If you have ever attended the official Oktoberfest in Germany, you might have noticed a very exclusive club of beer providers.
For generations, the festival has been strictly dominated by the ‘Big Six’ Munich breweries: Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu München , Löwenbräu, Paulaner, and Spaten.
Under strict regulations, only breweries that produce their beer using water drawn from Munich city’s wells are legally permitted to pour at the famous Theresienwiese festival grounds.
These six historic giants have fiercely guarded this privilege under the custodianship of Verein Münchener Brauereien e.V.
Or the Munich Brewers Association, for us down under.
From Augustiner, which still taps its beer from traditional wooden kegs, to the international powerhouse of Paulaner, these six stalwarts have shaped global beer culture and set the gold standard for traditional Märzen and Festbier.
When you raise a stein of their brews, you are tasting centuries of highly protected, masterfully refined brewing history.