Region & History

Broyhan is the oldest claim to fame of Hannover beer. The brewer Cord Broyhan is said to have brewed a new, light-brown, top-fermented beer on May 31, 1526, which became the city's export hit and made him a wealthy man.

Twenty years later, in 1546, Hannover's brewers founded their own guild. According to the city, every bottle from the Gilde Brauerei still carries the Broyhan-Taler to this day. In 1609, the council recognized the brewers' guild as its own legal entity, and over the centuries the guild grew into a company that has been brewing on Hildesheimer Straße since 1870.

Braunschweig tells a different story. Mumme first appears in a city account from 1390, a dark, malt-rich beer that traveled via Bremen, Hamburg, and Lübeck all the way to Scandinavia, England, Flanders, and Russia. The claim that a brewer named Christian Mumme invented it was largely debunked as legend by historian Heinrich Mack in 1911.

The Wolters brewery traces its origins back to June 19, 1627, when Mayor Zacharias Boiling married into the "Haus zur Hanse" and took over its brewing rights. The name Wolters has been used since 1734, and in 1882 the title Herzogliches Hofbrauhaus (Ducal Court Brewery) was added.

The more recent history is one of acquisitions. In 1985, Gilde acquired a majority stake in Wolters; in 2003, Interbrew, today AB InBev, bought Gilde. According to press reports, the Hofbrauhaus now belongs to Volksbank BraWo. On June 19, 2026, Wolters filed for self-administered insolvency proceedings; according to the company, brewing continues during the restructuring. No beer in this region holds EU-protected status like Kölsch or Dortmunder Bier.