Munich (Germany) (AFP)

It all started in a garage. Today, Giesinger beer has made its way into the very exclusive club of authentic Munich beers. It hadn't been seen for over a century.

Admittedly, it still acts as a small thumb against the six other great beers - Augustiner, Paulaner, Löwenbraü, Spaten, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu-, some of which are several hundred years old and considered to be true cultural monuments of the Bavarian capital. .

But "we have reached our goal, we are now taken seriously because we have shown that yes, we can brew a + Munich Hell + type (real Munich beer)", proudly declares the founder of the brewery Giesinger Steffen Marx at the AFP.

- A 150 m deep well -

In 2006 she got the idea and the desire to create her lager, whose name is inspired by the working-class neighborhood "Giesing" where it was born.

The beginnings are artisanal, his garage is transformed into a brewery. After six years, he took other, more spacious neighborhoods, developed through credit and crowdfunding.

Inspired by the fashion of "craft beers", it relies on quality, without filtration or heat treatment, which is why it is appreciated especially by the youngest.

"To become a Munich brewery, you have to dig a well at least 150 meters deep, and with the water thus collected, you can then brew a beer + Munich Hell +", he explains.

Cost of the operation: around 700,000 euros and a 10-year renewable authorization to use the city's groundwater for brewing.

And of course the production must take place on Munich soil.

- A tent at Oktoberfest? -

Outside the brewery, customers, their feet in fine sand strewn on the ground, sip their Giesinger.

"I find it surprising, but also good that a small brewery has succeeded in a few years in producing Munich beer", says Stefan, a customer, saying that he hopes that she will soon be able to have her tent at the Oktoberfest. which would mean a considerable publicity boost.

But it is not for now. With a production of 12,000 hectolitre per year, Steffen Marx knows that it does not yet have the size sufficient to satisfy the thousands of visitors. He has just opened a second site which should allow him to increase it to 30,000 hectoliters.

Either way, this big event is, like many others, canceled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

© 2020 AFP