With the thickest concentration of breweries per capita anywhere in the world, Bavaria’s Franconia region is known as a paradise among those who enjoy excellent, rustic lager beers. What’s less well-known is its fervent distilling culture, which exists in and around the villages that dot the countryside.
Many of these distilleries are tiny, attached to a local brewery and its restaurant-pub, there to satisfy the frequent desire for a stomach-settling schnaps after a hearty meal. While schnaps can refer to a range of spirits in Germany, in Franconia it most frequently refers to brand or obstler—brandy distilled from macerated fruit—or to geist, made by steeping macerated fruit in a neutral spirit.
Here we’ll look at two such small, family-run distilleries—both attached to respected breweries—to learn more about what makes them and their products close to the hearts of their communities.
The Weiherer Way
Oswald Kundmüller’s family has lived on and worked the land in the village of Weiher since at least 1782.
Today, the family operates Brauerei-Gasthof Kundmüller, making beer and spirits under the Weiherer brand. Oswald’s father Erwin, 82, still produces their entire range of spirits using a 150-liter copper still from Adrian Edelbrände, a 214-year-old manufacturer.
“The roots of my family come from agriculture,” Oswald says. “My father is a farmer, and making spirits out of the fruits of the land is a natural extension of growing and harvesting them.”
The Kundmüllers have been brewing and distilling at least since 1874, when Oswald’s great-grandfather was at the helm. Historically, people in the region knew them better for winemaking—but they began to transition away from that in the 1960s, troubled by insect infestations in their grape vines and other crops. Oswald says that there was no way to control the pests. “A new brewery was built, and beer became the focus,” he says. But they continued to make spirits in small quantities.
It’s possible to buy Weiherer beers in many cities across Germany, elsewhere around Europe, and sometimes overseas, but the Kundmüllers sell their spirits on site only. The lineup historically consisted of plum, apple, and pear brandies as well as a neutral-grain spirit called korn.
Korn was originally the distillery’s highest-volume spirit because the family could sell it to the state and offset taxes. It was once traditional across much of Germany to serve korn with fresh lager—a pairing known as herrengedeck, or the “gentlemen’s table setting.” With that arrangement with the state a thing of the past, the range of spirits has expanded quite a bit on Erwin’s watch.
In past decades, the Kundmüller family only needed to harvest fruit from the trees on their own land. “When I was a child, my siblings and I would be tasked with collecting the fallen fruits from the ground in the orchards surrounding the property,” Oswald says, “so that they could be used to make the wines that would be distilled.”
Today, however, there are fewer trees and less labor available to collect the fruit, so the family supplements its own trees with other local sources. “We purchase fruit from the region, often from guests who visit the brewery. Some neighbors even donate fruit from their gardens,” Oswald says.
Erwin Kundmüller preparing fruit for distillation. Photo courtesy of Brauerei-Gasthof Kundmüller.
Despite his age, Erwin still handles every part of the process. “This is his passion,” his son says. “It is his commitment; it’s what he loves to do.” Erwin takes larger fruits, such as apples and pears, and grinds them into fruit pulp. He then transfers that pulp into large, blue plastic containers, fermenting the plums naturally but adding yeast to other fruits, allowing fermentation to continue for six to eight weeks.
Erwin has introduced a pure Williams Christ pear brandy to the lineup called Birnenbrand. The signature for this spirit is a rich, ripe pear aroma that evokes an image of the sweet pears fresh off the tree.
He’s also created multiple cherry spirits. The Kirschwasser is a classic cherry spirit with a rich sweet-cherry aroma, accompanied by flavors of almonds and light vanilla. It’s traditionally paired with dark chocolate or creamy desserts. Erwin makes the Sauerkirschgeist, meanwhile, by macerating sour cherries; it presents a lighter cherry aroma with hints of marzipan. (While an obstbrand is distilled from fermented fruit, a wasser or geist—literally, “ghost” or “spirit”—comes from macerating fruit in neutral spirit.)
While the Mirabelle is their typical seasonal plum, Erwin has added a Zwetschgenwasser, which gets a type of regional prune plum. Its sweet-plum flavor lingers long into the finish, where it’s joined by elegant notes of almond and cinnamon.
The schlehe, or sloe berry, is another traditional fruit that Erwin likes to use. “It is a very bitter fruit, you would not want to eat it,” Oswald says. (There’s a common story of local fathers playing tricks on their children by suggesting they try these berries, then laughing as their mouths go numb from the bitterness.) After distillation, however, the fruit has a wonderful, punchy, bitter-almond aroma, with complex flavors and a light astringency up front, all leading to a refreshing finish.
One type of spirit that isn’t as common in the wider market but is quite traditional in Franconia is bierbrand, made by distilling leftover beer. Erwin has added a twist: “He re-uses hops from our IPA lineup,” Oswald says. He adds that by upcycling this waste product, the family can continue to find new ways to promote sustainability. In fact, the company won the 2022 European Beer Star Future Award for its work in implementing green solutions.
Oswald doesn’t see the distillation business growing in the future—instead, the family is more focused on quality. Change doesn’t tend to happen quickly or drastically when it comes to family-run businesses that are several hundred years old.
“We are busy with beer, that is our main business,” he says. “For spirits, we are focused on the quality, refining the products and making sure the packaging showcases what is inside the bottle.” They’ve reorganized the distillation area in recent years, so that customers can tour the space under the restaurant, seeing that the product is made only a few paces from where it’s sold and consumed.
With their spirits available only at the brewery shop and upstairs in the restaurant, many of their customers are tourists, who come from around Germany and the world to hike, bike, and visit breweries. Some customers stay at the on-site inn that the family operates, buying the spirits as a present or to enjoy back at home.
At the restaurant, customers almost always drink it as a digestif—a classic Franconian ritual. Patrons finish their meals—and probably a krug or two of beer—then enjoy the schnaps, served neat, to finish the experience. “When you’ve had a good Franconian meal, a guest says that the food was really fatty,” Oswald says. “This means that they need schnaps, a good spirit.”
Oswald says he doesn’t have a concrete plan for distillation when his father steps away from it, eventually. But he also says he’s not too worried about it. It would be natural to integrate the process with the brewery—Oswald’s brother Roland leads that team—and they make a lot of beer compared to the small distillation business.
One thing is for sure: The family will keep making spirits.
“Distillation, along with beer, was together since the beginning,” Oswald says. “This is part of our identity.”
Centuries of Tradition in Lower Franconia
The Brauerei-Gasthof Bayer is in the village of Theinheim, about 15 miles west of Bamberg. The brewery and restaurant have been in the Bayer family since 1718.
Fresh paint and impeccable upkeep give visitors a modern impression, at least until they set foot in the distillery—a cavern beneath the east building, with low ceilings and a gas-fired still that may be a century old.
Stefanie Bayer says the family learns the art of distilling from previous generations. Her uncle Helmut and father Michael learned from their father—beginning at 10 years old, the boys sat and watched their father distill the spirits.
The Bayers make their schnaps—liqueurs, brandies, and geist—by sourcing fruits from nearby orchards while foraging other ingredients, such as caraway. Fickle weather puts the yearly supply at the mercy of the harvest. Some years there is more fruit than is needed, Stefanie says, while in other years there is nothing available.
There is no set schedule for distillation; the family distills on-demand when the restaurant needs more. When a specific spirit is low in supply, they prioritize making a batch of that flavor.
Their spirits include plum and herbal liqueurs as well as fruit brandies. The kräuterlikör gets between 20 and 50 herbs, depending on the individual batch. For the plum brandy, they typically use Mirabelle, which delivers a classic fresh-plum aroma with subtle floral notes.
Stefanie Bayer’s late grandfather, Hermann (left), with her father Michael Bayer and their gas-fired still, which they estimate to be 80 to 100 years old. Photo: Courtesy Brauerei-Gasthof Bayer.
They begin the process by smashing up the plums while maintaining the seed’s integrity. For the apple or pear brandies, they macerate the fruit into a mousse-like consistency and add yeast, later distilling the wine twice through the old gas-fired still—first with a stripping run before the low wine gets a final distillation and precise cuts. Bayer says the family acquired the still in 1982, but they estimate that it’s 80 to 100 years old.
Post-distillation, they store the spirits in large demijohns, filling half-liter bottles directly from the spigots whenever the restaurant-pub needs more. Over there, across the courtyard, guests often enjoy a small glass after their meal in the local fashion.
Brauerei-Gasthof Bayer has been, and still is, a place for the village to gather, and for locals to come and visit. Stefanie’s father is the chef, with a kitchen making bread and noodles from scratch; they're famous locally for their wild boar.
Much like the country lagers brewed upstairs in copper kettles, the Bayer family’s spirits are part of the hospitality—and the fabric that makes this region such a uniquely charming place to visit, drawing people from near and far to enjoy its comforts.