# Liechtenstein

Country page of DA Caps, a collection of beer bottle caps. Web page: https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country/li/info

- Official name: Principality of Liechtenstein
- Local name: Fürstentum Liechtenstein
- Caps in the collection: 3 (https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country_caps/134)
- Brands: 1

## Beer in Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein is a land of wine and cider, and beer has always played a smaller part there; the Historical Lexicon of the Principality calls it today's most popular alcoholic drink but of less weight in the past. From 1794 the princely treasury (Rentamt) auctioned time-limited brewing concessions, and in Vaduz they went to the white cooper Anton Frommelt (1810-12, at first with the glazier Benedikt Huber), the cooper Anton Rheinberger (1820-26) and a Magnus Risch (1832-38). The auctions ended with the abolition of the 'monopoly trades' in 1848; the last concession holder, Johann Baptist Quaderer of Schaan, had begun in 1841.

Quaderer, an innkeeper, mayor and member of the Landtag, brewed on the side from 1840 or 1841, the sources differ. After his death in 1875 his son Rudolf (1848-1896) took over the inn and from 1879 brewed full-time. From 1880 to 1917 the family ran the Bierbrauerei Quaderer together with the inn Bierkeller, known as the Bierhüsle, on Feldkircher Strasse in Schaan. The brewhouse dates from 1887, and ice from the family's pond was packed into a wall of the vaulted cellar to keep the beer cool until autumn. The economic effects of the First World War forced the brewery to close in 1917 (the inn lasted until 1984). Brewing came back only in 2007.

The revival began as a half-joking conversation at a regulars' table in 2006 and became a business plan. The Liechtensteiner Brauhaus AG was founded in Schaan in March 2007 by Dr Bruno Güntensperger, who chairs its board; the first brew was in October 2007 and in December two beers went on sale, Hell's and Weiza. It grew in steps: storage and filtration capacity doubled to 600 hl in 2008, the CLUB BIER craft line came in 2014, and in 2015 cold hopping, 800 hl of fermenting and storage capacity and the cold-hopped lager Alpagold. The beers won Swiss Beer of the Year in 2009 and 2011, DLG gold for Hells in 2010 and a European Beer Star gold in 2024 for Club 05 White IPA.

Space ran short in the old building in the Rösle district, and from 2019 the company planned a new one on a building-right plot at Im alten Riet 156 given by the municipality of Schaan. Ground was broken in September 2020; production stopped for two months for the move and the first brew in the new house was in October 2021. The brewery and its Braumarkt shop opened in May 2022, the Braustube restaurant, built with Ospelt Catering and not run by the brewery itself, on 20 August 2022 and the beer garden on 30 April 2023. A second brewery, the PrinzenBräu AG of Balzers under Peter Eberle, brewed from 2010 (entered in the commercial register in July 2011) four beers and a beer brandy called Spiritus; it stopped brewing in July 2021 after eleven years, because the pandemic had cut off the events it lived on, and only its food truck carries on.

Today the Brauhaus is the only commercial brewery listed in the country. At the Swiss Beer Award on 16 April 2026, where 531 beers from 87 breweries in Switzerland and Liechtenstein competed, it won silver for its Liechtensteiner Pils and its Weiza and an anthracite award for Club Bier 02 Alpen Pale Ale. In December 2025 it launched a Single Malt Whisky aged five years in oak and dropped the 33 cl swing-top Alpagold after quality swings, and in August 2026 it introduced a non-alcoholic protein beer. In Schaan the old Quaderer brewhouse, a listed monument since 2023, is being turned by the municipality into the artists' residence Kulturbrauerei, which opens officially on 14 November 2026.

Sources:
- [Historisches Lexikon des Fürstentums Liechtenstein: Getränkeproduktion (2011)](https://historisches-lexikon.li/Getr%C3%A4nkeproduktion)
- [Historisches Lexikon des Fürstentums Liechtenstein: Schaan (Gemeinde)](https://historisches-lexikon.li/Schaan)
- [Historisches Lexikon des Fürstentums Liechtenstein: Vaduz (Gemeinde)](https://historisches-lexikon.li/Vaduz_(Gemeinde))
- [Historisches Lexikon des Fürstentums Liechtenstein: Quaderer, Rudolf (2011)](https://historisches-lexikon.li/Quaderer,_Rudolf_(Karl_Rudolf))
- [Historisches Lexikon des Fürstentums Liechtenstein: Alkoholismus (2011)](https://historisches-lexikon.li/Alkoholismus)
- [Vaterland: «Bierhüsle» im Dornröschenschlaf (2015)](https://www.vaterland.li/liechtenstein/gesellschaft/gemeinden/bierhuesle-im-dornroeschenschlaf-art-153271)
- [Gemeinde Schaan: Altes Brauhaus wird zur Kulturbrauerei (2024)](https://www.schaan.li/blog/altes-brauhaus-wird-zur-kulturbrauerei)
- [Presseportal: Kulturbrauerei am Denkmaltag erstmals der Öffentlichkeit präsentiert (2026)](https://www.presseportal.ch/de/pm/100000148/100942036)
- [Liechtensteiner Brauhaus: Über uns, Unsere Geschichte (2026)](https://brauhaus.li/ueber-uns/)
- [Gemeinde Schaan: Brauhaus braut Im alten Riet (2022)](https://www.schaan.li/blog/brauhaus-braut-im-alten-riet)
- [GROGG Baumanagement: Neubau Braustube (2022)](https://grogg.swiss/portfolio-item/ospelt-catering-ag-liechtensteiner-brauhaus-ag/)
- [Liechtensteiner Brauhaus: Swiss Beer Award 2026](https://brauhaus.li/swiss-beer-award-2026/)
- [Liechtensteiner Brauhaus: Liechtensteiner Single Malt Whisky (2025)](https://brauhaus.li/der-beginn-einer-neuen-tradition-liechtensteiner-single-malt-whisky/)
- [Vaterland: Prinzenbräu hört auf zu brauen (2021)](https://www.vaterland.li/liechtenstein/gesellschaft/schluss-mit-prinzenbraeu-art-451888)
- [Moneyhouse: PrinzenBräu AG, Balzers](https://www.moneyhouse.ch/en/company/prinzenbraeu-ag-8387161599)
- [BeerAdvocate: Liechtensteiner Brauhaus, Schaan](https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/21278/)
- [BeerAdvocate: PrinzenBräu, Balzers (closed)](https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/42801/)
- [Archontology: Liechtenstein, Polity Style 1719-2026](https://archontology.org/nations/liechtenstein/01_polity.php)
- [Wikipedia: Flag of Liechtenstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Liechtenstein)
- [Flags of the World: Liechtenstein, historical flags](https://crwflags.com/fotw/flags/li_hist.html)

## Breweries (1)

- [Liechtensteiner Brauhaus AG](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2345.md) — 3 caps, 2007–