Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan

Momar42

Maryland

4.38/5  rDev -2.4%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

Finally made the bucket list trek this past weekend with a few buddies. We got there late, in the snow and it was quite cold. We opted to walk from the train station up the path in above mentioned conditions as the night fell. After finding our way up the path and to the quite massive complex that is Weihenstephan we finally found somebody that pointed us to the BeerStubel. I mention all the above to illustrate just how amazing this place really is! I would do it all, in worse conditions whenever I get a chance.

As mentioned, all their beers are available though some were poured from bottles. Many different sizes are also accomodated. All beers are served in the appropriate glassware and poured perfectly, as you would expect. The Stubel is very cozy on a cold night and while we didnt EAT the food, the sheer aroma and visually pleasing dishes spoke for themselves. We all tried everything but the Infinium which they had, it just didnt resonate enough for us to drink it. Prices were spot on for most Munich beerhalls and of note is the exstensive souvenier selection ranging from affordable to OMG how much?! All glassware were available for purchase in the range of sizes.

If you are near, you must go. If you are not near but want to go, you must go. I know I will if I ever make it back to Munich.

01-19-2013 18:47:38 | More by Momar42

DoubleJ

California

4.46/5  rDev -0.7%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 3.75 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Is this a brewery, or a university? I know that Weihenstephan has a brewing school, but I see more than just beer science studies around the campus. I came around to finding a building with crates of empty Weihenstephaner bottles, but was still lost where to find the biergarten. I felt like I was trying to find Waldo. I did find it though; walk through the restaurant and you're there! And on a warm sunny day, the setting couldn't be much better; shady biergarten, but with just enough light to penetrate through, the green rolling hills off in the view, this is the real Bavaria.

The setup is cafeteria style; you pick what food you want, and you order what beer you want. There are no table servers, so you'll need to designate someone to place beer orders. The good news was the queue for the beer is almost non-existant, and the beer menu (10 total beers - weiss, dunkleweizen, kristalweiss, lager, pils, dunkel, kellerbier, leicht weiss, Vitus, and Korbinian) is easy to read. And priced well too, at €3.30 per half-liter of hefeweizen.

I had to have a hefeweizen at the source for Round 1, fantastic. Round 2 was the dunkel lager Tradition which isn't imported in the US, another great one. With proper glassware and outstanding beer, I can't imagine the serving of the beer being much better, if at all.

By foot, it's a bit of a walk, but the beer is damn good and the environment of a sunny day healed the scars of a long walk. Not to mention you're near the front door of the world's oldest brewery.

05-10-2013 16:31:43 | More by DoubleJ

FungusBrewer

Illinois

5/5  rDev +11.4%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$$

Weihenstephan itself traces its brewing history back to 768, the yeast strand itself predating that by centuries. The location was once a forestry school turned abbey on the outskirts of the Black Forest. Now it's a solid brewery (oldest in the world), and Bierhaus. The food is Bayernish, and the beer is incredible. There were nine beers on tap when I visited, and my company ordered round the house all of them. My favorites were the "Vitus Weizenbock, and hefe-dunkel weizen's. To eat, I had the weißwurst Früstuck with senf and a brezel. What else right? Wunderbar! The Atmosphere was great, quality undeniable, service fast, selection expected, and food traditional.

You can't help but walk away feeling a bit of the educational vibe. Weihenstephan is now a renown beer school, and mecca for enthusiasts. American's, pray towards the East.

02-20-2012 02:59:50 | More by FungusBrewer

Ruds

United Kingdom (England)

4.78/5  rDev +6.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$

Spent 3 hours here on the last Sunday afternoon of November '11

Upon arrival at 2.15pm - the place was packed with groups comprised largely of families lunching, but by the time we left it was mostly empty!

There are many different rooms, probably 4 or 5 inside, plus a large beer garden that was obviously not open at this time of year

The room we chose was down a small flight of stairs and resembled a medium sized cellar

A string quartet was playing in the corner for the first hour we were there

To the business end ...

8 beers available on tap on my visit, so I set my limit at 0.3l (available on most) in order to sample as many as possible

I visited, Helles, Dunkels, Weiss, Dunkels Weiss, Korbinium, Pils, St Vitus Bock and finished by sharing a bottle of 'Infinium' the champagne beer in collaboration with Sam Adams - served by the waiter into 'Infinium' flutes, whilst the bottle rested in an iced bucket

The service was very good and they soon adapted to our pace of drinking and my 2 x 0.3l to my friends 0.5 !

The food was amongst the best I have experienced in my many trips to Germany

This day was the last of a 3 week 'game' festival, so I opted for the Game stew.
Amazing !!! Hare Hock, Roast Boar and Venison steak with dumplings and red cabbage!

Cannot recommend highly enough and will visit in the summer next time to sample the beer garden

From Munchen you can catch an RE train (23 mins) to Freising Hbf

From here it is a 15/20 minute walk or E7.50 in a cab

We got a cab back to Munchen Airport E25 which is worth knowing

12-03-2011 16:39:42 | More by Ruds

crossovert

Wisconsin

4.39/5  rDev -2.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.5 | $$

The giant brewery/university complex has one major restaurant and a biergarten.

Me and my friends sat in the biergarten overlooking the Uni. It was a Saturday night but it was relatively quiet. I had been here other times when tourbus after tourbus rolled in. There was one this day, but they sat inside. Only one of us ordered food and it came in a quick amount of time considering the extra load they had from the tour bus.

YOu simply order from a counter. There is probably 10 options. You can get pretty much everything in a Maß. I had a maß of pils, a half of dunkel, and a half of weizen. They were all excellent. They had both Vitus and Korbinian on tap which was nice.

This place is pretty nice and the beer is world class making it a must stop.

07-05-2011 17:39:17 | More by crossovert

JohnW

United Kingdom (England)

4.15/5  rDev -7.6%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $$

Freising is a great little town to visit (45 mins from Munich, same train line as to the Airport, but make sure you sit in the correct coaches, as half the train goes to the Airport, the other half splits and goes to Freising!) The Freising Dom is well worth a visit while in the town.

The Weihenstephener Brewery is a 20-30 min walk up a long incline path through the woods from the town, and the BrauStube is through the main buildings, just follow the footpath which eventually becomes a road. At time of visit (May 2009)the Beer Garden was closed due to building works. We were shown upstairs in the BrauStube to a new outdoor terrace which was upmarket and very smart. Excellent food menu at reasonable prices and the beer was very good and cheaper than in the Munich bars. Service was very good and most staff appeared to speak some English.

The "Stube" itself has several larger rooms in the usual German Beer Hall style, with good service - though they filled very quickly after opening time (maybe a Coach party ?) so probably a good idea to get there at opening time!

We enjoyed our visit here, and would certainly visit again. Pleasant return walk through the gardens and woodland back into the town with views from the hilltop.

Note that the photo shown here in BA is NOT the Braustube or Beer Garden, but the truck loading bay of the brewery, the Braustube is just around the corner!

JohnW
B'ham UK (visited May 2009)

12-16-2009 14:24:55 | More by JohnW

TheSarge

Illinois

3.9/5  rDev -13.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 5 | food: 3 | $$

I headed over here with my wife on our fifth wedding anniversary. Always wanted to visit the oldest brewery in the world, what a gift! I unfortunately didn't get to take a tour, nor did I get to meet Frank Pfeifer, but the brewery and campus grounds were well manicured, and very relaxing.

After walking around for a bit, I stopped in the on sight getränkemarkt and purchased some brews that don't make it my way (Kristall Weizen and Korbinian), and the price was obviously cheaper than going to my local store to get the same style of brews.

Afterwards, me and my wife partook in some cuisine at the onsite Bräustuble. We ate in the biergarten, which is set up cafeteria style. We went ahead and had some rotisserie chicken, a huge pretzel, small salad, and a knödel. All of which was reasonably priced.

On tap they had about all of their mainline brews to include Korbinian, which I tried for the first time. The price for the beers was decent, and my wife's white wine was reasonably priced too.

Overall, it was well worth the trip to go and see the Weihenstephaner Brewery. I just recommend doing a little research for tour times, if you want to get the full experience. I believe the tour is at 1PM, but I'm not quite sure.

07-01-2009 16:23:43 | More by TheSarge

Domingo

Colorado

4.53/5  rDev +0.9%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$

I stopped in at the end of May when it the weather is warm and it's perfect for a day at the biergarten. We took the train to Friesing and walked up the hill past the school and "stumbled" upon the biergarten.
They serve a host of different items including helles, dunkel, weiss, dunkel-weiss, kristal-weiss, Korbinian, Vitus (a new weizenbock), pilsner, alcohol-free, as well as radlers or russ'ns made with any of the above.
The beers are all hyper fresh and as expected, are amazing. Even though some of the items are bottled, this is as fresh as you'll ever encounter them. Supposedly this is the only place you get the pils, too.
The view is stunning. You can see a nice rolling countryside that makes a wonderful backdrop. Did I mention the smells coming from the brewery itself? It's simply AMAZING. It's worth the trip for that alone.
Service was a little spotty the day we visited. It seemed like they were just a little short staffed, so I had to wait for someone to man the beer window on 2 occasions. Still, they spoke English and were really nice. I don't blame anyone, obviously.
For the food, we had wursts, pretzels, and the typical bavarian items you expect. It's not as good as some of the really high end bavarian restaurants (or Andechs) but it's still excellent biergarten cuisine.

It's a short train ride from Munich (only about 30 minutes, plus a 20-minute walk) so this is a must-visit for any Bavarian beer treks. I'd put it 2nd to only Andechs on the list of places you must see.

06-29-2007 22:43:56 | More by Domingo

andythejerk

Utah

5/5  rDev +11.4%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $

The quick train ride to Freising from Munich is more than worth it. Hell, the "short" plane ride from Atlanta to Munich would be worth it, just to visit the oldest brewery in the world. Take a buddy, since the smallest quantity served in Bavaria is 1/2 Liter, and you're gonna want to split them and taste them all (Give a little extra Trinkgeld and ask for an extra glass).
The food was classic baviarian faire--we ate some hearty pork knuckles with potato salad and also got a giant pretzel, and it was all very, very good. We sat outside in the beautiful Biergarten overlooking the countryside of Freising, and did we have a good time! The guy running the taps figured out that we weren't just silly tourists and really interested in their beers, and came and talked to us for quite a while about the different beers and brought us some literature in English. The busser promptly removed empty dishes and glassware.
Here's a hint: Make sure you try the Pilsner. It is unfiltered and is ONLY available here at Weihenstephan's Bräustüberl, since they figure it's not going to be good any longer than 2 weeks after completion of the brewing/fermentation. This Pilsner was far better than any I have ever tasted--I only wish I could have had more! And you know it's damn fresh, since they throw it out after 2 weeks in the keg. Their Kristallweizen was my other favorite, but everything was very, very good. Even after splitting our beers, lots of carbs, and the better part of a day, we eventually decided we couldn't enjoy all of their beers and left a few untouched (i.e. the Traditional); they offer too many good things here! Make it a 2 day visit.
Sadly, they don't do brewery tours anymore due to sanitation concerns, but don't go anywhere near Bavaria and dare not visit this place!
I've never given all 5's to anything before, but my experience at Weihenstephan was absolutely perfect, and was the highlight of my tour of Oktoberfest/Bavaria.

09-28-2006 19:45:09 | More by andythejerk

bruachan

Rhode Island

4.35/5  rDev -3.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$

made a pilrgimage to this fine piece of delicious history for the italy/ukraine game. took the S1 (right?) out to Freising, but the last bus had left at 8:something so we took a 10 euro cab ride

the food was very tasty; it pushed the $$ to the edge of $$$, but was worth it. the schweinesax'n was great and my brother enjoyed his sauerbraten with kraut. both came with a fine kartoffelknödeln (we picked it over the bread one) and good gravy

the beer is...well i don't think i even need to explain. sampled the weissbier, dunkel and korbinian. simply devine

07-04-2006 16:37:02 | More by bruachan