3 Things Beer Lovers Should Do In Munich (That Aren't Oktoberfest)

Location: Munich, Germany| Date of visit: December, 2024

Every year, millions of people from across the world head to Munich for the annual Oktoberfest event. But outside of Oktoberfest, Munich is still a great city to visit – especially for beer and food lovers.

In December 2024, we spent a weekend in Munich. In between browsing the Christmas markets and visiting the main attractions in the old town, we squeezed in some excellent beer-related activities that can be done any time of year.

Weisswurst & Wheat Beer for Breakfast

Traditional Bavarian breakfast at Gaststätte Großmarkthalle

White sausage (weisswurst) is a traditional Bavarian sausage made from minced pork and veal, flavoured with parsley and various other ingredients. Because they don’t contain any preservatives, these delicate sausages should be eaten fresh and so are traditionally eaten in the morning. In fact, there is a saying that weisswurst should not hear the noon chime of the church bells.

We’d read that Gaststätte Großmarkthalle was the best place to go for weisswurst so that’s where we went. It’s not located in the old town – it’s a 45 minute walk from Marienplatz – so we made a special trip there and then walked back along the river to the old town afterwards.

The opening hours are limited at weekends. It was only open from 7am until 1pm on Saturday and closed on Sunday during our stay in Munich. We arrived not long before 11am and it was pretty packed out and every table was reserved. We got lucky and were able to squeeze on the end of a reserved table as some of that group had cancelled. However, we wouldn’t recommend risking it like we did – definitely book ahead as it is very popular.

What we ate and drank:

Almost everyone was drinking wheat beer and we were happy to join in with that tradition. We ordered the weisswurst (which come with freshly baked pretzels) and a Paulaner Hefeweizen. The food and the beer were fantastic – a great way to start the day.

Visit Gaststätte Großmarkthalle

Venue website: Restaurant Großmarkthalle | Weißwurst in Munich

Bar Hop The Beer Halls

Grab a large beer in one of the many, many beer halls of Munich

Beer halls are a traditional part of Bavarian culture and there is no shortage of beer halls to choose from in Munich. Almost every brewery in Munich has a beer hall and it’s certainly worth trying a few while you’re there.

We managed to visit a good selection, despite being in Munich for less than 72 hours. Not only did we sample some excellent beers, we also treated ourselves to some tasty Bavarian food.

We’re not going to list all the beer halls as there are so many to choose from, but here are a few that stood out for us…

Hofbräuhaus

The Hofbräuhaus is one of the most well-known beer halls in Munich and is very popular with locals and tourists. We headed there when we first arrived on the Friday evening and only waited a short time before snagging a couple of seats.

It is possible to make a reservation if you are a group of four or more, but otherwise, you just walk in and look for a space at one of the tables. The Hofbräuhaus can accommodate 1500 people, so there are plenty of seats – it’s just a case of finding some.

What we ate and drank:

We started with a large (eine mass) Hofbräu Original and then moved on to the Dunkel. We also tried the traditional Bavarian pork knuckle (schweinshaxe), which was excellent.

Visit Hofbräuhaus

Venue website: Hofbräuhaus München

Weisses Bräuhaus

Not to be mistaken for the Schneider Bräuhaus which is just around the corner, the Weisses Bräuhaus serves a whole range of beers from Schneider Weiss. Smaller than the Hofbräuhaus, but reasonably priced (compared to some others), we really liked this friendly beer hall.

What we ate and drank:

We started with the Schneider Weisse Original (Tap 07) – a lovely wheat beer. Then we moved on to the Aventinus (Tap 06) – an excellent weizendoppelbock, which was our favourite beer of the trip. We also ordered the pork schnitzel and the four types of sausage – all the food was delicious.

Visit Weisses Bräuhaus

Venue website: Weisses Bräuhaus im Tal

Augustiner Keller

The Augustiner Keller is located just around the corner from the Spaten brewery so we headed here after our brewery tour. It has a lovely outdoor garden where people were testing out their curling skills. No doubt the garden gets pretty packed out in the summer but it was a bit too cold for us. Inside is a huge hall with long benches. There is also a cellar, but we didn’t get chance to go down and see it.

What we drank:

We made a special visit to the Augustiner Keller because we knew they served Edelstoff directly from wooden barrels so that was exactly what we ordered and it didn’t disappoint.

Visit Augustiner Keller

Venue website: Augustiner Keller

Spaten Brewery Tour and Tasting

The brewery responsible for Spaten, Franziskaner and Löwenbräu

Although Spaten is now owned by AB InBev, it has a long history (as do Franziskaner and Löwenbräu which are all now part of the same group) so we decided it would be interesting to do the tour.

The English speaking tour is limited and can’t be booked directly through the brewery’s website. Instead, you’ll need to book through Simply Munich.

We did our tour on a Saturday afternoon. It took around two hours and our guide was also a brewer so was very knowledgeable about the brewing process and beer in general.

The highlight of the tour is the visit to the tasting room at the end. The tasting room is in the brewery tower where you get fantastic views over Munich. The tasting session is very generous. Although the tour ticket says you get to try two beers, they were happy for us to order more. We were told that the tasting session was more about there being a time limit than a beer limit. With that in mind, we decided to stick to small beers so that we could try different ones.

What we drank:

We started with the Spaten Helles, then tried the Franziskaner Kellerbier and the Franziskaner Weissbier. We finished with the Löwenbräu Pils which we were told wasn’t widely available.