The Art of Brewing and Enjoying Beer Find out more about our ingredients and the brewing process.

And the valuable ingredients may only be extracted from the female hop plant.

Hops cannot thrive on the equator because the light periods are too short.

Depending on the sort, one hop vine can make up to 1,000 liters of beer.

What’s in it – since 1634

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    Water

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    Malt

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    Hops

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    Yeast

Water 10,000 years of freshness

Our beers are made with water that has been untouched for over 10.000 years and is totally pure. This deep water is protected by layers of rock and extracted from a water bubble 190 m down.

More than 90 percent of beer is water. Every water tastes different and effects the taste of the beer. Water hardness also influences taste, brewing process, and color. The soaking water from the deep Paulaner well contains less of the salts that interact with mash enzymes and the beer wort. Too much salt prevents the yeast from optimally developing and gives beer a darker color.

Malt From the field to the glass

The mashing process, which is the basis for fermentation, converts the starch in the malt into sugar.

But what exactly is malt? Malt is usually obtained from barley or wheat through a specifically controlled germination process.

During the germination process, enzymes essential for mashing are formed. This is then followed by a drying process. First, the so-called green malt (malt at the end of germination) is gently dried and then, at a certain water content, it is kilned. The temperature depends on the desired type of malt.

Light malt, which is mainly used for the brewing our Hell, is kilned at a lower temperature of approx. 80°C. Dark malt, which is used for dark types of beer such as our Ur-Dunkel or Salvator, is kilned at higher temperatures of around 102°C. The higher the kilning temperature, the darker and more aromatic the malt becomes.

Most of our malt is procured from the region around Munich, where our roots are.

Hops Green gold

The hop gardens here in the world’s largest continuous hop cultivation area, called the Hallertau, produce hop vines that grow up to 8 meters tall.

Only the umbels, the unfertilized flowers of the female hop plants, are used for brewing. These contain important ingredients for brewing and give beer its typical bitters and hop flavor.
The hop harvest takes place from the end of August to the beginning of September. A single hop vine can produce between 5,000 and 10,000 ripe umbels.

Hop varieties are divided into aroma hops, bitter hops, and flavor hops.
As the name suggests, the bitter hop is responsible for the typical bitterness while the aroma hop mainly adds the hop aroma. Flavor hops are the product of many years of breeding and are used to give beer aromas such as citrus, mandarin orange, passion fruit, and even coconut while staying within the bounds of the Bavarian Beer Purity Law.

Every year, shortly after the hop harvest, the Paulaner master brewers travel to Hallertau during the hop evaluation process to select the hops that are most aromatic and best suited for us.
Depending on the type of beer, 100–400 g hops are needed to brew one hectoliter of beer.

Yeast The secret of yeast

Yeast is a unicellular sprout that is responsible for fermentation of the beer: The yeast converts the maltose in the wort into alcohol, carbon dioxide, and heat. It multiplies by a process called sprouting: A bud (daughter cell) is formed that grows to the size of the mother cell; then the daughter cell separates from the mother cell, or it forms a sprout link.
A distinction is made between top-fermented and bottom-fermented yeast. Bottom-fermented yeast is ideal for our Hell or Zwickl beers. Weißbier, on the other hand, is brewed with top-fermented yeast.

In the course of the fermentation process, the top-fermented yeast forms sprouts, which store the CO2 gas bubbles formed during fermentation. These create the buoyancy that causes the yeast to rise to the surface of the young beer in the fermentation vessel. Top-fermented yeast ferments best at temperatures between 15 and- 21 °C.

In contrast, bottom-fermented yeast settles to the bottom of the vessel at the end of fermentation because only mother and daughter cells are formed which means no CO2 collects under it causing buoyancy. This yeast ferments best at fermentation temperatures of between 5 and -12°C.

By regularly adding “"freshly propagated” or so-called pure yeast during fermentation, we can guarantee the consistently high quality of our beers.

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The epitome of Bavarian hospitality

Bavarian beer gardens originated through a brewing order from 1539, which restricted brewing to only cold months of the year because of fire protection. To store the beer and keep it cool during the warmer months of the year, the breweries dug out deep cellars where chestnut trees provided shade and gravel was spread as an insulation layer. Soon, beer cellars became popular destinations for Munich residents, and breweries set up simple tables and benches for the guests – the beer garden was born.

However, when the breweries started also offering food, smaller local Munich breweries and inns complained so vehemently about losing customers that King Max I issued the Bavarian Beer Garden Ordinance in 1812 as a compromise: Apart from bread, no other food was allowed to be sold in the beer cellars. For this reason, you are allowed to bring along your own food into a true Bavarian beer garden.

Paulaner am Nockherberg

Bavarian beer gardens originated through a brewing order from 1539, which restricted brewing to only cold months of the year because of fire protection. To store the beer and keep it cool during the warmer months of the year, the breweries dug out deep cellars where chestnut trees provided shade and gravel was spread as an insulation layer. Soon, beer cellars became popular destinations for Munich residents, and breweries set up simple tables and benches for the guests – the beer garden was born.

However, when the breweries started also offering food, smaller local Munich breweries and inns complained so vehemently about losing customers that King Max I issued the Bavarian Beer Garden Ordinance in 1812 as a compromise: Apart from bread, no other food was allowed to be sold in the beer cellars. For this reason, you are allowed to bring along your own food into a true Bavarian beer garden.

Paulaner am Nockherberg

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Hefe-Weizen

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Oktoberfest Märzen

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Salvator

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Grapefruit Radler

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