Maximilian I Establishes the White Brewery in Kelheim

In 1607, Bavarian Duke Maximilian I established a ducal white brewery in Kelheim. After the male Degenberg line had ended in 1602, the family’s wheat-beer privilege and breweries reverted to Maximilian. He recognized the substantial revenue that could be generated through the controlled production and sale of the increasingly popular wheat beer and founded numerous ducal white breweries across Bavaria. The brewery in Kelheim was the first of these newly established ducal white breweries and became part of the Wittelsbach wheat-beer monopoly. Wheat beer remained an important source of state income under Maximilian, helping to finance the Bavarian government and part of the costs of the Thirty Years’ War. The historic Kelheim brewery survives as the Weisses Bräuhaus and has belonged to the Schneider family since 1928. It later became the production site of Schneider Weisse.