Hofbräu München

Hofbräu München is the Bavarian state's own beer brand, born on 27 September 1589 when Duke Wilhelm V founded a court brewery because importing beer for his household had become too expensive. Few brands are so tied to one address: the Hofbräuhaus am Platzl, the brewery's city-centre beer hall, is among the most famous drinking rooms anywhere.

For its first two centuries the Hofbräuhaus brewed for the court and its officials. Ordinary Municher were let in only in 1828, when King Ludwig I decreed that the house could serve food and drink to the public — the moment the Hofbräuhaus became a tavern rather than a royal supply room.

The brewery — formally Staatliches Hofbräuhaus in München — is still owned by the Free State of Bavaria, one of the few state-owned breweries in the world. Brewing itself long since moved to a modern plant on the city's edge, while the beer hall and the brand's HB monogram carry the tradition, at Oktoberfest and far beyond.

Hofbräu Original is pale gold and notably clean: light grain-and-honey malt, gentle hop spice, and a crisp, dry finish built for drinking by the litre.