Sampling Hefeweizens in München/Bayern? How/Where?

[Smellyglove]

I'm planning a trip with my girlfriend to Munich. Munich is the target because we (I) want to to sample Bavarian Hefeweizens.

I know there are hundreds of breweries which brew Hefe's in Bayern. The problem is that beer drinking and then driving a car is a no-go.

Anyone have a suggestion to how I can sample "a lot" of them during maybe a one week stay in Munich/Bayern? I can get a rental car, but it's still that I can't drive after a beer.. Are there any places/pubs in Munich which serves a lot of Hefeweizens maybe? Maybe a pub to pub route?

[Techbrau]

Just get a hotel in Munich near the city center and take the subway or walk around. You're never far from a beer hall or beer garden.

Every single large brewery in the Munich area makes at least one wheat beer, generally two, but sometimes more (Schneider). Your first stop should be the Weisses Brauhaus (Schneider brewery) as they specialize in wheat beer and have a great number available. It's very close to the Marienplatz.

All of the Big 6 Munich breweries (Augustiner, Hofbrau, Spaten, Paulaner, Lowenbrau, Hacker-Pschorr) have plenty of establishments everywhere in the city. You'll easily be able to try wheat beers from all of them and see which you like.

Other breweries besides Schneider and the Big 6 which have establishments (beer halls or restaurants) near the city center that shouldn't be missed are Kloster Andechs, Ayinger, and Tegernseer.

My own personal list of the best wheat beers you'll find in Munich are:

Schneider Aventinus
Schneider Original
Andechs Hefeweizen
Ayinger Ur-Weisse (dunkelweizen)
Augustiner Weissbier

All that said, don't make the mistake of visiting Munich without tasting the lagers. The ones you need to try (at minimum) are:

Augustiner Edelstoff
Andechs Helles
Andechs Doppelbock
Tegernseer Helles
A dunkel from at least one of the major breweries. They are all good but all a bit different.

[Smellyglove]

[Techbrau]

Your best bet in Munich to find a large variety of beers from elsewhere in Bavaria would probably be a grocery or beer store that has a large selection of bottles. I think there is one near the Viktualienmarkt.

Another option if you want to get outside of Munich but don't want to drive is to just take the train from city to city. You can easily go from Munich to Passau in a few hours, or spread the trip over a few days and hit some stops along the way. Most of my favorite "smaller" (not really that small, Arcobrau and Aldersbacher still push out in the neighborhood of 200,000 hl per year) Bavarian breweries are around Passau.

IMO don't miss out on the larger breweries in order to make the trek out to the really small places. The smaller places can have more charm, but if I'm being honest the beer from the likes of Augustiner, Andechs, Schneider, Tegernseer, etc. is better (you'll have quite a hard time finding better wheat beer than Schneider). I have personally been pretty disappointed with beer from the very small Bavarian breweries that I went way out of my way to visit.

[ajk]

[Ski]

I think Techbrau's advice is spot on. Munich has so much to offer by itself. We stayed in a hotel near the train station, and you could go anywhere in and out of the city from here, via tram, subway, train. Munich Hauptbahnhof is like a worm-hole. An all-day ticket for all public transport is around €6.50 per person. The subways are very fast, but the trams are a great way to see the city at a leisurely pace. As for the beers, if it isn't brewed in Munich, you can get it in the beer stores. But I think you'll find it hard to match the great breweries of Munich. I found that the beer from tap to be so much better than the bottles. Be sure to visit the Augustiner beer garden, not too far from the station: industrial-scale drinking. Wander down into the keller and marvel at what they were doing back in the early 1800's. Just fascinating. Enjoy the trip!

[Weizenberg]

In my Grandparents' district, Rottal-Inn, Aldersbacher hast loads of inns -- it's well worth trying. You may want to try Unertl as well, that's from Haag which is mid-way from Schönau to Munich along the B12.

also does solid beer and is highly recommended.

We have about 540 registered breweries in Bavaria. So you may want to look at a weekly train pass and just do the adventurous thing and go at a whim.

If you are ok with beer and roast pork, then anywhere in Bavaria will be fine for you

If you are interested in our culture then it's a place one can easily visit several times. Note that we have a lot more to offer than beer! You may want to investigate our medieval history too....