Food & Beer Culture

In an Innviertel inn, the dumpling is almost always on the table alongside the beer. The Innviertler Knödel is a fried dumpling made from a dough of flour, water, vegetable oil, and salt, filled with ground meat, onion, garlic, paprika, and herbs. It's meant to be no bigger than about five centimeters, so it can be eaten in a single bite.

Around Braunau, bread dough used to be the base, while in Ried and Schärding the flour-based dough won out. So each town has its own version, and every innkeeper swears by their own. The beer served alongside brings carbonation and malt sweetness, cutting through the fat left by the fried dumpling.

Meat and beer go hand in hand too. The Innviertler Bierfleisch carries the beer right in its name: during braising, malt and hops give the sauce real depth. Roast pork with dumplings and cabbage pairs just as well, since the Märzen's malty note picks up the roasted flavors.

Innkeepers are very much part of the region's beer culture. The Innviertel beer region counts 28 inns that pour beers from the local breweries. In March, it hosts Biermärz, a series of events where breweries and inns team up.

Part of that is a visit to Raschhofer in Altheim, where the Innviertler Brauturm has a balcony overlooking the landscape. It's there that it becomes clear why the region shows off its breweries so openly: here, beer is everyday life, not a special occasion. That holds true from the Krügerl at the regulars' table to the weekend brewery visit that innkeepers and the tourist board love to recommend.