Andechs is a Benedictine monastery (“Kloster” in German) located atop the appropriately named Holy Mountain, overlooking Lake Ammersee, just outside Munich, Germany. Kloster Andechs boasts a stately baroque basilica, but its fame is perhaps rivaled by that of the monastery’s brewery. The Klosterbrauerei makes several types of Bavarian beer, all highly regarded, including a 5.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) weissbier and a 4.8% ABV helles. However, Andechs’ best-known beer is perhaps its 7.1 ABV doppelbock, the modern interpretation of the medieval monks’ “liquid bread.” In Bavaria, doppelbock is universally made only in late winter, for the Lenten season, but at Andechs it is a year-round beer. Andechs is a packaging brewery, but it also has a beer hall on the monastery premises as well as a beer garden with an absolutely spectacular view, which on a clear summer day extends all the way to the glacier-capped Alps in the distance. There is evidence of brewing by monks at Andechs going back to the 12th century, when the place became a monastery. It became a Benedictine abbey in 1455, when it also acquired its official brew rights. Around that time, the church, which was started in 1430, also became a destination of pilgrimage, and the location acquired its current name of Holy Mountain. Swedish troops damaged the church during the Thirty Years War (1618–1848) and a lightning strike in 1669 did further damage. The church was rebuilt to its present state by 1675. Today, Andechs beers are brewed in a modern high-tech brewery that was completed in 1984 just below the old monastery buildings and the beer garden.

See also munich.