Organic Kübelbier 500ml – unfiltered – easy-drinking – Zwickl – a speciality – naturally cloudy full-bodied beer from Hofstetten Brewery

The fact that this delicacy was preserved for the public at all and became known as ‘Kübelbier’ is down to the fire brigade divers led by Franz Krammer Sr. As far back as 500 years ago, brewers in the Mühlviertel region would, on special occasions, tap the unfiltered, naturally cloudy full-bodied beer directly and fresh from the cask into a bucket, from which it was then drunk together. Because this process preserved the protein, yeast and hop flavour compounds, this beer tasted smooth and harmonious like no other. No wonder, then, that senior master brewer Franz Krammer wanted to revive this old tradition. So it was decided without further ado to become the first brewery in Austria to bottle this cloudy beer and market it professionally. But what should the new beer be called? ‘Zwickl’ would be the correct term, but far too staid. For even from the bottle, the original Hofstettner Kübelbier continues to inspire enthusiasm: for example, by winning two first prizes at the Hallein Beer Festival in 2005 and 2008, or by taking gold at the Upper Austrian Beer Awards in 2010 with the ‘Culinarix’. And the fact that this enthusiasm really knows no bounds is demonstrated by the strong demand from the USA, to which this Mühlviertel beer speciality is now being exported by the bucketful.