Region & History

Is there beer from Hesse? Yes, and more than the reputation of Apfelwein would suggest. Hesse is not a beer country like Franconia, but between the Main, the Lahn and the Odenwald stand breweries that have shaped their region since the 19th century.

The best known is the Licher Privatbrauerei in Lich near Gießen. Johann Heinrich Jhring founded it in 1854 on the Hardtberg, where a well and a rock cellar were on hand for cooling. In 1922 it merged with the Gambrinus-Brauerei from Butzbach, which Christian Jakob Melchior had run since 1858. Since 2004 Licher has belonged to the Bitburger Braugruppe and is considered the market leader in the state.

Frankfurt long had its own giant. Conrad Binding founded his brewery in 1870 in the old town, and eleven years later it moved to Sachsenhausen on the Sachsenhäuser Berg. Since 1953 it belonged to the Oetker group, whose beverage division is now called the Radeberger Gruppe, and in 2001 Binding took over distribution of the neighboring brand Henninger. Meanwhile the brewery site in Sachsenhausen has been given up, and the brands Binding, Henninger and Schöfferhofer are to go on being brewed at other sites within the group.

In the Odenwald, the Privat-Brauerei Schmucker in the Mossautal holds its ground, tracing its roots back to its founding year of 1780. In Darmstadt, directories list the Brauerei Grohe from 1838 and the Darmstädter Privatbrauerei from 1847, and the house brewery in the Ratskeller was established in 1989.

There is no EU protected designation of origin for Hessian beer. Among the registered German beers, none comes from Hesse. Here, as everywhere in Germany, the Bierverordnung (Beer Ordinance) applies: bottom-fermented styles consist of barley malt, hops, yeast and water.