Paulaner

Paulaner is one of the six breweries permitted to pour at Munich's Oktoberfest and the home of Salvator, the beer that started the doppelbock tradition. It began as monastery brewing: friars of the Paulaner order — followers of Francis of Paola — brewed at the Neudeck ob der Au cloister, and the brewery counts a letter of 24 February 1634, in which Munich's civic brewers complained to the city council about the monks' competition, as its founding document.

The friars' strong Lenten beer evolved into Salvator, and a recipe set down in 1774 fixed the extra-strong "double" character that gave doppelbock its name — which is why doppelbocks the world over still end in "-ator" in homage. Secularization closed the monastery in 1799; the brewery sat idle until Franz Xaver Zacherl leased it in 1806 and bought it outright in 1813, keeping Salvator alive.

Today Paulaner anchors the Paulaner Brewery Group, owned 70% by Munich's Schörghuber group and 30% by Heineken — a structure rooted in the Schörghuber family's takeover of the majority in 1979. Salvator still appears every spring for the strong-beer season, but the brewery's global flagship is its wheat beer, the Hefe-Weißbier Naturtrüb.

The Hefe-Weißbier pours hazy amber-gold under a thick head; banana and clove from the house yeast lead into a creamy wheat body and a lively, softly tart finish.