Beer brewing in Munich was first officially recognised in the Middle Ages. The rulers of Munich established the first regulations covering breweries in Munich back in the 14th century. These controlled certain quality standards for beer.
The 16th century saw a historic shift. Dukes Wilhelm IV and Ludwig X issued the Reinheitsgebot - the Bavarian Beer Purity Law of 1516. This ruled that beer could contain only water, barley, and hops. It's still regarded as a measure of the quality of German beer to this day.
The Reinheitsgebot, also known as the German Beer Purity Law, still exists. Introduced in Bavaria in 1516, it originally governed only Bavarian breweries.
Traditionalists claim that the law was enacted to maintain the quality of beer produced in the region by limiting its ingredients to barley, water, and hops. Other historians point out that the original aim was to preserve the limited supply of wheat for use by bakers. The concept of quality, they say, was first mentioned in the late 19th century.
Variety of Munich beers
In 1906, it became mandatory for the whole of Germany with the introduction of the Biersteuergesetz (Beer Taxation Law) that incorporated the principles of the Reinheitsgebot.
The European Union attempted to liberalise the beer market towards the end of the 20th century. Germany now had to allow beers produced with different ingredients to be sold in the country.
Many German breweries, including all of the Munich breweries, still voluntarily adhere to the Reinheitsgebot. It is not just a law, but has become a tradition and point of pride for German breweries.
Munich boasts six major breweries: Hofbräu, Spaten-Franziskaner, Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Paulaner and Löwenbräu.
These six form the "Verein Münchner Brauereien e.V.", the association of Munich breweries who are the only ones allowed to say that they produce "Münchner Bier" (Munich beer). The beer has to be produced within the city limits and is an official protected geographical indication, like Bardolino wine or Stilton cheese.
The six breweries are also the only ones allowed to provide beer at the annual Oktoberfest celebrations.
The Augustiner brewery can lay claim to the title of Munich's oldest brewery. It traces its roots back to 1328 when it was founded by Augustinian monks who began brewing beer in their monastery just inside the Munich city walls.
They supplied the ruling Wittelsbach family with beer until 1589, when Bavarian Duke Wilhelm V founded his own brewery: the Hofbräuhaus. The Augustiner monks carried on brewing for their own consumption and for charitable purposes, although some was sold to the public.
The brewery outlived several historical twists, including Napoleon's secularisation campaign in 1803 which ceded church properties to state control. The brewery was then privatised, which marked the start of it becoming a family business.
Augustiner-Keller beer garden in Munich
The brewery moved to Neuhauser Straße later in the 19th century and later to its current location at Landsberger Strasse because of space constraints and advances in brewing technology.
In 1894, a huge fire destroyed the brewery, but it was quickly rebuilt. In the early 20th century, it started serving beer in wooden barrels called "Hirschen" at the Oktoberfest - a tradition which is unique among Munich's major breweries.
Despite competition and technological advances in the beer industry, the Augustiner brewery has remained faithful to its tradition, sticking to the 1516 Beer Purity law and cold fermentation in wooden barrels.
Here are a few of the best-known locations to find Augustiner beer in Munich:
The Hofbräu brewery, also known as Hofbräu München, dates back to the 16th century. Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria was unhappy with the local beer brewed by the Augustiner monks and imported his favourite tipple from Lower Saxony.
Eventually he decided to establish a court brewery. ("Hof" means "court".)
Initially, the beer was only for members of the royal court. However, a new beer was introduced by Duke Maximilian I at the start of the 17th century. The popularity of the Hofbräu Weissbier, a strong darker wheat brew, led to Hofbräu beer being served to the public in bars around the city.
A second brewery designed for this wheat beer was opened in the Platzl area of the city - the site of what later became the famous Hofbräuhaus. This didn't open its doors to the public until 1828.
Inside the Hofbräuhaus in Munich
The Hofbräu brewery was handed over to the Bavarian state in 1852. It remains state-owned to this day, making it one of the select few state breweries in Germany.
In 1896, the brewery built a large beer hall on the brewery premises over the Isar river, the Hofbräukeller.
The more central Hofbräuhaus was one of the places where Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party held meetings and gave speeches in the early 1920s. It was badly damaged in bombing during World War II.
The Hofbräuhaus is now one of the main attractions in Munich city centre. These days the HB brand has been exported to other countries and there are, for example, seven locations with their own Hofbräuhaus in the USA.
The Hofbräu beer is now brewed in modern facilities in the Munich suburb of Riem.
The history of the Paulaner brewery begins in the 17th century with the Paulaner monks of the Neudeck ob der Au cloister.
They brewed a strong bock beer to sustain them during Lent, a period of fasting. They called it "liquid bread."
The beer was known as the "Sankt-Vater-Bier" - referring to the founder of the monastic order - which became "Salvator" over the years.
At first, the beer was only intended for the monks, with leftovers being sold to the public. The first written record of the brewery was in a complaint from rival beer halls in 1634 because of the popularity of the strong beer.
After the monastery was abolished in 1799, the brewing tradition continued in private hands and the commercial "Paulaner Brewery" emerged.
Paulaner is now part of a holding company which also owns Munich beer producer Hacker-Pschorr and which is partially owned by Dutch beverage company Heineken.
The famous sign of Paulaner beer in Munich
The famous Salvator "double bock" dark beer is still produced for the Lent period. The "Starkbierfest" ("strong beer festival") is held every year during this time at the Paulaner premises on the Nockherberg.
Hacker-Pschorr is a name derived from the merger of two historic Munich breweries.
The first mention of a Hacker brewery dates back to 1417. Beer was brewed in the building with a sign of two crossed axes - still part of the logo to this day.
The premises are still used as a Hacker-Pschorr beer hall on the Sendlinger Strasse near the centre of Munich, known now as the 'Altes Hackerhaus'.
The historic Altes Hackerhaus in the Sendlinger Strasse in Munich
The brewery came into the hands of the Hacker family in 1738 and, at the end of the century, was purchased by Joseph Pschorr. He had originally managed the Hacker Brewery for his father-in-law, but once he had bought the Hacker brewery he also started his own Pschorr brewery.
These two breweries grew simultaneously throughout the 19th century, with Pschorr pioneering new techniques in beer cooling and storage that were revolutionary for that time.
The breweries survived both World Wars but had to be rebuilt after significant damage.
The Hacker and Pschorr breweries were united under the umbrella of Hacker-Pschorr in 1972. In 1975, Hacker-Pschorr merged with the Paulaner brewery to create the Paulaner Brauerei Gruppe.
Hackerr-Pschorr are sponsors of the EHC Red Bull München ice hockey team and the TSV 1860 München football team.
The roots of Spaten Brewery, one of Munich's oldest, go back to 1397 when a brewer named Hans Welser established a small brewery in the heart of Munich.
The name "Spaten" actually comes from another family called Spatt who owned the brewery in the 17th century.
The brewery then saw a significant transition in 1807 when it was bought by the royal brewer Josef Sedlmayr and his brother. Their innovative spirit brought significant impact to the brewery's operation. They introduced steam power, refrigeration and more modern brewing techniques.
Spaten became a major force in Munich's brewing industry and was one of the largest breweries in Bavaria by the late 19th century. The famous logo of a spade ("Spaten" in German), branded with the initials GS, was also introduced during this period and is still used today.
The former Spaten brewery in Munich
Spaten was the first Munich brewery to produce the northern German pils type of beer - the Münchner Hell. which it is still known for today.
In 1922, Spaten merged with Franziskaner-Leistbräu and later, in 1997, with the Löwenbräu brewery. It became part of the world's largest brewery group when it joined the Interbrew (now Anheuser-Busch InBev) in 2003.
Löwenbräu, literally "lion's brew," is the youngster of the Munich breweries. It is thought to stem from when Jörg Schnaitter, a Munich resident, was granted the right to brew and sell beer from the Löwengrube in 1542.
But Löwenbräu's official year of foundation is 1746, when the name was first used in official documents. The symbol of the lion is thought to originate from a mural in the original Löwengrube.
The Löwenbräukeller in Munich
The late 19th and early 20th centuries were a period of growth. Löwenbräu began exporting beer internationally and gained recognition at various exhibitions.
The 1950s marked a new phase of success for Löwenbräu. By the 1970s, it was one of the most popular imported beers in the US.
Löwenbräu merged with Spaten to form the Spaten-Löwenbräu-Gruppe in 1997 and now is a part of Anheuser-Busch InBev.
If all this talk of beer has made you want to find out more about the history of the Munich breweries, why not try this evening beer and brewery tour around Munich?