The biggest Biergarten we came across, but not the most impersonal or crowded. People are scattered all over the big garden, mostly locals just enjoying their beer and having some food, meeting friends, etc. Service was quick and polite, a bit Eastern European, namely: always taking your empty glass from the moment you’re finished and asking if you want another. For Western European people this might seem rude, but I know it’s good etiquette in Eastern Europe (Czech Rep, Slovakia, etc...). Food was ok, but rather expensive. Did like the buffet style thing, where you could choose your stuff. Did not like them charging for ketchup and mustard bags. That’s just cheap! Probably also Eastern European. In the Biergarten beer choice is limited to about 3 or 4, but they told us we could try more beers inside the brewpub. The whole place had a good feel to it, and should I ever be around Passau again, I’d visit it again. Preferably in summer time. ;-)

Pleasant tree-covered biergarten in the summer and a nicely appointed gasthof in winter, all under the edifice that is the Hacklberg brewery. A good place to waste an afternoon or evening.

You come here to see the gorgeous brewery, although you can’t see it from the garden itself. It is well worth the trip. The beers are pretty nice, especially the unfiltered lager.

The huge beer garden, a lot of steps away from the castle-like brewery in the Hacklberg quarter, is the real attraction here. Very popular with locals, bikers and other beer-lovers. Don’t miss it......

This place is fun and offered one of the best brewery/brewpub experiences I’ve had. On the most basic level it’s a sprawling complex of impressive and historic buildings. The brewery is giant and on one side of the road, while the restaurant, patio, and gorgeous beer grove (much more a grove than a garden) are on the other. The place oozes atmosphere and the age-diverse crowd was abuzz. Hacklberg has strong ties to the community and is on its own town square (Brauhausplatz). Anyone driving up this road was pulling into the Hacklberg lot.

But there is a lot more than meets the eye. First we noticed a large group of men dressed in blue fraternal regalia. They socialized over beers and smokes, and then at sundown went to a special building behind the brewpub. The entryway to the meeting hall was flanked with torches, and we heard their songs. Then we noticed more signs that Hacklberg is HQ for what could very well be the Bavarian Illuminati (the group did start in Ingoldstadt up the Danube from here). The men’s room had freemasonic symbols that the frauen room did not have. We also observed that the Passau town hall is built on a diagonal, unlike any other building in the old town. It faces out across the river directly at...the Hacklberg complex.