Raw Materials used in Weihenstephan Beer

Only the best ingredients find their way to Weihenstephan and are refined by the experienced hands of our master brewers into something extraordinary: our beer.
Here we should mention that the Beer Purity Law of 1516 remains as the foundation of all our actions. Hops, barley, water and yeast - and nothing more goes into our bottles or barrels. We make sure of that through quality control!

Hops

Naturally only the best hops are good enough for us, and we find them north of Weihenstephan in Hallertau. Here in the largest hop-growing area in the world, hundreds of years of experience have taught the growers the complicated art of raising hops. Our master brewers travel there to judge in person the freshly harvested hop umbels and to decide whether they meet the standards of Weihenstephan.

Barley

"Malt is the soul of beer" is a saying among brewers. Its quality and type determine almost all the characteristics of the 'barley-water': colour, aroma and taste. Our first-class grain comes from Bavarian cultivation and it is processed into first-class brewer's malt in first-class malt factories according to our specifications. However before the brewer's malt reaches the brewery, it is of course checked again - by experts of the Bavarian Control and Testing Centre at Weihenstephan.

Water

Not all water is suitable for brewing. It has to be soft - containing only small amounts of salts, gypsum and calcium - and must be of drinking-water quality. Our brewing water, which we get from deep wells in a marsh landscape, fulfils these requirements, even before it reaches the brewery. Nevertheless, the water quality is monitored strictly. After all we are well aware of our responsibility to our customers.

Yeast

We culture our top-fermenting and bottom-fermenting yeast in our brewery's own systems. That way we can be sure that we always have fresh, pure-culture yeast of the highest quality. The yeast strains from which we grow our brewing yeast are stored in the yeast bank at the Technical University of Weihenstephan where they are monitored constantly. After all we don't want to leave anything to chance.