Hofbraeuhaus and the Beer Halls

There is no city on earth where beer is as woven into everyday life as Munich, and the Hofbraeuhaus am Platzl is where most visitors meet it first. The Hofbraeu brewery was founded by the Bavarian duke in 1589 to supply the court, and the beer hall on the Platzl, a few minutes east of Marienplatz, was rebuilt in its present neo-Renaissance form at the end of the nineteenth century. Its ground-floor Schwemme is a great vaulted hall with painted ceilings, long wooden tables and a brass band playing on a small stage, where waiters in traditional dress carry armfuls of litre glasses, the Mass, and plates of roast pork, sausages and pretzels. It is touristy, loud and wonderful at once, and still genuinely loved by locals, some of whom belong to the regulars' tables, the Stammtische, that meet here, and keep their own steins locked in the famous mug lockers. Upstairs is the quieter Braeustueberl, and in summer there is a shaded beer garden in the courtyard. The Hofbraeuhaus opens daily from 11am to midnight, with the kitchen open from midday to 10pm on weekdays and from 11:30am at weekends. In the Schwemme and the beer garden you cannot reserve: you simply find a seat, sharing a table with whoever is there, which is the whole point. Live music plays in the Schwemme at lunchtime and in the evening. But the Hofbraeuhaus is only the beginning. Munich's six big breweries, Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbraeu, Loewenbraeu, Paulaner and Spaten, all have their own halls and gardens, and each local has a favourite. Augustiner, the one many locals swear by, has its grand Augustiner-Keller beer garden near the main station and the Augustiner Stammhaus on Neuhauser Strasse; the Chinese Tower, the Viktualienmarkt and the Hirschgarten add some of the best gardens in Bavaria.

Doing the beer hall right: walk in, look for a free spot on a bench and ask whether it is free; sharing tables with strangers is normal and welcomed, but tables marked Stammtisch are for regulars. Order a Mass of Helles, the pale Munich lager, or a wheat beer, and something to soak it up: a Schweinshaxe, the crisp roast pork knuckle, Obatzda, a spiced cheese spread, with a pretzel, or a plate of Weisswurst before noon. Pay the waiter at the table, and round up the bill as a tip. Alcohol is served from 18, families with children are fine during the day, and dogs are allowed. The Hofbraeuhaus does not offer luggage storage, so come without bags.

The guided way: if you want the story behind the glass, a guided beer and food tour is the best few hours you can spend on the subject. The tour linked here lasts about three and a half hours with an English-speaking guide, includes a welcome beer and three tasting samples, a Bavarian food platter and entry to the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum, housed in one of the oldest buildings in the city, and ends at the Hofbraeuhaus. It is a good way to learn the difference between the breweries, the rules of the beer garden and the history of Oktoberfest, and to meet other travellers along the way.

Beer gardens and the calendar: from spring to autumn, Munich drinks outside, under chestnut trees planted long ago to shade the brewery cellars. The rules are old and simple: in the self-service areas you may bring your own food, and you collect your beer from the counter. Oktoberfest, on the Theresienwiese, runs for about two weeks from late September into early October and is the world's largest folk festival, with enormous brewery tents. Outside the festival, a beer hall evening and an afternoon in a beer garden give you the same spirit at a fraction of the crush. In the cold months, the halls are at their cosiest, and in Advent the beer gardens give way to Christmas markets and mulled wine.