About us

Beer was already being brewed at the property at Hauptstraße 116 in Erlangen before the Thirty Years’ War – at a time when beer was not only a luxury item but also a natural part of everyday life. With the establishment of the first imperial post office in Erlangen in 1653, the building became an important hub for interregional travel and communications, located directly on the medieval city wall.

The farm buildings house stables and feed stores for the post office’s carriage horses, while the beer brewed on site is used to serve travellers, messengers and carters. The brewers can store their beer in the rock cellars on Burgberg hill, about 500 metres away, some of which were carved into the sandstone before the war. They enable cool, constant storage throughout the year, later supported by natural ice from the Ludwig-Main-Danube Canal.

These exceptional conditions contributed to Erlangen becoming one of Franconia’s most important beer towns in the 19th century. When Carl Steinbach acquired the brewery in 1861, the town was the leading beer exporter – ahead of Kulmbach, Nuremberg and Munich. After his death, his sons Karl and Fritz Steinbach continued the brewing business in the spirit of the family.

With the reopening of the brewery in May 1995, master brewer Christoph Gewalt continued this centuries-old tradition. After completing his apprenticeship and travelling in Freiburg, Berlin and Dortmund, as well as studying in Weihenstephan, he combines historical brewing knowledge with modern technology. His own malt and a variety of special malts form the basis for characterful, unfiltered beer specialities, brewed according to old recipes and proven customs.

At Whitsun 1997, Steinbach Bräu finally returned with its original Steinbach Bergkirchweihbier to the Steinbachkeller am Berg for the first time since 1923 – and thus to a place closely linked to the history of brewing in Erlangen.