The days of kings, nobility and the court are long gone – at least in Germany. The last monarch wielded his scepter in 1918, after which the country became a democratic republic. What remains is a series of noble families that nowadays hardly have any political function. Instead, the princes and princesses are business people or involved in charitable causes. Luitpold Rupprecht Heinrich Prince of Bavaria, for example, studied law and today manages both the Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory and the König Ludwig Castle Brewery in Kaltenberg.
Long before the current Prince of Bavaria was even born, his ancestors were already in charge of the brewery. Duke Ludwig II commissioned the construction of the Fürstenfeld monastery after he had his wife executed for reasons that later turned out to be false. The castle brewery is located there today. He was also the one who brought the brewing business to Munich: in 1255 he ordered the construction of a ducal brewery and thus laid the foundation for the city's beer history. And the development of Munich into the wheat beer capital of the world is also due to a Wittelsbach monarch. In order to get a large mountain of debt under control, Maximilian I of Bavaria established the previously largely banned wheat beer. With a ducal privilege, he granted boiling rights and catapulted the beer style to the top. A positive side effect was excellent income, which brought the state budget back into balance. Another relative of today's managing director is the founder of the Oktoberfest. The reason for the first grandiose festival on today's Theresienwiese was the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Another king with a beer influence was King Ludwig II, who was interested not only in art and music but also in science and supported the establishment of the Royal Polytechnic School in Munich. Beer research was carried out there from the very beginning and the key figure in modern refrigeration systems, Carl Linde, presented his discoveries on the refrigeration machine there in the course of a lecture. During all this time, the finest beer was brewed in the König Ludwig Schloßbrauerei Kaltenberg.
However, it was Prince Luitpold of Bavaria who led the company to real success. We owe the extensive modernization to his tireless efforts. The prince set his horses to dark beer, which was rather unusual at the time, and achieved great success with it. Today, the brewery's range consists of a selection of handcrafted specialties that are made using modern technology and selected raw materials. The brewery team draws its knowledge from an incredible 800 years of brewing experience, which you can taste!