EU designation of origin of its own. It falls under Bayerisches Bier, which has been registered as a protected geographical indication since 2001.