Klosterbrauerei Andechs

dedrinker

Kansas

3.51/5  rDev -19.3%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 3 | $$

A beautiful summer well spent. We sat outside overlooking golden fields of wheat. We made sure to visit on a weekday as they claim to hold back the doppelbock on weekends (tourists+serious beer=silly drunk spectacle). It was such a beautiful day, and we made sure to try all the beers available. My chief love of German beer is that while the overall selection is relatively low (stylistically speaking) you really have to make a concerted effort to seek out a bad example of any given beer style they make. Helles, Dunkel, Doppelbock, Hefe-Weizen - we did it - people I had literally just met the day before and invited to come with me. The beer was great, the surroundings were great, and the overall day was sublime. Go there!

06-01-2006 03:42:58 | More by dedrinker

Spacegrass

Maryland

3.6/5  rDev -17.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 2 | selection: 4 | food: 3.5

I would almost like to write two reviews of the Andechs. We made the mistake of going to the full-service beer garten to begin with and it was horrible. Service was incredibly slow and our server kept forgetting stuff. For example our food came with no silverware and another server saw us sitting there as she walked by and had to get it for us. The food tasted good but I found what looked like a pubic hair in it. I couldn't believe this was the Holy Mountain I was at and I was finding a pubic hair in my damn food.

While in this garden (it's the one on the right if you hike up the mountain, on the left if you come from the bus stop -- AVOID IT!) I had the Doppelbock ,Bergbock, and Weisse, along with a sip of the Hells and Dunkel from those who I was with. The beers here are by far amazing, I would have given a 5 for quality based on that if there wasn't a pube in my food. My favorite was the Bergbock hells but honestly I drive to any bar that had just one of Andech's fantastic beers. They were all fantastic. (I brought a few back with me so I may try and go more in depth on the taste of the beers after I have had them again)

After being sick of waiting for the service we got our bill and headed over to the self-serve beer garden. Much better! The only complaint I would have about here is that you can't see the view quite as well, but the beer makes up for it. This area was much nicer and was a very redeeming factor of my forgiveness to Andechs after visiting the first garden.

The gift shop was nice and the glassware prices very reasonable, much like the food and beer was. I got to peek inside the church and it is absolutely beautiful in there. Really my biggest complaint about the Andechs is that it has become somewhat touristy. But in all reality, this is a beer site I'm writing on, and the beer was excellent. So make your way over and enjoy a few Holy brews, it is definitely worth a visit just for that.

06-11-2003 20:23:55 | More by Spacegrass

MarkT

3.75/5  rDev -13.8%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3 | selection: 3 | food: 4 | $$

While my Overall Review is 3.75, it's lower because of service and selection. For eating at a Biergarten like this one, it doesn't really matter what the service or selection is like since it's pretty universal across most Biergartens, so I would like to give an arbitrary overall review of 4.4/4.5. So, on to the review!

Atmosphere - I visited in late June 2012 and had beautiful weather for a visit. Went with two friends from Munich via the S-Bahn to Herrsching, from which you can hike through beautiful woods up to the Kloster. I recommend this way since it is not only very scenic, but it also helps build up a thirst for excellent beer. Plus the Kloster is situated on top of a hill that overlooks farmland and the Alps on a clear day, so it's hard to go wrong. Few Biergartens, let along breweries in general, can probably offer this same experience, so it's worth it for the hike and views alone.

Quality - The beer was very good, with the standard Helles-Dunkel-Weißbier offerings prevalent in Munich and Bavaria. We each ordered one of the three, and I won't go into reviewing these beers in particular since other people more qualified than I have done so in the individual beer reviews section. However, they were all very good.

Service/Selection - The Kloster works in typical Biergarten fashion (cafeteria style), so you won't find a wide range of foods like you would in a place like Augustiner-Keller in the middle of Munich. Additionally, my friends and I were hoping to eat Stekerlfisch or chicken at a little food-stand area just outside the Klosterbiergarten, but they both closed up shop after we arrived, thus limiting the selection that you could probably find otherwise.

Food - I had a plate of Schweinbraten (roast pork) with Bratkartoffeln (roasted potatoes), and it was very good, although it didn't knock my socks off. It was my first time having it as well, and as a first-time experience, you can't go wrong.

Value - The price of drinks and food seemed comparable to what I was used to getting in Munich, although I can't remember specifics, but come with at least 20 Euros if you plan on ordering a Maß (1 liter glass) and a plate of food.

09-16-2012 19:25:09 | More by MarkT

Goldorak

Quebec (Canada)

3.93/5  rDev -9.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 3 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4 | $$

After a very somber visit in Dachau, I needed enlightenment. What better place than on top of the hill at Andechs?

Too bad we got there a bit late, our hotel was back in the village and we had to walk all the way up, so we missed the brewery and distillery tours. The huge mountain of plastic cases near the brewery was quite a sight, and on the way up we spotted a few hop vines that seemed almost ripe for picking. The church is pretty impressive, with a cool sundial...right underneath a clock. Maybe they needed a second opinion! The view for up top is very nice, it was clear out so we could see the mountains, the whole area is very quaint, kind of Vermont-ish.

It was getting a bit chilly out, so we sat inside in the main section where the cafeteria style food and Beer counters were. I went straight for a mass of dopplebock from the cask, and my girlfriend got a glass of wine. What I don't get is that they charged a 3 euro deposit for her wine glass, the kind with a green stem that you find absolutely everywhere in the country, and charged me nothing for the kick-ass Andescher mug my Beer was served in. It was absolutely fabulous, rich yet quaffable, well worthy of the hype. They had 2 more casks and Andechs bottles as well.

As with a vast majority of the places we've been to, clientele was in their late 50s or older, including the charming German couple who shared our picnic table and some of the food we got. We went for some cheese and bread, all made on-premises, and they were quite good.

Great place to spend an afternoon if you're in the area.

09-29-2007 14:34:44 | More by Goldorak

crossovert

Wisconsin

3.98/5  rDev -8.5%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5 | food: 2.5 | $$

Went with a group of friends to lay on the beach in Herrsching, we had a few beers there then went here. It was actually a legitimate hike getting there through residential neighborhoods and a small forest. It is a climb so bring hiking shoes, I accidentally stepped in a mudpit. Once you get there you know you've earned your beer, it takes about 50 minutes to an hour.

The church is beautiful, there is 3 Biergartens and a big Bräustüberl. There is also a gift shop. We went to the Biergarten/deck just outside fo the main hall (the one pictured). The food is more or less cafeteria style. A Maß of Helles only costs 5,60 from the cask. The line for the beer was non-existent when I walked up, it was smooth and easy.

The food is mediocre at best, the schweinhaxe was overcooked but the pretzels were very good; but the beer is cheap and amazing. Most of it is pretty cheap, i was in a group of 10 and we bought a ton of food, plenty for all of us and it was only 4.00 per person.

This place is a must for people traveling in Bavaria.

04-26-2011 10:11:33 | More by crossovert

greebsnarf

New York

4.05/5  rDev -6.9%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 2 | selection: 5 | food: 3 | $$

I visited Andechs during a month-long tour of western Europe this summer with a friend. We spent only three days in Munich but I insisted on making the roughly-hour-long trek out to the monastery on our last day there. It was a drizzly day, a little on the cold side, but we ate in the biergarten rather than the overcrowded hall. It was quiet and relaxing--the handful of equally stubborn patrons of the garden were all about forty years our elders and kept to themselves--with a lovely view of the monastery just up the hill on one side, a patch of woods on another, and below us a herd of cattle grazing in a small pasture. All in all, the perfect setting for a light lunch and a few liters of strong beer.

Perhaps because the garden was so empty, service was spotty, with the waitress only bothering to come outside infrequently, and rushing us a little with our orders when she did. Our food was nice but unmemorable, but we hardly sampled the bulk of the menu: we only ordered desserts, chocolate-drenched berries and cream for my companion, a filling but unspectacular kaiserschmarnn for me. I wish I had tried the main courses, but maybe next time.

But the beer was the reason we came and it certainly didn't disappoint. We sampled the helles, doppelbock, weissbier hefetrueb, and dunkles weissbier. All of them were both stunning and delicious and I certainly had more than was wise considering their well-disguised strength--all of the beers served on the premises are at least twice as alcoholic as the bottled varieties, with the doppelbock reaching 18%.

To cap off the visit, there's a separate gift shop where, among other things, you can buy four-packs of bottles for the road. I should mention that the monastery grounds themselves are also beautiful and well worth the visit in their own right. I saw some posters advertising a Carl Orff recital that would be performed on the premises about a month after my visit. If I lived in the area I'd love to go out there for something like that.

09-07-2006 00:51:03 | More by greebsnarf

Derek

British Columbia (Canada)

4.18/5  rDev -3.9%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$

This place is still a monestary, with a fairly good sized brewery adjacent to it.

The brewery is expanding, and there were 4 new conical stainless steel fermentation tanks ready to be installed. Sitting next to them was a wooden cart full of spent grains... presumably to feed their livestock. They still produce organic dairy products and their milk, yogurt and cheese were all really good.

They have a stuberl, which is more of a self-serve cafeteria/beer-hall, and excellent value. We opted to relax & get served at the Gasthof restaurant. The food was REALLY good and reasonable priced. My wife had a nice plate of their cheeses, I had a generous portion of meat. Their fresh beer (vom fass) was really good, though I thought their dopple was a bit of a let-down (I enjoyed their other stuff more).

I picked up a stein from their gift shop for around $5 (similar to what the hofbrau house in munich sells for $18.50).

We visited in the last week of march, so there was still a fair bit of snow around... we took the bus from/to the trainstation.

The lake down by the train station was still frozen, but there were plenty of people out walking, and even a few people drinking beer in the sun!

04-09-2006 21:55:04 | More by Derek

TurdFurgison

Ohio

4.3/5  rDev -1.1%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$

What a place to visit, I recommend any lover of high quality malt beverages makes a pilgrimage to this site. From Munich hauptbahnhof it's very easy to get here (S5 train to final stop, then look for the Andechs bus for a 10 minute ride to the Kloster).

It's set on a hill with a beautiful view of Bavaria, you can actually see the alps in the distance when it's clear (like today). I had a total of 4 beers while here, sampled in several locations within the klosterbrauerei: first the bier garten, then the beer hall, then the restauarant. Each location was perfect, I probably preferred the beer hall overall due to the medievel feel to the place, with exposed timbers and stucco and whatnot.

Everything was reasonably priced, the doppelbock dunkel was 3.30 euros for a 0.5L glass, the wiess bier was maybe 2.70 euros. Every beer was delicious, and the monastary buildings give a very inviting ambience.

I just realized the review is too positive, heading for hero worship. So I'll list a negative: the line to get a beer in the beer hall is too long, it takes 10-15 minutes each time you get a beer. With 3500+ seats, I'd like to think they could set this up differently, allowing for quicker ordering.

If you find yourself in Munich, this place is a no-brainer.

06-29-2007 22:46:01 | More by TurdFurgison

loren01

Oregon

4.3/5  rDev -1.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $$

Went here this past winter while visiting Munich. It was an easy day trip from downtown Munich out here...took the train to the last stop on S5 (Hershing) then took a cab from the train station to the monestary. You could probably walk it but there was a ton of snow when we were there so the cab was just easier. The atmosphere at this place was pretty cool. It was like a cafeteria style beer hall, you go get your food then there is a seperate place to get beers. In the next room over there are big long tables to sit down and enjoy the food and drink. I had a dopplebock which was amazing. Overall this was a very good day trip, probably my favorite of anything we did while in the Munich area.

04-19-2010 15:19:32 | More by loren01

UncleJimbo

Massachusetts

4.33/5  rDev -0.5%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$

I took a day trip out to Andechs while I was in Munich for Oktoberfest, and I am very happy I did so. The monastery is situated in the countryside a short bus ride from Herrsching, which is itself a 30-40 minute ride on the S-bahn from Munich. After you exit the bus, you must walk up a steep hill to the monastery, church, and restaurants, but it is worth the walk. The church itself is quite beautiful, and you can try to climb all the way up the steeple tower, if you dare.

As for the beer, there is a main indoor seating beer hall where you can purchase your mugs of the wonderful Andechser bier (there were 4 or 5 styles on-tap during my visit, including the world famous Doppelbock, the Jubiläumsbier, an Apfelweisse, and the Helles). You go up to a window and pay for your beer and get a token, and then walk a short way to another window where you get your mug of beer for your token. You can then drink you beer inside in the beer hall, or outside on a nice patio with a view of the countryside. There is also a smaller cafe restaurant on the other side of the patio where you can get coffee and snacks. Finally, there is a restaurant/cafeteria where you can order meals to eat with your liters of beer. The schweinhaxe was crisp and tasty.

The beers were, of course, wonderful. The Doppelbock was so delicious and easy to drink. 1.5 L went down smoothly. It is a good thing you can get here on public transportation (just don't miss the last bus back to the S-bahn).

Service was pretty minimal, as everything is ordered from a window or a counter, but that did not detract from the experience. The prices were reasonable. One comment, however, is that if you want to buy bottled beer to take with you, you can purchase it at a kiosk or in the gift shop, but four bottles cost a little over 7 Euros, and these same four bottles can be had in Munich for 5-6 Euros. But not a big deal, and perhaps worth the convenience.

I recommend all beer lovers visit this wonderful place as it is definitely worthy of the pilgirmage.

2005-9-26

03-20-2006 04:15:38 | More by UncleJimbo