Einbeck

Einbeck brewed on a commercial scale from the fourteenth century, with brewing rights attached to houses rather than to breweries: around seven hundred citizens held the right and brewed in turn using a communal kettle wheeled from house to house, which is why the old houses have wide arched doorways tall enough to take it. The beer was exported across northern Europe. When a Bavarian duke brought an Einbeck brewer to Munich in the seventeenth century, the local pronunciation of Ainpöckisch shortened to bock, which became the German word for a strong beer. Around four hundred timber-framed houses survive, many with carved and painted beams.

What you actually see

• The wide doorways - arches built to admit the communal brewing kettle.
• The carved beams - painted and carved timber fronts across the old town.
• The bock origin - the name that became a beer style through Munich.
• The brewing museum - the town's trade and its export reach.

When to go

April to October; the town is quiet and rarely crowded. Museums close Mondays. A bicycle museum and a car museum also operate in the town.

Honest expectations

The town is small and quickly walked. Museums keep limited hours. The modern brewery is a commercial operation, not historic.

Nearby

Göttingen lies south; Hameln is northwest.