Region & History

How old is Nuremberg Rotbier? According to Hausbrauerei Altstadthof, the Original Nürnberger Rotbier appears around 1310 in the city's oldest book of statutes. The first written evidence of an independent Nuremberg brewing trade dates from 1303 to 1305, when the city council issued the so-called Gerstengebot (barley decree).

Beer was brewed in almost every quarter back then. By the end of the 14th century, Nuremberg had more than 40 breweries for a population of around 30,000. Anyone wanting to brew and sell beer was required, by council ordinance, to own a cellar for fermenting and storing it. This obligation gave rise to the labyrinth of passages beneath the old town.

By 1597, the city counted 35 Rotbier breweries. The number then shrank, and between roughly 1905 and 1910 Bavarian Braunbier gradually displaced Rotbier. This was a shift in taste, and it followed a political line: Nuremberg was a Free Imperial City and only became part of Bavaria in 1806, so the 1516 purity law hadn't applied here from the start.

The company cites 1672 as the founding year of what would become the Tucher brewery, when the Städtisches Weizenbräuhaus was established on what was then Waizenstraße. In 1855 the Kingdom of Bavaria sold the Royal Brewery to the Dr.-Lorenz-Tucher-Stiftung, which introduced the Tucher name. Today Tucher belongs to the Radeberger Gruppe.

Fürth has its own, shorter story. Humbser, Grüner, Geismann, Bergbräu, and Evora & Meyer — the five traditional Fürth breweries — were eventually absorbed into Tucher through mergers. Humbser, founded in 1782, closed in 2008. Grüner, founded in 1860 by the brothers Johann Heinrich and Georg Heinrich Grüner from Altdorf, stopped brewing in 1977.

Nuremberg Rotbier has no EU protected designation of origin of its own; the name is not listed in the register of protected beer names. Legally, today's Bavarian purity law applies, meaning no sugar even in top-fermented beer.