Giesinger Bräu is not really a new brewery in Munich but since this week it’s now considered a true brewery of the Bavarian capital. It started in 2005 as a garage project, which reached in 2011 the "magic threshold" of 1,000 hl. Since 2014 the brewery had to move to a new location in the multi-cultural Munich suburb of Giesing in the south-east of Munich where people can also drink the beer now also in an attached brewpub. However, the business grew even further and the maximum capacity of 12,000 hl was soon reached. At the end of 2017, owner Steffen Marx planned for an even bigger brewery with a capacity of 20,000 hl with the option to double it at a later stage.
The capital of about EUR 20 million was raised mainly through its investment partner Aurelis Real Estate and other loans with EUR 3.5 million coming from a crowd funding campaign. Giesinger build the brewery on a new 4,700 square meter site in Munich’s northern suburb of Lerchenau, which is part of the working-class district of Feldmoching-Hasenbergl. This makes it more difficult to use the brewery’s old name Giesinger, which refers to the original location, where the brewery in the future will brew only part of their beers.
The new brewery, which was inaugurated today in Lerchenau, allows also to bring back bottling of the beer to the place of production which was so far outsourced. A new bottling line can fill up to 10,000 bottles an hour.
Another very positive side effect of the new location stems from the new 147m deep well where the brewery can in future obtain its brewing water which will replace the tap water. The own water is not only cheaper but makes Giesinger also a true Munich brewery. The membership in the Association of Munich breweries, with members like Paulaner, Augustiner, Spaten-Franziskaner-Löwenbräu and Hofbräu is reserved to breweries which brew their beers with authentic water from the Munich soil and not tap water which is sourced in the Mangfall region East of Munich. Only breweries which are members in this association are allowed to have their own beer tents at the renowned Munich Oktoberfest, the biggest beer festival in the world. The festival starts every year - except for this year (inside.beer, 21.4.2020) - at the end of September and runs for 16 to 18 days until the first weekend of October. Serving the own beer at the Oktoberfest with its over six million visitors from all over the world does not only guarantee record sales but is also of greatest importance in terms of marketing the beer.
