There is a brewery here in Bavaria that has been in continuous operation since 1040 AD. In fact, it is the oldest continuous operation brewery in the world.
Yeah, I still fondly remember taking part in the 1200-year anniversary of my hometown in my youth, but it hasn't been *that* special.
I mean, most of the surrounding towns are older.
New-World-perspective is really strange from a European standpoint. Thinking of 200-year-old stuff as "old"...
So true! We are just now carefully planning our yearly 250-mile-voyage to my parents that are living in a 300 year old building located in a 1200 year old town.
Yeah I always find that particular difference in thought so interesting. Everything in America is pretty young so the idea of a 1200 year old town doesn't even properly compute for me.
On the other hand we will do a 250+ mile drive for a holiday dinner, spend the night and drive back again the next day and not think it odd.
Depends on the roads. We only got a second lane each direction on the road between Norwich and London in 2017. Before that you'd hit traffic jams and Elveden / Thetford and honestly some of the major roads through the north / borders are absolutely terrifying!
If you grew up surrounded by buildings of which the oldest have already been part of the Roman Empire, you have plenty of existing old stuff in your vicinity to compare other old stuff to.
If, on the other hand, you grew up in a single country that spans a whole big continent basically from coast to coast, you have had plenty of opportunity to directly experience huge distances you now are able to compare other distances to.
There are 1,000 year old towns in the U.S. Like, two or three, but they exist. And there reasonably intact ruins of even older towns. And elsewhere in the Americas, like in Mexico, there are even older towns.
My family's property has a Native American burial mound on it. I have no idea how old it is. I also found a tomahawk head in the stream near my house when I was 6. Not sure the date on that either.
Yes, I just had fun with street-view a few weeks back and came across one of those infamous street-signs where the nearest posted landmark already was 140 miles away, the farthest 1100.
And not a tourist spot, these were serious signs for locals!
I stared at it for quite a while.
Speaking as an inhabitant of a country where the top one loneliest place is just 6.3km from the nearest human settlement:
Australia is out of competition, I am afraid.
Rest of the world still playing two leagues below...
America is slightly larger than Australia but they have inland cities. We just have desert, camels and giant fucking roos. I've been out there though. It's absolutely beautiful if you enjoy dead silence and massive horizons
Lol, yeah, my mother lives ~900 miles away from me, I drive it once or twice a year, 13 hours, doesn't seem too bad to me. I leave home at 8pm, get in around 9am. Overnight traffic is light, plus no sun in my eyes!
I do 5 hrs of driving most weekends to get to and from my Australian beach house. I quite like it. A bag of chips, a sausage roll and some good tunes and I am all set
Ah yes, the half way point between Melbourne and Cairns is Brisbane.
Or for those not familiar, the distance between the top bottom of the big pointy bit on the top right of the country is the same as the entire chunk below it.
For Easter, my mothers birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas every year for the last 20 years, I've driven 680 miles (,≈1095km) each way. It takes about 10 hrs, and I stop 1 time.
My mothers house is 101 years old this year. It was a parcel of land given to a railroad worker as pay for building the railroad. The original family owned it until the ladies husband forced her to sell it in a divorce, and my parents bought it. When I tell other Americans this, they are amazed at the age and known history of a house.
I love hearing about different cultures’ perceptions of things like this. I just went on a 300-mile drive for business and, on a whim, went on a 300-mile detour to hang out with a friend.
Growing up, my parents always complained about our house being too old. It was about 80 years old
My parents house is about 300 years old, its outer walls consist of >60cm thick piled natural rock, it has two vaulted cellars, one with its own water well going deep into the underlying ground. It also survived a hit by a shell during WWII.
My home is a ~70 years old apartment building that is at least also quite solidly build, but has a lot of problems due to its age. Corroding plumbing, old ugly doors, crumbling plaster.
In many ways, this only 70 year old building feels older than the almost castle-like building of my parents. But a different kind of old...
I remember one story my mom had was that when she went to college back in the 80s some East coasters talked about "taking a weekend trip to Big Bend." and she just laughed.
There's an Interstate road called I-10 that runs from Los Angeles, California to Jacksonville, Florida. The Western entry point of I-10 into Texas is El Paso, and the Eastern entry point is Orange.
I’ve driven the entire length of I-10. Only interstate I can say that about. Would need to drive from Boston to Maine to complete I-95. Was about to complete I-40 but got arrested midway and had to drive back. 🚔
Well specifically for a business too. There really aren’t that many in the world that go back several centuries and beyond.
But yea my city just celebrated its 178th birthday since incorporating. That’s on the older side for anything not on the east coast really. It was just a trading outpost in 1800
This is the point I was looking for. It’s hard for nations to continue functioning for that long. For a business to go through changes of empires and governments etc etc and continue operating for that long is crazy. Multiple world wars broke out and the brewery just kept kicking. Old world or new that should be impressive. This guy just wanted to sound cool cuz his country’s old US is young so bad he was willing to diminish the accomplishment
My hometown was founded circa 150AD… my grandkids might get to see the 2000 year anniversary.
Originally settled in the Mesolithic age but the current town was founded around 150. There’s a tower from 700 that you can still climb up in the middle of town.
You do mean "New" World settler's perspective, right? Those of us whose ancestor have been here 20,000 years have a different perspective. We had towns that were that old until the colonizers burned them (or in modern times submerged them in reservoirs built for dams).
We are branded as old continent, my great great grandfather's house is still standing, it has been renovated and painted pink but it's still older than most of the countries today
As an Australian, going to London the first time was a trip - the corner pub near the friend in Camden I was staying with, was more than a century old when the first Europeans landed in Australia.
But the way my European friends would moan at the prospect of a 45 minute drive, when a 2 hour commute to work in Sydney was just normal for anyone who didn’t have family money.
As a European living in Canada, this amuses me too. In Montreal they’ve fought to save ugly crumbling industrial buildings from the 1800s as “historical monuments”. To me they’re a bunch of eyesores, but I guess when you don’t have much other history to show for…
Big difference between a town (hundreds or maybe even thousands have been around for over 1000 years) and a brewery (literally none have been around for 1000 years. Yet.)
The city I went to university at had its 2000th anniversary back then, founded by the Romans.
Every time some road construction was going on the work was often halted for several years as they discovered yet another ancient ruin and archeologists had to examine and unearth what had been found.
Word has it that construction companies would regularly demolish the stuff without telling anyone in order to get their job done and get paid. Nuts
The crazy guys in the city council seriously thought that they should build a big underground garage. Can't take longer than a year or two, can it?
Was fun watching the archaelogists doing their work for several years, unearthing the remains of a big roman thermal city bath for the next 5 years or so...
Not as insane or special, but I had the opportunity of celebrating the 730 year anniversary of one of my universities. Unfortunately I don't think how healthy I will be to celebrate the 800th. lol
If it has enthusiasts, it has a tournament, no exceptions. They will be hard to find unless you fall down the rabbit hole for some niche things, but I've seen some pretty crazy championships. Customer support has championships. You sign your company up and at some points during the year testers will call in and act like a customer and score you. I once walked past a building that was hosting a typewriting championship.
Oh I get it, you're one of those "Taisto Miettinen is getting old"-doomsayers. We've heard all of that for years and yet he never lets Finland down. Bring your Estonian wives so they can see how a real man carries!
Look, there’s no denying the man’s impressive. Massive respect to him for all he’s done. But there’s no denying he had to switch wives just to get back on the winning streak. lol
At the rate I’m going I’ll be as old as Taisto before I even get married. Lmao. Maybe I can ask a female friend to volunteer as a partner. Now all I need to figure out is if there are tryout held on American soil.
The Excel scene has sadly been dominated by the chinese market since the 16.22 patch that added localization. Makro called it back in the day, and it has panned out exactly as he predicted. Every western player in the pro excel scene now has to learn eastern macros to stay competitive...
They still do some Ocho events during off hours on ESPN 2. They only do an hour of different things so you don't see the whole thing, but I watched some Excel, Cornhole, and Kickball.
Customer support has championships. You sign your company up and at some points during the year testers will call in and act like a customer and score you.
That sounds like it's less about "enthusiasts", and more about corporations testing employees under the guise of "competition."
Yeah, I came here to say this. I had some friends go to the brewery on their honeymoon and I guess they’ve already began working on their 1000 year anniversary celebration.
Imagine that. You've been pursuing the art of the perfect beer for centuries, to the point that you've won several worldwide awards and are preparing for your thousand year anniversary. Your brewery is older than most COUNTRIES. Entire empires have risen and fallen during the lifetime of your brewery. Your brewery is so old that it is possible people on the First Crusade brought your beer with them to the Holy Land.
And then some bloviating rascal probably not even old enough to drink yet in his home country, a crime infested ostensibly developed country with outsized importance due to the willingness of leadership to sacrifice its youth to fight wars in areas they can't even mark on a map, tries to claim that their pale imitation craft beer is better than yours and calls your beer weak.
It is rather funny when you think about it. Though, I will say, America does have some excellent modern breweries as well. I frankly don’t understand why people fight about it. We should all be friends and enjoy each other’s beer together. That’s the spirit of beer if you ask me.
A long time ago way back in history
When all there was to drink, was nothing but cups of tea.
Along came a man by the name of Charlie Mopps,
And he invented a wonderful drink and he made it out of hops.
Hey!
He must have been an admiral, a sultan, or a king.
And to his praises we shall always sing.
Look at what he's done for us, he's filled us up with cheer.
Lord Bless Charlies Mopps the man who invented
Beer, Beer, Beer, tiddly beer, beer, beer
It's so much better as a draft. Not sure if you have them out that way, but Yard House is a chain that often has the Hefe on tap, and it's the best.
I wanted to visit the brewery, but I usually end up in Germany around the holidays and the brewery is closed to the public since it's got a religious aspect to it, I think it's run my monks or something lol
Yeah I agree, I went to the brewery back in 2014 when I was in Germany. That was the first time I tried it, such a good beer.. I wasn’t there during the holidays but I could see that haha
I was in Bavaria the other week and actually had their beer for the first time
Not surprising. Beer is pretty new to Bavaria. I'm guessing they saw the success of American microbreweries and are trying to model their own beer after it. It will be cool to see what kind of beer Bavaria makes after a few years discovering their niche in the beer world.
Nah, it'll never catch on there. Beer just isn't compatible with the Bavarian culture and way of life. They're about as likely to adopt American inventions like sausage and sauerkraut as they are beer.
I’ve heard of this cool style called a Marzen that’s making waves in the American craft beer community. Maybe Bavaria will try their hand at it? I bet they’ll like it so much, they’ll put together a little festival where they serve it!
I'm from Bavaria, or more specifically Franconia, which is the area with the highest number of breweries per capita in the world and we mostly consider Weihenstephan industrially made dishwater lol
Best Dutch lager is Hertog Jan. Amstel is piss. Heineken is just boring. No flavour, no nuance. I don't get angry about Heineken, just sad. Too close to water for my taste
There’s a place in Milwaukee that serves that beer. They throw a huge Oktoberfest celebration every year that’s better than any other one I’ve ever been to.
It’s also owned by the bavarian government and comnected tl the Technical University of Munich… which means you can get a Master‘s degree in brewing beer there!
Sorry that's been your experience, but there are plenty of American craft breweries making a variety of different styles. On my way to get some now actually.
Yeah I was a little hyperbolic but it’s overwhelmingly leaning towards ipas, you’re absolutely right though there are a lot of other nice beers even if sometimes hard to find.
We have a restaurant where I live that the owner is very big into his German heritage and has been to the country many times, and naturally has a ton of German beers on his menu.
Any time I get something from this brewery there, I 100% butcher the shit out of whatever it’s named.
When I was in Germany in 2002, I drank a special 900th anniversary beer from Berchtesgaden. I can't even conceive 900 years, much less imagine how a town that small has persisted that long. I think that actually brewery had 'only' been around since the 1600's though, lol.
I've read that the document that claimed the founding in 1040 was a forgery. That it's from sometime in the 17th century, so still older than the US. And the beer is great!
I had a Bavarian beer recently and it claimed it was founded in 970 (or something along those lines). I found that very strange… can’t remember which one it was unfortunately. Light blue bottle, typical Helles colour. Something like Tegernseer
Edit: it WAS Tegernseer. If you go to their website, and then to ‘Historie’, they advertise with the date of the founding of the monastery where brewing started in the year 746…
I brought a keg of their pilsner in on a whim when I was managing a bar a few years ago and did a doubletake when I saw the 1040 AD on the tap handle. Had to look it up because I didn't believe it.
Really good beer, and none of my regulars could pronounce the name so they'd just ask for a Gwen Stefani.
One of the best things about total wine was they have the scores on the description tags. Because of those I tried them like 15 years ago. They've been my go to ever since.
Weihenstephaner is one of my favorite imports that I always buy a shit ton when I find a place with stock. Especially the starkbraus. It's pretty fucking amazing and I've lived in American beer country my whole life.
They even have a photo opp handing over 2,000 € in tax write-off to "People in need", that's actually 2€ for every year they've been operational.
They are the biggest charity in the town of Freising!
Age aside was he trying to say America has good craft beer? It's watered down crap from the big brewers. At the international tasting contest in Frankfurt Zero gold awards for US craft beer. EVEN in a categories for American style beers like new england IPA.
I have to drink imports when I travel there. 1 Heineken please.
What is even better is that they were bootlegging since 768. They got their LICENSE in 1040 after 272 years of brewing. They are closer to 1500 years of brewing than 1000 years of brewing.
Christ, they are close to have been brewing beer under license as long as they Byzantine empire stood!
There is a brewery here in Bavaria that has been in continuous operation since 1040 AD
This is actually pretty debatable. The document that claims 1040 is a suspected forgery
Until the 1950s, the brewery described its date of foundation as the year 1146. At this time, a document allegedly dating to the year 1040 resurfaced. In it, Otto I, Bishop of Freising, bestowed a brewing right upon the abbey. The document is generally dismissed as a forgery from the early 1600s. The first written record of the brewery dates to the year 1675. Another source, dating to 768, indicates the presence of a hop garden nearby.
They claim to have existed since 1040, but from what I know theres no proff that they existed before some time in the 1100s. Still the oldest brewery in the world and their hefeweissen is amazing
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u/GCU_Problem_Child 27d ago
There is a brewery here in Bavaria that has been in continuous operation since 1040 AD. In fact, it is the oldest continuous operation brewery in the world.
https://www.weihenstephaner.de/en