A thirsty federal state

Upper Austria is classical beer country.  Statistically, the state has a high density of industrial breweries, and history tells us that there were even more in the past.  There were 332 Upper Austrian breweries in 1797 and still 290 in 1867.  235 remained in 1885, brewing 774,000 hectolitres.  However, this also means that at the time, all those breweries only produced a total of about three quarters of what Upper Austria’s biggest brewery produces today.  In the 1880s, one was told why Upper Austria was so fond of beer.  The Allgemeine Brauer- und Hopfenzeitung  (general brewing and hops journal) of 6^th November, 1889, compared Upper Austria to Bohemia, where people preferred lighter beers:  “It is hard to say why this is so.  At all events, the stronger air that blows over Salzburg and Upper Austria probably plays a big part in this phenomenon.”

Two monastic breweries

So Upper Austria’s air makes you thirsty—and Upper Austrians know how to quench their thirst.  They don’t just do it by brewing beer.  They also grow “green gold,” which is what they call the hops that are used in unspectacular quantities but are nonetheless an important ingredient of beer when it comes to aroma and taste.  It is here—and more precisely in the “Mühlviertel” region—that most of Austria’s hops are grown.

The climate has favoured hop growing for centuries.  At the turn of the second millennium, monasteries were already having their subjects supply them with beer.  Later they did the brewing themselves, and today Upper Austria is still the home of a monastic brewery and one of just 14 Trappist breweries around the world.