# The 16 Greatest German Beers of All Time

> Monastery recipes, state-owned pilsners and one beer that tastes of woodsmoke, all brewed under the same 1516 rule.

*By YPB Team · Published September 15, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-16-greatest-german-beers-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier** — score 1000/1000
   From the Freising hill where beer has been brewed since 1040, and the reference point for wheat beer.
2. **Gaffel Kölsch** — score 832/1000
   Cologne's own style, served in 200ml glasses a waiter keeps replacing until you cover it.
3. **Augustiner Helles** — score 718/1000
   Munich's oldest independent brewery and the local's choice at Oktoberfest.
4. **Bitburger Premium Pils** — score 636/1000
   The pour poured in more German bars than any other, and the country's draught benchmark.
5. **Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier** — score 538/1000
   Bamberg's smoked malt beer, which tastes of a campfire and has done since the 1400s.
6. **Jever Pilsener** — score 538/1000
   From the North Sea coast, and the most aggressively bitter pils in mainstream Germany.
7. **Uerige Alt** — score 538/1000
   Düsseldorf's copper-coloured altbier, poured from wooden casks in the old town.
8. **Andechs Doppelbock Dunkel** — score 538/1000
   Brewed at a Bavarian monastery on a pilgrimage hill, and drunk in its beer garden.
9. **Paulaner Salvator** — score 418/1000
   The original doppelbock, brewed by monks to get them through Lent.
10. **Rothaus Tannenzapfle** — score 418/1000
   A state-owned Black Forest pils in a stubby bottle that became a design object.
11. **Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier** — score 418/1000
   The state brewery's festival lager, poured in the loudest tent on the Theresienwiese.
12. **Köstritzer Schwarzbier** — score 418/1000
   A black lager from Thuringia that Goethe drank when he could not keep anything else down.
13. **Schneider Weisse Original** — score 0/1000
   The brewery that kept wheat beer alive when Bavaria's royals gave up the monopoly.
14. **Erdinger Weissbier** — score 0/1000
   The world's largest wheat-beer brewery, and the bottle most non-Germans meet first.
15. **Spaten Münchner Hell** — score 0/1000
   The brewery credited with the first modern lager, and one of the six allowed at Oktoberfest.
16. **Warsteiner Premium Pilsener** — score 0/1000
   One of Germany's biggest private breweries and its most exported pils.

Tags: brands, drinks, germany, beers