Research by the historian Bernhard Schäfer has shown that the Grafingen brewery is the third oldest in the entire Free State.
Grafing - water is a main ingredient.
It is used for brewing beer as well as for extinguishing a fire.
There is a connection because many domestic breweries used to burn down more often.
That was also the case in Grafing.
Building a brewery on the Urtelbach was a future-proof idea.
And this idea has endured to this day.
City archivist Bernhard Schäfer has added a new chapter to the history of beer in Bavaria during an exciting research into Wildbräu Grafing.
A chapter that proves that Wildbräu is the third oldest brewery in the Free State.
So now there was a large train station in the Bräuhaus on the market square.
Grafing Third oldest brewery in Bavaria: Document found in the main state archive
Heinrich der Zänker (951 to 995) was not politically successful as a Bavarian duke, but he has left his mark, which is now even playing a role on a European level. The brawler had an estate built for his wife Gisela of Burgundy on the Urtelbach around 973 not far from the parish village of Öxing, which was first called "Gisling" and, after a change of ownership to the Counts of Ebersberg, "Grafing". Part of the estate here was a brewery, the existence of which can now be deduced from a document in the main state archive.
The discovery proceeded like a thriller in which the commissioner, in the person of city archivist Bernhard Schäfer, had apparently held the decisive piece of evidence in his hands years ago, but did not attach sufficient importance to it.
"To my shame I have to admit that," said Schäfer, triumphantly holding up a facsimile of the document he had found, which is written in Carolingian minuscule and in Latin.
Grafing third oldest brewery in Bavaria: The brewery was probably already in 1060
With this latest discovery, Schäfer has achieved something that not many have achieved before. Namely, the backdate of a Bavarian brewery - and that by around 500 years. The document discovered dates the oldest Grafingen brewery to the year 1060, a brewery that practically became the nucleus of Grafing. Only two breweries in Bavaria are older. Namely those in Weihenstephan (evidence from the year 1040) and the Weltenburg monastery (1050).
The new chapter in Bavarian beer history is owed to a priest whose name was Konradus and who left a trace in the cartular of the Ebersberg Benedictine monastery in the form of a donation.
He gave the monastery his property in Sulding in the municipality of Hohenpolding in the district of Erding and thus obtained a kind of early life annuity in the form of pork, bushels of wheat, barley and “cervesiam plenam” - from exactly the Gisela brewery in Grafing.
This document dates from 1060 and is now considered evidence.
Grafing's third oldest brewery in Bavaria: The question of which beer was brewed back then is a mystery
Schäfer had given in to Schlederer's request and made another thorough research in the State Archives.
Asterix readers know Cervisia as beer, but the exact translation of the addition “plenam” can be discussed, said Schäfer.
This could mean, for example, “Vollbier”, a somewhat stronger “Herrenbier”, but also a “whole brew load of beer”, which gives an insight into the drinking habits of former priests in Bavaria.
It is possible that this Konradus was active as a clergyman in Öxing and did not want to return to his Erdinger homeland in old age because he preferred to stay in Grafing, where there was good beer.
Grafing third oldest brewery in Bavaria: Bavarian beer as a protected brand
The Bavarian Brewers' Association is enthusiastic about this backdating, which is why managing director Walter König found his way to Grafing to present the certificate.
The expert considers Schäfer's archive research to be conclusive, which suits the Bavarian brewers insofar as they have to defend themselves again and again on a European level against breweries from abroad that like to be in our consumer regions with a white-blue diamond pattern and the lettering "Bavaria" on their beer cans go poaching.
Bavarian beer is now a protected geographical indication "like Nuremberg Rostbratwurst or Champagne".
Walter König on backdating the Grafingen brewery literally: "We need such evidence in order to be able to enforce the special status of Bavarian beer in the European Union."
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