World’s oldest monastic brewery to be sold as German beer sales slide

Weltenburger Abbey, on the banks of the Danube. Photograph: Val Thoermer/Getty Images/Westend61 RM

The world’s oldest monastic brewery, Germany’s Weltenburger, is being sold to the Munich brewers Schneider Weisse as part of consolidation in the sector in response to plunging sales.

Beer has been brewed at Weltenburg Abbey, a stunning, still active monastery on the banks of the Danube in Bavaria, for nearly 1,000 years.