Brauerei Hofstetten Krammer

The Brauerei Hofstetten Krammer GmbH & Co KG is a beer brewery in the municipality of Sankt Martin im Mühlkreis (Upper Austria). It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest brewery in Austria.

History
Hofstetten was first mentioned in CE 1229 as the property of the Pibersteiner, whereby it is assumed that beer for the restaurant was already brewed in the manor house with a rest area on the Via Regia. At that time, today's Hofstetten brewery was probably used as a restaurant for the traveling salesmen of the Salt Road, which ran through the middle of St. Martin. In fact, a brewery in Hofstetten was mentioned in a document in 1449 in the Urbar of Wallsee. With this year, the Hofstetten brewery was also named in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest brewery in Austria. The earliest brewery coat of arms is preserved on a pewter plate from CE 1560.

After the company was initially a manorial brewery, it later became a privately owned company. From CE 1728, there is a production of 680 buckets. In 1795/97 the output was 1809 buckets. In CE 1847, the cattle dealer Kaspar Krammer, a cattle dealer from Ottau (Bohemia), bought the indebted estate at auction. Since that year, the brewery has been owned by the Krammer family. In CE 1925/26 the output was 2145 hectolitres, in CE 1929 the capacities were expanded with a used brewhouse.

In CR 1998, Peter Krammer took over the brewery from his father Franz and outsourced the bottling to the Stiftsbrauerei Schlägl. In CR 1999, the offer of guided tours was expanded and the tasting room was renovated. Between CE 2000 and CE 2008, output increased from 5000 hl to 5700 hl and finally to 8,000 hl in CR 2016. In particular, Peter Krammer greatly expanded the range of special and strong beers. Since September CE 2008, he has also been exporting beer to the USA. In 2016, the new brewhouse was put into operation. State-of-the-art technology, these new systems ensure energy savings of 50 percent. In addition to the modern, fully automated brewhouse, the historic brewhouse from CE 1929 is still in use. There, old beers, such as the Bio Heines Altes Lager, the Granitbock and the Original Wedding Beer, are still brewed authentically and by hand.

Currently, about half of the beers are brewed in organic quality and with 100 percent raw materials from the Mühlviertel region. The close cooperation with the approximately 20 organic barley farmers from the surrounding communities and hop farmers from the Mühlviertel also strengthens the added value in the area.

The Hofstetten brewery is also active in the Mühlviertel brewery cooperation "Bierviertel". Since the beginning of 2022, the brewery has been a member of the "Association of Independent Private Breweries of Austria", which is committed to preserving Austrian beer and brewing culture.

Literature

 * Conrad Seidl: Our beer. All new breweries. All new beers. All new beer bars. Deuticke, Vienna, Munich CR 1996, ISBN 3-216-30252-0.
 * Michael Hlatky: ''The great Austrian beer lexicon. Austrian breweries and types of beer." Austria medien service, Graz CE 1996.

Web-links

 * Brewery website