It has got to be one of Germany’s best kept secrets. Not just the six-pointed star hanging in front of the house, but the homebrewed beer the star represents. The Zoigl tradition has almost gone extinct in Germany, and if you want to experience it, you need to travel to the Oberpfalz (Upper Palantinate) in Bavaria. But what an experience will await you! Some of the best beer you’ve ever tasted, super homemade meals at reasonable prices, and a slice of German culture that dates back to the Middle Ages.
Zoigl beer
In a custom related to the German Strausswirtschaft and the English alestake, Germans in the Oberpfalz display a six-pointed star – the Zoiglstern – when homebrew is available for sale. Then the brewer will throw open the doors to a Kommunbrauhaus (community brewing house) and invite guests in for food and foaming glasses of amber that taste better than anything you can buy in a store. This beer is bottom-fermented (brewed with different yeast strains at cooler temperatures and over a longer period of time) and unfiltered. Because they compete with restaurants, Zoigl brewers can only open for a few weeks at a time, usually 14 days to 4 weeks. They’re usually open on a rotating schedule.
Dining on the premises of a community brewing house offers a cozy feeling you don’t often get in a restaurant. Germans love Zoigl brewing houses for their intimate atmosphere. A survey of guests revealed the following reasons for their visit: cheap beer, affordable meals, and the chance to chat with total strangers, often on a “du” (instead of the formal “Sie”) basis.
Where to find a brewer
Finding an open community brewing house can be tough unless you know where to look. Only 20 brewers still have the right to brew Zoigl beer, and they live in only a few German towns:
Eslarn
Falkenberg (Oberpflaz)
Mitterteich
Neuhaus
Weiden
Windiseschenbach
You can check an online calendar to see which ones are open when.
The Zoigl star
The Zoigl star looks just like the Star of David. But the its history reveals a totally different symbolism. The star has long been associated with alchemy and brewing. A popular theory is that one triangle represents the three medieval elements necessary for brewing, fire, water, and air, and the other the three ingredients in beer, water, malt, and hops. Traditionally, a white star means pale ale and a red one dark ale. The stars told an illiterate medieval public when homebrew was available. The word Zoigl, in fact, derives from the German verb “zeigen” (to show).
Have you ever visited a Zoigl brewing house in Germany? What did you think?
Literature on point:
Adolf F. Hahn, Der Zoigl: ein echer kerniger Oberpfälzer (self-published book by a Zoigl brewer, 2007)
Andreas Kassalitzky, Zoigl – Vom Ausschuss zum Kultgetränk
Martin Stangl, Das Buch vom Zoigl (Weiden: 2008)
I would love to have one of these little bottles of beer, not to drink but just to have it.
Next time I’m there, if I have a chance to purchase one for you, I will…. I can’t recall if they sell bottles of beer, but if they’re anything like the Strasswirtschaft, they probably do.
Oh… me too. Hope i’ll get one
Hey John, I’ll raise a glass to that!
I think you’re forgetting one: Zoigl beer is also brewed in Weiden in der Oberpfalz: https://www.braeuwirt.de/en/braukeller.html
Hello Eric! Thanks for the tip! Weiden is listed as one of the towns that used to brew Zoigl on this website: http://www.zoigl.de/english/zoigltowns.html. I checked your link, and although the site says it brews Zoigl beer, the brewer’s open all year around. That would tend to indicate it’s not a communal brewing house.
I double checked Adolf Hahn’s book, Der Zoigl, and although the book contains the same map as in the link, it does mention Weiden on some other pages. So I stand corrected!
Interesting about the beer and the history and meaning of the Zoigl star. Funny comment about having to stop writing about this topic because you’ll start drooling lol.
Zoigl is a fun aspect of German culture, that’s for sure! Thanks for commenting, Susan.
Search for ZoiglKalendar 2018/2019 and find the pdf. file. The Zoigl stuben in bold text brew their own bier. Others in normal text get their beer from another stuben. My favorite is Kramer Wolf in Falkenberg.
Thanks for the tip, Rick! The next time I’m in the area, I’ll swing by Kramer Wolf.
Very cool article. I have been brewing beer here in Chicago since 1999 and as far as I know I have never brewed a Zoigl but the American Homebrewer’s Association just published a recipe for one and I am ABSOLUTELY making one. I considered it as soon as I saw the recipe but now that I have read this article it’s definitely happening. Cheers & Thanks.
I’d sure love to taste your Zoigl! You ought to come out to Germany and try one there, too. There is a whole culture around it. Thanks for commenting.