Einbecker Brewery

Geschichte

The Einbecker Brewery is a brewery located in Einbeck, Germany. Founded before 1378, it is one of the oldest still operating breweries in the world. The city of Einbeck is noted for its bock beer, and Einbecker, the only remaining brewery in town, makes three varieties thereof.HistoryThe region of Lower Saxony and the town of Einbeck in particular dominated the European beer market during the fourteenth century, when the Hanseatic League helped distribute Einbeck's bock beer throughout Northern Europe. The Einbecker Brewery is the only remaining brewery from that tradition, and was already in operation in 1378: the first city record in Einbeck that mentions beer dates from 28 April 1378, and refers to the sale of two casks of beer ("Einbecker") to the town of Celle, some 80 miles away. The brewery claims the tradition with a legend above the door, Ohne Einbeck gäb's kein Bockbier ("Without Einbeck there would be no bock"). Notable drinkers of Einbecker include, reportedly, Martin Luther, who was given a cask of it before the 1521 trial where he was to be excommunicated, and supposedly praised it in a two-line doggerel verse. Einbeck's dominance lasted until the Thirty Years' War.Brewing rights in Einbeck were owned by the city, and brewing operations were consolidated in 1794 in a publicly owned city brewery, from then on the sole brewery in the city. Its beer was first bottled in 1884, in the "distinctive low-shouldered bottle" that the company still uses.The brewery, which had taken over two other regional breweries (Göttinger Brauhaus and Kassel's Martini Brauerei, in 1988 and 1997), merged into the brewing consortium Brau und Brunnen. Einbecker produced 850,000 hectoliters per year and employed 200 people.