Spaten

Spaten is the Munich brewery that invented helles, the pale golden lager that became the city's everyday beer. In 1894 it brewed its first Münchner Hell, aimed at north-German drinkers accustomed to pilsner, and introduced it in Munich itself the following year. The city's other breweries eventually followed, and the style now defines Munich drinking.

The site's history is far older: a Munich tax book of 1397 records a brewery at Neuhausergasse, and the Spatt family, owners from 1622 to 1704, left it the name — Spaten is German for spade, the tool on the logo. In 1807 royal brewer Gabriel Sedlmayr took over what was then Munich's smallest brewery, and under the Sedlmayrs it rose to become the city's largest by 1861.

Spaten merged with its old rival Löwenbräu in 1997, and the combined group was bought by Interbrew in 2003 — today the brand belongs to AB InBev. It remains a fixture of Munich life: Spaten is one of the six Oktoberfest breweries, and its Münchner Hell is still the textbook pour of the style it created.

Münchner Hell is the original helles template: soft bready malt, a faint grassy noble-hop note, and a crisp, dry, endlessly repeatable finish.