Tuesday 23rd April 2019
Bob Thompson
Miltenberg is a small town at the very top of Bavaria beautifully situated in a loop of the twisting River Main. As can be imagined its history goes back a long way as it was, and still is, an important river crossing.
It has a long brewing heritage and once was home to many breweries that traded along the river. Now it’s the only one left. The last of the others succumbed in March 2010, please see article on Kalt-Loch-Bräustüberl.
The Faust brewery story begins at the end of the Thirty Years’ War. To resuscitate the economy after the devastation of the war the government encouraged immigrants to settle and start businesses. One such person came from Belgium, Kilian Francois Mathieu Servantaine, who was a brewer. He changed his name to the more Germanic-sounding Kilian Franzmathes and founded the Löwenbrauerei in Miltenberg in 1654.
Löwenbrauerei traded successfully for many years. In 1825 it was purchased by Georg Anton Krug. There is an interesting story surrounding him. His son August was a leader of the Liberal movement and because of this activity had to flee to America in 1849. His father followed in 1850. They settled in Milwaukee where they founded a brewery that was to evolve into Schlitz, “The beer that made Milwaukee famous”.
The Faust name appears in 1875 when Johann Adalbert Faust joined the company. He started buying back shares from the shareholders, finishing in 1895. His son Gottfried took over in 1921 and in 1932 his brother Carl Faust became the main management, assisted by brother Hermann Faust.
In turn the son of Carl Faust, Hans-Hermann, joined the firm in 1952 after graduating from the Weihenstephan university of brewing.
In 1956 he was joined by brother Gottfried Faust, a graduate engineer and with that the brewery entered the third generation of Faust ownership. Up to this time the beers were offered as the Löwenbrauerei brand. However, from the early 1960s they were traded under the Faust name. In 1993 the brewery was officially renamed as Brauhaus Faust zu Miltenberg.
In 1996 the fourth generation of the Faust family took control in the form of brewer Cornelius Faust and graduate economist Johannes Faust. Thereafter, there has been a continuous program of modernisation of equipment.
In 2004 they celebrated their 350th year since founding. Production has continued to increase and new “craft” beers have been introduced along with a dedicated shop. Output in 2018 was 63,000 hectolitres.
It was a beautiful spring day when Linda and I arrived outside the Faust Bräustüble, in Löwengasse. We had arrived by taxi as we were in the middle of a river cruise holiday and our ship had berthed some way out of town. Miltenberg has a railway station, see below. The biergarten was in full swing so we settled there under the horse chestnut trees.
After a while I went and explored the interior of the pub. The large doors from the garden were wide open and inside I found something quite unusual for Germany. The bar and back bar on the left of the room looked like the sort of thing you would find in a US bar. It had a dark wood counter with stools in front and the back was of carved wood. It was most un-Teutonic. I then walked through the “Lounge” area to a very pleasant room with wooden panelled walls, very traditional.
There were five beers offered on draught. These were: Pils (4.9%): Kräusen (5.4%) (Krausening is a system of adding newly fermenting wort to an existing brew): Schwarzviertler (5.2%): a Bavarian Dunkel (dark) beer; Hefeweizen Hell (5.2%), a light wheat beer and EX (5.3%), a Bavarian style Exportbier or Vollbier.
We tried all of them except for the wheat beer and thought they were very well made examples of these various styles.
The pub and biergarten are actually in a side street (Löwengasse) just off Hauptstrasse and is around 50 metres from the actual brewery and its adjacent shop. This pub is well worth visiting should you be in the area or on a river cruise like ourselves.
Important Information:
Faust Bräustüble, Löwengasse 3 63897 Miltenberg. Tel: 09371 2709
Hours: Summer: (25th April-30th September) Monday-Thursday 15.00-23.00;
Friday-Saturday 11.00-24.00; Sunday 11.00-22.00.
Winter: (1st October-24th April) Monday-Thursday 15.00-23.00;
Friday-Saturday 15.00-24.00; Sunday Closed.
Miltenberg railway station is at a junction of three rural branch lines.
These go to Aschaffenburg, Lauda and Osterburken, where there are further connections.
There are RB trains (local) and some RE (regional express).
To see how this connects up with the rest of the DB network use the journey planner on the DB website.
To get to the pub leave the station and cross to Berliner Platz and continue along Brückenstrasse.
Cross the river and turn right. The approach road continues down to Mainstrasse, parallel to the river Main. Keep walking until you reach Löwengasse on the left. The pub is a few metres along on the right.
Continue on to Hauptstrasse to visit the brewery and shop.
