Wirtshausbrennerei Krenn

Since 2015, the room has had his pace

Lukas Krenn sets the pace as host and winemaker at Wirtshausbrennerei Krenn in Yspertal, reading the room before the next glass is poured. His work here sits between service and cellar discipline: one hand on the floor of the family-run inn, the other trained by years spent with wine as a field of study rather than a script.

Krenn’s formation began at HLF Krems, where wine became serious enough for him to take the Jungsommelier course in Krems. Sommelier Austria training followed, then Diploma Sommelier training with distinction. Before Yspertal became his daily station, he worked as sommelier at Burg Vital Resort in Lech am Arlberg until 2015, then widened his range in New Zealand at The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs, serving as Restaurant Supervisor and Chef de Rang. He later worked at Heurigenhof Bründlmayer in Langenlois. Since 2015, he has held the dual responsibility of host and sommelier at Wirtshausbrennerei Krenn, while also serving as right hand and deputy in the wine archive of Palais Coburg Weinarchiv in Vienna. The line between those rooms is useful: one asks for motion, the other for memory.

Fruit brandy beside the wine work

The craft at Wirtshausbrennerei Krenn is built around regional organic fruit and the clear spirits drawn from it. The house is known for fruit brandies rather than a broad published cellar of cuvées, and its scale remains small, rooted in the inn rather than separated from it. The distillery has an award for the year.

For Krenn, that production context meets the discipline of service. Brandy tasting here asks the same kind of attention as wine service: temperature, glass, sequence, the guest’s pace, and the small recalibration that happens between one pour and the next. He brings the habits of a sommelier to a brennerei setting, keeping the encounter close to the material. The fruit does not need theater. It needs a clean glass and someone who knows when to stop speaking.

Wood rooms, garden light, quiet work

The room carries the work softly. Wirtshausbrennerei Krenn is a rural inn distillery in the forested Yspertal valley, near the Druidenweg, with garden views toward Peilstein mountain. Inside, the atmosphere gathers around wood-paneled rooms such as the Zirbenstüberl and the tiled stove guest room, places made for low voices and unhurried service rather than spectacle.

The quiet matters. In a small house, service has fewer places to hide; the host’s timing becomes part of the craft. Krenn’s bench is the floor, the glass, the short distance between cellar knowledge and a guest at the table. Regional organic fruit, a measured pour, and a garden view of Peilstein mountain are part of the venue.