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Why this maker matters
Every tub of supermarket Obatzda in Germany traces back to this family dairy — Alpenhain says it was the first to make the beer-garden spread at scale, in 1994. And the same dynasty builds the machines the world’s cheese factories run on. Beer-garden culture on one side, industrial engineering on the other: that’s Alpenhain.
The story
1905: the Hain family founds a dairy in Upper Bavaria. Four generations later it’s still family-owned, processing 80–90 million liters of Alpine milk a year from roughly 250 regional farmers, with around 450 employees.
The founding family’s second act is the unusual part. In 1947, founder’s son Gottfried Hain spun off ALPMA — a cheese-machinery maker that grew into a global supplier of dairy-plant equipment. The family that industrialized Obatzda also industrialized cheesemaking itself.
Back-Camembert — breaded, fryable Camembert — has been an Alpenhain staple since 1980, another case of taking a beer-garden idea (hot, crisp cheese with a cold beer) and making it a national product.
The cheeses
- Original Obazda — the 1994 original, the first at supermarket scale per the company; Obatzda →
- Back-Camembert — breaded Camembert for frying, since 1980
- Camembert Creme, Grillkäse — the soft-cheese and grilling lines
Finding it in America
Honest answer: not here — no US distribution for Alpenhain could be verified. Which is a shame, because the Original Obazda is the reference version of the spread. Your move: make Obatzda yourself (it’s mostly assembly — ripe Camembert, butter, paprika, caraway, onion, beer) or ask a German deli about house-made versions.
Visiting
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Related: Obatzda · Brotzeit culture · Obatzda × Weissbier