OUR HEART BEATS REGIONAL

Our vegetables have an even shorter journey than our beer and mineral water: The realm of gardener Philipp Baumgärtel lies directly behind the old brewery.
 
Philipp's heart beats especially for old vegetable varieties that are hardly available any more: Oat roots, various types of beetroot or the lettuce "Altöttinger Groß-Kopfada" (Altöttinger "big-head"). Watering is done exclusively with rainwater and our own spring water. The harvest is not quite enough for the entire restaurant year. "But salads no longer have to be bought in," reports Philipp, not without pride, and the same applies to the herbs.

The leftovers, such as vegetable cuttings or coffee grounds, then enrich the home's own compost - a wonderfully natural cycle.
 

Laura Inselkammer looks after a literally colourful bunch of chickens every day: Around 20 chickens of various breeds (maran, green-legged, golden sparrowhawk, Swedish flower hens and a few more) live not far from the inn and provide it with around 80 eggs a week. Thanks to the different breeds, the eggs have different colours and thus guarantee variety at breakfast.

Incidentally, the chickens' absolute favourite dish is a mixture of potatoes, curd cheese and garlic. "When the chickens see me approaching their coop with it, they immediately come shooting at me from all corners," says Laura Inselkammer with a laugh.
 

Founded in 1878 by Peter and Johann Liebhard as a small village brewery, the great, great, great grandson Franz Inselkammer III now runs the family business together with his father Franz II in the 6th generation.

Eleven regular varieties and five seasonal beers are brewed on the outskirts of Aying. The award-winning quality of the beers is based on the purely local ingredients from Aying and the surrounding area, the traditional craftsmanship of the brewers and a consistent awareness of quality.

Naturally, the water for Ayinger beers comes from the brewery's own spring: a 176 metre deep well that carries mineral water of the highest quality and original purity. Due to its excellent quality, the water is therefore not only used for brewing beer, but is also served as Ayinger PrimAqua in the restaurant of the Brauereigasthof Hotel Aying and in the Bräustüberl opposite.
 

Let's get one thing out of the way first: They are by no means as stupid as many an expletive would have us believe. "Quite the opposite! They are clever, good-natured animals," says Franz Riederer.

He should know: For almost 100 years, his family has been running a sheep farm in Lower Bavaria, which is now managed by his son Leonhard in the 5th generation. Their "Poltinger lamb", named after the farm, has been on our menu for many years due to its excellent quality.
 
The animals lead a truly marvellous life: They are born and grow up on the farm, with around 80 hectares of land available for the 700 sheep to graze on. Additional fodder is also grown on the farm. Four people alone, including a trained shepherd, look after the animals' welfare on a daily basis.

The lambs are also slaughtered directly on the farm and processed by our own butchers. "This allows us to guarantee optimum quality at all times, and I'm convinced of that: You can taste this great effort.“
 

The four colonies of our beekeeper Ferdinand Rohleder number around 120,000 bees. The bees have produced 83 kilos of honey this year, most of which our guests can enjoy at breakfast. But of course the honey is also used in the kitchen time and again.

Like humans, bees love stable weather: "In summer, warm days and cool nights are ideal so that the honey can dry out well," explains Ferdinand, who has been a bee fan since childhood.

He had once discovered the wooden boxes at the neighbour's house, around which it always hummed so fascinatingly. While trying to find out what the bees were up to in the boxes, he got a few stings — which didn't dampen his fascination. At the age of 14, Ferdinand was already the proud owner of his own colony.
 
In addition to the Ayinger bees, he also looks after five of his own colonies. In his main job, Ferdinand is an industrial mechanic. "It's a loud and often stressful job. Working with bees is a wonderful balance.“
 

It's a good way to live: Pleasantly grazing on one of four pastures, with a view of the Alpine foothills and well looked after by Christian and Ursula Hollweck. The director of the brewery inn runs Hof Kaltenbrunn not far from Aying together with his wife Ursula and they are the proud owners of a Pinzgau herd of around 20 cattle.

In addition to the very idyllic living conditions, a very animal-friendly end is also part of the breeding conditions: The animals are killed on the pasture. „This saves them the stress of the abattoir and guarantees consistently high meat quality," explains Christian Hollweck.

By the way, he can tell (almost) all of his cattle apart: Elvis is black and white, Harry has a curly head. "The only thing I'm unsure about sometimes is the ever-increasing number of the young generation," laughs Christian Hollweck. As the calves still have a few years ahead of them in Kaltenbrunn, they have plenty of time to make a name for themselves in the truest sense of the word.
 

We source our fish from the Birnbaum fish farm in Epfenhausen, 87 kilometres away in the Upper Bavarian district of Landsberg am Lech.
 
Together with his daughter Lea (2nd from right), Nikolai Birnbaum (left, with his wife and son-in-law) runs the farm, the foundations of which were laid by his grandfather shortly after the war: „He made ends meet for the family with the fish he caught and eventually built up the ponds, but at first he only did it on the side," says granddaughter Lea.
 
Later, the hobby became a profession and, for the second and third generation of the Birnbaum family, a true vocation. All kinds of freshwater fish can be found in the 25 or so ponds, which are filled with the purest spring water. And if you think that one fish looks like another, Lea will prove you wrong: "No two fish are the same. Fish even have real character traits," explains the master fish farmer.
 
The junior chef still loves fish dishes: "Fish is so versatile, I could eat it all the time." We think so too — preferably a Birnbaum fish in our Brauereigasthof!
 

Fritz Ruf experienced his first hunting outing at the tender age of eleven together with senior brewer Franz Inselkammer (who later married his sister Angela). Since then, Fritz Ruf has been passionate about hunting and everything that goes with it.

Fritz takes around 50 deer a year from the area around Aying. The Brauereigasthof is geographically located almost exactly in the centre of the hunting ground, which he has looked after as a co-tenant for almost forty years and which the Inselkammer family have leased for many decades. The current senior brewer has also gone hunting with his father Franz.

In addition to a large portion of patience, experience is essential: "Hunters need to know the weather, the season, the vegetation, the wind direction and so much more in order to practise their craft," explains Fritz Ruf. Incidentally, hunting is a real family passion for the Ruf family: His wife as well as all three children and of course the dog are keen hunters.
 

In 2007, a good dozen farmers from the Tegernsee valley decided to take responsibility for the quality, processing and marketing of their milk into their own hands and founded their own natural cheese dairy.

The farmers were united by one goal: Achieving greater added value, strengthening traditional agriculture and, not least, preserving local landscape structures.
Around 20 farmers now supply the cheese dairy with fresh hay milk every day. This milk has a special advantage: It can be processed without additives or preservatives and is therefore the basis for genuine natural products.

In addition to cheese, we also buy yoghurt and curd cheese from the natural cheese dairy for our Brauereigasthof.
 

It's not just good cheese that needs to ripen, some decisions do too: Wolfgang Hofmann, a trained chef, carefully considered whether he should take over the cheese shop founded by his parents in 1972. In the end, it was a resounding yes and Hofmann has been an affineur with heart and soul ever since.
 
Together with his sister Susanne, he runs the cheese shop "Tölzer Kasladen". Only artisan cheeses of the highest quality are brought in to be matured to perfection in the company's own maturing rooms. "You could also say: I take the cheese from the mountain pasture to the fridge.“
 
When his father started importing French raw milk cheese in the mid-1970s, it was a real novelty. Half a century later, the cheese horizon has evolved considerably, but Hofmann is still always on the lookout for new flavour experiences. "I've just discovered a cheese dairy in the Allgäu region that still uses a wood-fired copper kettle for production - that's really something special."
 
Does he have a favourite cheese? "Yes!" he says as if shot from a pistol. "A different one every day! The variety of cheeses is so enormous that it would be foolish to limit yourself..."
 
You can find a selection of this variety of cheeses on our menu!
 

In Anna Wernberger's life, her later vocation became apparent very early on: Even as a child, she loved baking and cooking; her mum's strawberry roulade is her childhood memory of cake.

Today, the master of home economics runs the "Hofladen beim Moar" farm shop on her parents' farm in her home town of Grasbrunn. Including a café, of course!

Guests at our Brauereigasthof can also enjoy her cakes and tarts, as Anna has been a regular supplier for some time now. She bakes exclusively with regional ingredients that come from her farm shop, sometimes in a slightly more sophisticated dimension: It took around 270 eggs to make her biggest cake to date. "Cakes are actually my favourite thing to make, as they require more craftsmanship and leave more room for creativity," says Anna.

Incidentally, the 36-year-old never uses only cream for her baked goods, but always mixes in yoghurt, curd cheese or sour cream. "Firstly, it makes it less heavy and secondly, I don't really like cream," she admits with a laugh. With one exception, of course: Mum's strawberry roulade.
 

Admittedly: Unlike Reiko Niemeyer, the members of our breakfast team (we start at 5.30 a.m.) are real late risers. Work starts at three o'clock in the bakery in the neighbouring village of Peiß. "But that's never bothered me," says Reiko with a laugh.

In 2011, he took over the traditional business, founded in 1786, from the previous family. "The lovely thing about my profession is the creativity and seeing that you have achieved something."

High-quality ingredients, craftsmanship and plenty of time are the secrets of his excellent baked goods. The pre-dough for the pretzels, for example, matures for 24 hours before it is processed further. "Good baked goods simply need time." The boss himself likes it best when things are really busy: "I'm in my element when things are going busy and there's never a dull moment."