Rites of Spring, Summer, and Autumn

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2023 issue of Zymurgy Magazine

By Franz D. Hofer

Lager and the Birth of the Bavarian Beer Garden

By Franz D. Hofer

It was one of those days when the sunbaked paving stones of Munich radiated an infernal heat. We needed a beer, and quickly. It just so happened that the Augustiner-Keller beer garden was a short walk away from the center of town. Away we went.

The summer heat melted away the moment we crossed the threshold into the beer garden. We threaded our way past stalls selling bratwurst and pretzels to a counter where a barkeep was tapping beer straight from the barrel. Frother beers in hand, we headed into the beer garden to partake of a venerable tradition: an al fresco Maß (liter) of beer in the shade of the chestnut trees.

This sublime rite of the warmer months blossomed in nineteenth-century Bavaria. In 1812, King Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria profoundly shaped beer garden culture with a Solomon-like decree that diffused tensions between Munich’s innkeepers and brewers. This dispute had its roots in a set of liberalizing reforms that Maximilian had enacted, first as duke, and then as king. Some of these reforms favored private brewers, and breweries began to proliferate along the Isar River. During the summer months, the citizens of Munich took to spending more time at the beer cellars on the banks of the Isar, preferring these shaded groves to the stuffy inns where the beer was less fresh.

Innkeepers were incensed. They petitioned their good King Max, an epicurean friend of brewers and innkeepers alike, to intervene. On 4 January 1812, he decreed that brewers could keep right on selling their beer fresh from the cellars beneath their leafy gardens. But in a nod to the innkeepers, he limited beer gardens to the sale of beer and bread. 

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This article covers:

• What’s In A Date? St. George, St. Michael, and the Birth of Lager
• The Summer Brewing Prohibition: Nature Meets Culture
• A Dispute Between Brewers and Bakers Over Yeast
• The Beer Garden On the Hill