Schwarzbier — German for "black beer" — is one of the oldest beer styles in the world, with records of dark lagers being brewed in Thuringia and Saxony stretching back to the 16th century. Köstritzer is the benchmark example, brewed in Bad Köstritz since at least 1543, making it one of Germany's oldest continuously operating breweries. The beer was famously favoured by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who reputedly drank it through a period of illness when he could no longer eat solid food — his image still appears on much of the brewery's heritage marketing today.
