Hops

Freising sits at the southern edge of the Hallertau, the world's largest contiguous hop-growing region. Around 17,129 hectares are under cultivation there, roughly 83 percent of Germany's total hop acreage (figures from the 2025 harvest report). The town itself isn't a hop village, but the cones for its beer grow right on its doorstep.

The Gräfliches Hofbrauhaus Freising states that its hops come from the Hallertau and its malt from Bavaria. The same holds true for the Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan, which is at home in the region, though it doesn't specify its varieties by name. Hops and Freising also share an old bond. Deliveries of hops and malt to the Bishop of Freising are documented as far back as around the year 800, according to the brewery, and beer was even paid for in hops.

In a Weißbier, the hops have to stay polite. The style calls for only about 8 to 15 bitterness units, or IBU, compared to 22 to 40 for a Pils. IBU measures how bitter a beer is. A Hefeweizen should taste of banana and clove, not resin and grass.

That's why Weißbier brewers typically use fine aroma varieties in small amounts, such as Hallertauer Mittelfrüh or Tradition, with just a few cones added early in the boil for bitterness. Aroma comes from hops added late in the boil, bitterness from hops boiled for a long time. Exactly which varieties the Freising breweries use, they don't disclose.

In the Hefeweißbier itself, the hops come through as little more than a faint savory note. To see the hop landscape, head north from Freising. At harvest time in late summer, the trellis frames tower more than six meters high. Hops as the main attraction—with pickers, seals, and a museum—belongs to the Hallertau; Freising only tells the story of what ends up in its glass.