Weltenburg brewery now offering tours

The world’s oldest monastery brewery, established in 1050, Klosterbrauerei Weltenburg, is now offering guided tours of its premises on public holidays between Easter and the end of October. The costs per head € 9.50 include the tour, your own souvenir glass and the entry fee to the monastery’s visitors’ center. Weltenburg’s Dunkles was awarded “Dunkles of the Year� in 2005 at the World Beer Cup in San Diego, California; their Bockbier is another specialty worth mentioning.
Kloster Weltenburg is situated close to the Danube’s entry into the Franconian Jura, a low mountain range dating from the Jurassic period, with breathtaking scenery, rivers, gorges, and caves.
Boat trips on the Danube provide a view of the monastery and a trip through the narrow Danube gorge, an opportunity for extraordinary pictures to send home to your loved ones.
To the monastery itself: Around 617, Irish-Scottish monks founded a Benedictine monastery on a flat spit of land at a bend of the Danube, some 30km west of Regensburg and 100km north of Munich. After being attacked and sacked during the Hungarian invasion in the 10th century it was put under the protection and administration of the bishopric of Regensburg. At the end of the 10th century, however, it was reinstalled as an independent monastery and was able to retain this status through the following ten centuries in spite of natural and man-made catastrophes.
From 1716 through 1739 the Asam brothers designed and supervised the construction of the abbey church in their typical Roccoco style, a very florid and ornate interpretation of the Catholic faith and well worth viewing.
Due to its situation the monastery is under constant danger of flooding, the last major flood occurred in 2005, extending to the inner courtyard and causing massive damage. Now, customized aluminum shutters can be fitted to the windows and gates to prevent flooding, and the foundations of the church have been reinforced with a system of concrete walls to protect them against the water pressure.

If anyone is interested in an organized outing, possibly on May 17 (Christi Himmelfahrt, Corpus Christ) please post here.

Corrent me if I'm wrong, but all the info for Kloster Weihenstephan, in Freising states that It is the worlds oldest and started brewing beer in 1040

Even TT's own Wiki

I might be interested in a day trip, I really don't care if its the oldest or not the oldest brewery in the world. Beer is beer!

I think the point is that Weltenburg is still a kloster, but Weihenstephan isn't, at least I don't think it is.

Oh and while we're in pedantic mode Christi himmelfahrt is Ascension day, Corpus Christi is Fronleichnam which is June7th and I would be interested on coming along on May 17th.

Don't know if it is actuall used in the Kloster sense, but it's still called Kloster Weihenstephan. (See above post)

...but weihenstephan is owned by the state, and certainly not a kloster anymore...

However, I'd love to have an organized TT trip there, I've never been there because you need a group of I believe 10, paying...8 euros each, I believe.

As with a lot of things, google reveals all: Weihenstephan

Hmmm, beer, I've come over all thirty like!

Right on both counts, thank you, honey.
The orthopedist has confirmed acute tension of my neck muscles, going so far as to cut down the circulation. I will blame any mistakes on that from now on.
So, Weltenburg is the oldest monastery brewery, and Himmelfahrt is Ascension. But they will be open on CC as well.

I would definitely be interested in heading up the weltenburg way. havent been their in some time. I have to wait until after the 13th though as I have a test, but after that I'm all game

Best Dunkel Bier in Germany hands down. Great little Kloster and if you happen to be in a bookstore look in the art section. Look for books that show barque art work and more than likely you will find the Weltenburger Barque artwork in there. I would recommend riding the boat there and hiking back which would encompass you paying the two ol cats to paddle you across the river. They are funny and if they like you they will offer coffee from their thermos as part of the cost. The hike should take you over an ol defensive wall and by the section where there was once was an elevated roman bridge.

Sounds Intresting.. Anybody got any dates in mind?

Me and the mini-bugs, maybe

@ Darkknight: As mentioned,


But another public holiday will do as well, 7 June is Corpus Christi (Fronleichnam).

more in favour of june 7th due to the fact that I will be able to walk then unlike the 17th of may.

If you cannot attend the monastary tour and would like to sample the great brew from these fine people I recommend Burgerfest in July at the best city on the Donau Regenburg (ringspurgt). Weltenburger will have a mini-bier garten serving sausages, burgers, and some of the finest brew in germany*. Also they usually have a music stage also set up playing some various world music including some bayern oompa musik. It is traditionally about ten meters from the Donau so you grab some steins, burgers, sit your fat ass** on the Donau, while enjoying the music. Burgerfest is held every two years and this being the year it is there.

* Since it is July you will not be able to enjoy their winter ale. This past years was okay but the preceding two years were great. My personal favorite was from the winter of 2004.

** I was refering to my personal fat ass. As an ass man i have veiwed many a TTer asses and their quite a few nice ones.

Definitely count me in; I love Weltenburg beers (especially the Dunkles) and the trip there is one of the best days out in Bavaria. You take the train from Regensburg to Kelheim (home to the Schneider Weisse brewery) and then take a boat through the Donaudurchbruch (Danube Gorge) to the monastery.

I'd be up for that. I haven't done the boat trip for yonks & it's a very pituresque boat trip with the added bonus that beer's involved!

We went to Kelheim & Kloster Weltenburg (never done the brewery tour though) for our "Betriebsausflug" last year. It' beautiful - we went up to the "Befreiungshalle" (yellow monument on the top of the hill) - great views. Then we walked down through the woods to the crossing point and over on the boat (the women are good crack and tell you about the area). Afterwards, took the little boat and got dropped a bit further up the river and walked back along the river to the town. The town itself is quite cute, the "altstadt" being walled. Might have some pics I could dig out and post.

I'm organising a trip to Weltenburg for a bunch of students, so thought I'd share my public transportation findings, since it took me over two hours to get my head around it. The process is complicated by the fact that there are fewer buses at weekends, and the fact that Kelheim's railway station is actually 5km away in Saal. Although the trains run all evening, the buses connecting Kelheim with Saal stop at 6pm. I try hard to defend and promote public transportation, but they really are their own worst enemy.

Of course, if anyone wants to spend more time in Kelheim on the way back (to drink in the Schneider Weisse brewery tap, for example, or to hike up to the Befreiungshalle), you can always get a taxi to Saal. All in all, although there's quite a bit of travelling, you still get a good four hours at Weltenburg, of which one would be spent on the tour.

Munich dep. 0905
Ingolstadt arr. 0949
Ingolstadt dep. 1005
Saal arr. 1042
Saal dep. (bus) 1119
Kelheim arr. 1136
Kelheim dep. (boat) 1150
Weltenburg arr. 1230

Weltenburg dep. (boat) 1640
Kelheim arr. 1700
Kelheim dep. (bus 6016) 1719
Regensburg arr. 1800
Regensburg dep. 1843
Munich arr. 2017

The boat costs €7,40 return; the Bayern Ticket takes care of the rest. These times are valid for Sundays.

We'd be up for this if in June. It's a beautiful part of the Danube, and the Barock Dunkel is indeed one of the best beers around.

Thank you, STB, very useful!
Sorry, I just did not feel up to organizing a tour for tomorrow but definitely will gather info and participants for 28 May (Pfingstmontag) or 7 June (Fronleichnam).

So did this tour yesterday and can recommend it. The day-trip to Weltenburg is always worthwhile, so I was wondering whether the tour justified the time and cost, or whether you should just sit in the beer garden instead. The tour is rather expensive - the tour of the Schneider Weisse brewery, for example, lasts 50% longer and costs half the price. But Weltenburg is one of the oldest breweries in the world, so fair enough. The guide was very good, albeit a little over-paranoid about people touching things - otherwise friendly and knowledgeable. He also spoke clearly and in Hochdeutsch! The brewery is pretty small - it now only brews the Dunkles; everything else is contract brewed in Regensburg. They apparently also offer tours in English which I would then recommend, because it would probably be a bit dull if you couldn't understand what was going on. All in all, definitely worth doing.

Just one word of warning: you get given one glass as a souvenir, but don't try and steal one of the others - he counts them back in again! He practically accused us of stealing a glass, until someone pointed out to him it was right in front of his nose.