Rugenbraeu Brewery, Interlaken

Rugenbräu is a beer brewery in Matten near Interlaken in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. It has been family-owned since it was founded.

The company's origins go back to a brewery with a distillery, which Grand Councilor Christian Indermühle from Kiesen built in 1866 on the Gasthausmatte of the Gasthof Hotel Interlaken. After his death, his sons Carl and Albert took over the brewery and built Felsenkeller in Rugen, a mountain near Interlaken, to store the beer in 1875.

In 1880 they had to sell the brewery and with the help of the Berner Kantonalbank it was converted into a public limited company. Their properties were acquired in 1892 by the Bavarian master brewer Joseph Hofweber (Kochbräu and Hofwebersche Brewery in Freising), who had already bought the brewery in Reichenbach Castle near Zollikofen two years earlier. In 1895 a brewery was built above the vaulted cellar in Grosser Rugen and production was completely relocated to it. The Bavarian brewery in Interlaken was shut down.

The company was now called J. Hofweber & Cie. AG and had its headquarters in Interlaken and a branch in Reichenbach. In 1920 it was merged with a second brewery on the Bödeli to form the brewery operating company Hofweber & Horn , which became the collective company J. Hofweber & Cie. AG and Gebr. Horn and in 1968 became the Aktiengesellschaft Rugenbräu AG.

In 1971 the brewery in Reichenbach Castle was closed. Since 1988, however, their premises have been used again as a depot for the greater Bern area. Rugenbräu AG is still family-owned today.

In addition to light lager, dark beer, premium beer with corn and an unfiltered beer (Zwickel), a non-alcoholic beer is also produced. In addition, the brewery has been on the market since March 2008 with several whiskey bottlings and the Fleur de Bière d'Interlaken , a schnapps made from strong beer. Finally, the company also sells wines, offers mixed drinks ( Mountain Twister ) and sells soft drinks from various manufacturers.

The Amber Oberland was introduced in 2017.

The brewery produces almost 4 million liters of beer annually. In total, the annual beverage output (beer, mineral water, wine and spirits ) is 8 million liters (80,000 hectoliters).