Rothaus Alcohol-Free Beers

Rothaus: the Black Forest state brewery

Rothaus is one of German beer’s great curiosities: founded in 1791 by the Benedictine monks of St Blasien at the ‘Zum Rothen Haus’ inn, it passed to the state of Baden after secularisation and remains owned by the state of Baden-Württemberg to this day — one of Germany’s only state breweries, sitting at around 1,000 metres in the southern Black Forest, which also makes it Germany’s highest.

Its cult status rests on Tannenzäpfle (‘little fir cone’), the 33cl pilsner introduced in 1956, brewed with Black Forest spring water and famous for the ‘Biergit’ girl on the label. Rothaus came to alcohol-free carefully: its first AF beers launched in 2009 only after the brewers found a de-alcoholisation method — which the brewery says remains unique in Germany — that strips the alcohol but not the flavour.

Rothaus is also famously anti-hype: it barely advertises, sells much of its beer in its home state, and let word of mouth turn Tannenzäpfle into a cult item in bars from Berlin to London. That restraint extends to the AF beers — unpasteurised where possible, brewed with the same seven-spring water, and released only when the brewers were satisfied nothing had been lost but the alcohol.

Rothaus on Unhopped

We list both sides of the Zäpfle family at 0.5%: Rothaus Pils, a crisp, classic German pilsner, and Rothaus Hefe Weizen, a hazy banana-and-clove wheat beer. Both belong in any serious German alcohol-free line-up.