Brewing Down to a Fine Art
How We Make Our Beer
We’ve been brewing König Pilsener in Duisburg-Beeck in western Germany since 1858. Our long-standing tradition and attention to detail have made our beer what it is today: a pilsner of the highest quality with an unbeatable taste. Read on to discover exactly how König Pilsener is made and how it finds its way from our brewery to you.
Our Brewery
An exceptional beer to savor the moment – brewed to perfection using a combination of traditional methods and the latest technology. König Brewery in Duisburg-Beeck in western Germany is one of the country’s best-known breweries and has been making König Pilsener since 1858.
The World’s Oldest Food and Drink Law
The German Beer Purity Law was introduced by the Bavarian Duke Wilhelm IV in 1516. It continues to dictate how beer is produced in Germany to this very day, making it the oldest surviving food and drink law in the world. It is a cornerstone of the Bitburger Brewery Group’s commitment to producing brews of outstanding quality.
Specially Selected Ingredients to Ensure Consistent Quality
The Bavarian Duke Wilhelm IV brought in the German Beer Purity Law on 23 April 1516 to establish a consistent level of brewing quality and to prevent dangerous experimentation. The law stipulated that beer could only be produced from water, malted barley, and hops.
The Importance of Yeast
Yeast’s essential role in beer fermentation was not understood when the law was first introduced. Instead, it took until the 19th century for the importance of this fourth ingredient to be recognized.
Brewing Without Additives
Beer from the Bitburger Brewery Group has always been free from artificial flavorings and additives. Even as modern brewing techniques developed, the Bitburger Brewery Group has remained true to the ingredients prescribed by the German Beer Purity Law. The Group believes in preserving the unique, natural taste that only these ingredients create.
Protectors of the German Beer Purity Law
The German Beer Purity Law is recognized worldwide as a sign of superior beer quality.
Our Ingredients
Carefully Selected Barley
We only use the golden-yellow grains of the best barley in our beer. The barley is malted to allow its starch to be converted into sugar during brewing.
Aromatic Hops
Our hops give König Pilsener its mildly bitter taste. So crucial are they to our beer’s flavor that our master brewers searched far and wide to find the hops with the finest aroma. They struck it lucky in the German region of Hallertau, which has one of the country’s richest hop-growing traditions.
Pure Water
Another essential ingredient in our beer is pure, mineral-rich water sourced from Hohe Mark Nature Park, which is just 28 miles from our brewery. After subjecting the water to strict quality controls, we combine it with our hops and malt, drawing on our passion and years of experience to transform it into our delicious König Pilsener.
Let the Brewing Commence
The actual beer brewing process begins with mashing. The water and malt are gently heated to release starch from the malt. The natural enzymes in the malt grains then convert this starch into sugar, producing wort in the process. Our master brewers later add this wort to the hops.
Specially trained brewing technicians monitor the entire process to ensure that our beer is always of the highest quality. They keep a close eye on the brews every step of the way – from the selection of only the best ingredients to the bottling of the finished product.
From Our Brewery to You
During the bottling process, our recycled beer bottles travel roughly 300 meters as they are cleaned, filled, and labeled. This process takes place fully automatically and in virtually no time at all. Around 55,000 bottles pass through the bottling line every hour, which means that 1,320,000 bottles of fresh König beer are filled every day.
We also use state-of-the-art machinery to fill our beer crates. Only by investing in the latest technology for our production facilities can we ensure that our König Pilsener beer retains the fantastic flavor and premium quality for which it is known.
After bottling and packaging our beer, we load it onto truck trailers and send it on its way to beer lovers across Germany and around the world. Almost 100 trucks leave König Brewery with this precious cargo every day.