Top 10 Distilleries in Germany
Germany has one of Europe's largest and least-known distilling traditions. The country counts roughly twenty thousand registered small distilleries — most of them tiny farm operations producing obstler (fruit brandy) and Korn (grain spirit) for local consumption. On top of that base sits a smaller but rapidly growing wave of single malt whisky producers and a Berlin-led gin renaissance. These ten distilleries map the German scene from the Alps to the North Sea coast.
1. Slyrs, Schliersee (Bavaria)
Slyrs in the Bavarian Alps was Germany's first serious single malt distillery, founded by Florian Stetter in 1999. The mountain location, the use of locally malted barley smoked over beechwood, and the long maturation in the cold alpine air give Slyrs a clearly Bavarian character. The 12 Year Old and the Mountain Edition are the references.
2. St. Kilian, Rüdenau (Franconia)
St. Kilian in the Spessart hills opened in 2016 and is now Germany's largest single malt distillery by volume. Founded by industry veterans, it produces a remarkably wide range — peated and unpeated, sherry and bourbon cask, and a constant stream of small-batch releases that have built a strong following across Europe.
3. Monkey 47, Loßburg (Black Forest)
Monkey 47, distilled in the Black Forest village of Loßburg, is the German gin that put the country on the global craft spirits map. The recipe uses 47 botanicals, including the regionally foraged lingonberry, and the small bottle with the monkey label is now stocked behind serious bars worldwide.
4. Stählemühle, Eigeltingen (Lake Constance)
Stählemühle was a tiny obstler distillery on the Bodensee that, under distiller Christoph Keller, became one of the most awarded fruit-brandy producers in the world during the 2010s before closing in 2018. The bottles remain reference points for what a German obstler can be — single-orchard, single-variety, distilled in tiny copper pot stills.
5. Schladerer, Staufen (Black Forest)
Schladerer in Staufen, founded in 1844, is the best-known classic Black Forest obstler house. The Kirschwasser, Williams pear brandy, and the various plum and apricot bottlings are the textbook examples of southern German fruit distilling and the bottles you will still see in every German hotel bar.
6. The Duke, Munich
The Duke Munich Dry Gin, distilled in the Berg am Laim district of Munich, was one of the first urban German craft gins and built its identity on Bavarian botanicals — hops, malt, and lavender — that lean the spirit clearly toward southern Germany rather than the London Dry tradition.
7. Berliner Brandstifter, Berlin
Berliner Brandstifter in Wedding produces an organic gin, vodka, and Korn using ingredients sourced from Brandenburg. The clear bottle and the Berlin focus made it one of the city's most visible craft brands and a fixture in the capital's bar scene.
8. Hardenberg-Wilthen, Nörten-Hardenberg (Lower Saxony)
Hardenberg-Wilthen is one of Germany's oldest and largest spirits houses, producing the famous Hardenberg Korn — the benchmark grain spirit of northern Germany — alongside fruit brandies and increasingly whisky. The estate distillery near Göttingen has been in operation since the seventeenth century.
9. Eifel Destillerie, Koblenz
Eifel Destillerie produces Eifel single malt whisky, gin, and traditional Korn using grain grown in the volcanic Eifel uplands west of the Rhine. The small batch size and the regional focus place it among the more interesting new German whisky names.
10. Liebl Destillerie, Bad Kötzting (Bavarian Forest)
Liebl in the Bavarian Forest produces the Coillmór single malt — Gaelic for "great forest" — using Bavarian barley and traditional pot stills. The forest microclimate and the long, cold winters create a distinct maturation profile that has put Coillmór on European whisky maps.
German distilling in context
Germany's distilling identity is fragmented — fruit-brandy farms in the south, Korn houses in the north, urban gin distilleries in Berlin and Hamburg, and a fast-growing whisky scene in Bavaria and Franconia. There is no single national style yet, but the underlying craft is among Europe's deepest. The map shows the geographic spread from the Alps to the Baltic.