Freising - a perfect stopover
How long is the perfect stopover between flights? Some people gamble on one hour with sharp elbows and priority boarding. And, most often, you want to get to your destination or back home as soon as you possibly can.
But if your stopover is at Munich airport, my advice is to allow for between five and twenty four hours. Not to go into the city, but to jump on a local bus to Freising. The 635 bus takes about 20 minutes from the airport to the center of town. This pretty place is far better than any Lufthansa lounge. And you get two world-class breweries and some splendid beer gardens as well.
And we’re talking about breweries with traditions here. One of them claims to be the oldest brewery in the world. The other one claims to be older.
But Freising has more to offer. It is an important religious town, and it hosts a technical university which has educated generations of brewers.
There are two hills in Freising. The Domberg, the Cathedral Hill, represent the religious center, where prince bishops ruled over Bavaria in the Middle Ages, and where in more recent years a Freising priest and scholar became world famous: Joseph Ratzinger, who lived, taught and worked in the episcopal city for many years before becoming Pope Benedict XVI. There are amazing architecture and gardens, you don’t have to have any connection to the Catholic church to enjoy this hill.
The other hill is Weihenstephaner Berg. This hill does not concern itself with spiritual matters, it is literally down to earth. Nutrition and environmental sciences and land use are the pillars of this learning and research hub, together with institutes and faculties for the sciences of brewing, agriculture and horticulture, food technology, dairy science and forest science.
Beer lovers know Weihenstephan very well. In addition to teaching and researching all aspects of brewing, including brewing history, it is home to a brewery that also has a history going back many centuries. But it is not a historical relic, their wheat beers are rightly considered in a class of their own. Even this writer, not a big fan of wheat beer in general, recognizes the quality of their brews.
At the foot of the hill, you’ll find the other brewery in town, Hofbrauhaus Freising. I was given a private tour of the brewery a few years ago. It is both modern and traditional, offering the usual range of Bavarian classics, including Huber Weisses, a beer originally brewed by a brewery long gone. There are also alkoholfrei und dunkel versions of the Huber.
The brewery was supposedly founded in 1160, and they are of the opinion that their competitor hails from a latter date, with some of their documentation of being the oldest brewery in the world does not stand up to scrutiny.
There are several versions of Helles, an Export and a Pils. I wouldn’t be surprised if there as a seasonal Bock on offer as well. All their beers are brewed with Bavarian Malt and the very local Hallertau hops.
The Gräfliches Hofbrauhaus Freising exports to a number of markets, as far as I know their beers are not to be found in Scandinavia at the moment. They have several outlets in Freising, enjoy one of their beer garden if the weather permits.
The Weihenstephan range of beers is sold all over the world. I recommend that you try other beers in addition to their flagship Hefeweissen . They have a lovely pils, the Korbinian Doppelbock is outstanding, and their Weizenbock Vitus is essential.
There are Weihenstephan beers all over town, but you should go to the Bräustüberl (try pronouncing that at the end of the evening) on Weihenstephaner Berg. is open year-round, but a summer sunset in their beer garden with view of the plains below is magic.
And there are still only twenty minutes by bus back to the airport. There is a brewery there as well, Airbrau, if your plane is delayed.
