Ayinger Exports Its Kirtabier To The United States – A Look At This Legendary Brewery

We here in Beervana think that beer is ingrained into our culture but when traveling abroad to Germany this self-proclamation may not hold up to those from Deutschland. Beer truly is the culture there, especially in the country’s southern federal state of Bavaria.

One such brewery that lives up to producing some of the finest beers is Ayinger Privatbrauerei. Located about 15 miles southeast of Munich in the small rural town of Aying, the brewery is an integral part of the local community of fewer than 5,000 residents.

Since being founded 1877 by Johann Liebhard, Ayinger has been brewing under family ownership and continues to keep true to its local roots to this day. At that time there was said to be around 6,000 breweries in all of Bavaria. Today only around 650 are operating. Through the years Ayinger expanded as demand dictated.

In 1999, Ayinger built a modern state of the art brewery where it calls home today, across the street from farm fields and a short walk from the S-Bahn Aying stop. Ayinger brews about 120,000 barrels of beer per year and is basically at capacity. About 90% of what is brewed stays inside Germany. Of this other 10% that gets exported, a tiny percentage ends up here in the United States via its importer, Merchant du Vin.

The latest beer to hit the U.S. from Ayinger is its Kirtabier, a maltier, unfiltered Märzen-style lager. This beer has been brewed in Aying for many years but is finally making its journey here to the U.S. available only on draft. After drinking it while in Aying, please do yourself a favor and seek this out as this beer is now being tapped around the Pacific Northwest as you will not be disappointed!

Here is the description of Kirtabier provided by Ayinger.

With the development of the production process, the master brewer has always consulted the reliable old recipes. The “Kirtabier” is the only type of beer that can be classified between “March” beer and dark export beer. It is brewed for one of the most important festival days in Bavaria, the “Kirchweih” church fest. The intensive double decoction mashing with the mixture of three malts gives the beer a warm, brown color and a well-balanced, full-bodied, solid aromatic malty quality. The salubrious character of Kirtabier is distinguished by a high degree of fermentation, a pleasant sparkle and a distinctly perceptible bitter quality. The Kirtabier comes “premium cloudy” to the bar, which means unfiltered with that full cellar taste.

Alcohol content: 5.8% – Original wort: 13.8°

While traveling in Bavaria during September I was fortunate enough to sit down and have lunch with Franz Inslekammer III at Ayinger Bräustüberl, the brewery’s restaurant and beer garden that’s located across from the family owned Brauereigasthof Hotel Aying in the heart of Aying. Franz III is taking over the reigns from his father Franz Inselkammer II as the brewery’s 6th family brewer.

Franz III is well diversed in the world’s beer scene. He’s been here to Portland and is quite aware of our local craft brewing scene and understands the ups and down that industry has and is facing. One thing that he is truly proud of is the reputation that his family’s brewery has established. “We fortunately have the demand from the beer geeks from all around the world,” states Franz III.

When our conversation continued on about quality and demand issues, Franz III is very well aware of what can come from poor decision making. “We don’t’ want to reduce one day of lagering just to get more beer out.”

Ayinger has close ties to the Pacific Northwest as its importer, Merchant du Vin, is based in Seattle. Franz III was last here in Portland about three years ago and is planning another trip to our region in Spring 2017. This year was not doable as he and his wife of one year was welcoming their first child in September.

This relationship with Merchant du Vin is a strong one. “Charles Finkel (founder of MdV) is a friend of my parents and he is a reason why we started exporting. He came to Aying I think about 35 years ago looking to import wine. But he then realized that there are many good ones already in the U.S. so he decided to go with beer. He persuaded my father, well actually it was my mother that did so. She was afraid that he would never leave Bavaria otherwise, so it worked!”

Below are various photos from a brewery tour that was led by Ralf Wappler. Though the tour was in German, Wappler did a great job at engaging the others on the tour. He also spoke about the influence that American craft beer has had on German breweries. The funny thing was that every time he mentioned American craft beer he turned and looked at me. The one thing I did recognize quite clearly is when Wappler poured a beer from the zwickel! Here’s a video of this taking place about halfway through the brewery tour.

Hope you enjoy the photos below that I took during my visit. Prost!