About Us

When the Malzmühle was founded more than 160 years ago at Heumarkt No. 6 under the name Hubert Koch Bier- und Malz-Extract-Dampfbrauerei , Heumarkt was still a central transhipment point for the municipal grain trade. From 1572 to the end of 1813 there was also the old municipal council mill, to which the brewery owes its name. The Malzmühle can look back on an eventful history full of ups and downs.

In 1912, Hubert Koch sold the Heumarkt brewery to his nephew Gottfried Joseph Schwartz. Gottfried Joseph Schwartz gave Bier- und Malz-Extract-Dampfbrauerei Hubert Koch the new name of Brauerei zur Malzmühle. After the death of Gottfried Josef Schwartz, his widow, Margaretha Schwartz, took over the management of the brewery. For ten years she led the fortunes of the Brauerei zur Malzmühle with a strong hand. In 1932 her son Hubert Josef Schwartz, and thus the second Schwartz generation, took over the business until his death in 1944.

The brewery to the malt mill can look back on an eventful history full of ups and downs. The most decisive experience was certainly the almost complete destruction of the malt mill by air raids in 1945. Sybille Schwartz led the company through what was undoubtedly the most difficult time. She managed to save the business and restart production after World War II. She saw to it that the old brewery, which had been completely destroyed down to the portal, was rebuilt. To this day, this portal adorns the entrance to the brewery and is therefore a symbol of the new beginning that cannot be overlooked. Brewing operations resumed as early as 1948, although guests still had to be entertained outdoors.

A very special event was certainly the visit of the then incumbent US President Bill Clinton on the occasion of the G8 summit in Cologne on June 17, 1999. Even today, the rumor persists that the President originally planned his visit to the Lommerzheim restaurant and they understood the request as a joke. In the meantime, however, several eyewitnesses have confirmed that the Malzmühle was the first choice for the President's visit from the start due to its favorable location and the sufficient number of escape routes. Even today, numerous American guests come to the Malzmühle to have their picture taken at the Clinton table under the photo of the former president.

With the conversion of the entire building complex on Heumarkt from 2010 to 2015, capacities were significantly expanded. Since 2010, the brewery has been gradually expanded from 200 to 500 seats. With the new ANNO 1858 , a multifunctional event room was created that offers a further 150 seats. The new MühlenBar has also specialized in craft beer and Kölsch cocktails. And with the Hotel zur Malzmühle , the brewery landed a special coup in 2015. Six of the 37 rooms have their own Kölsch connection with tap in the bathroom, loosely based on the motto "cold-warm-Kölsch".

The Sünner brewery in Kalk is the oldest Kölsch brewery in the world. Its origin goes back to Franz Hess, Christian Sünner's brother-in-law, who founded a small house brewery - "Zum Schiffgen" - with a distillery and pub on the Deutzer Freiheit in 1830. Around 1846, after the death of the Franz Hess couple, who had no children, Christian Sünner took over the brewery and distillery and continued to run it with his four sons.

In 1858 he acquired a larger piece of land in what was then a very small town of Kalk and built the imposing brewery building on Kalker Hauptstrasse, which is now a listed building. The stately garden restaurant "Zur Zeche" was connected to the new brewery and for a long time was one of the most popular restaurants in Cologne on the east side of the Rhine. In the decades that followed, the business boomed to such an extent that the machinery and wineries had to be constantly expanded and the performance of the Sünner brewery in 1896 was one of the top in the Cologne brewing industry.

After the brewery had been severely damaged in both world wars, it was rebuilt and restarted in the 1950s. The historic brewery building on Kalker Hauptstrasse has been restored to a high gloss. It is the oldest industrial building monument in Cologne that has been preserved in its original function.

In the shadow of the historic brewhouse, the brewery beer garden opened at the beginning of June 1996, and in 2009 the historic ice cellar was converted into a cozy brewery, characterized by the high vaulted ceilings and the unplastered brickwork.

After the Sünner brewery was taken over by the Malzmühle in January 2022, the oldest (1830) and second oldest (1858) Kölsch brewery now belong to one family and brew their beers together under one roof.