Your Quick Guide to Munich’s Beer & Oktoberfest Museum

After a decade of visiting Munich and attending Oktoberfest regularly, I finally visited the Beer & Oktoberfest Museum during my April 2024 visit for Frühlingsfest. (Or, as they put it, the Bier und Oktoberfestmuseum.)

Many Munich visitors stop by this small museum in between days at the Wiesn, or at least try to; there isn’t a whole lot of information on it to say the least. Ergo, I’ve created this quick guide for you so you can decide if/when you want to squeeze in a visit to the Beer & Oktoberfest Museum on your next Munich trip.

So let’s get to it! Here’s all you need to know for visiting Munich’s Beer and Oktoberfest Museum in 2024 (and my thoughts on whether you should even bother with it).

What to expect at the Munich Beer & Oktoberfest Museum

There’s no shortage of great museums and other super fun things to do in Munich, so don’t feel bad if this is the first you’re hearing about the Beer & Oktoberfest Museum. It’s pretty small and relatively obscure as far as Munich Museums go.

A visit here won’t take you more than an hour and you really only need to be minimally engaged to understand the subject matter. In fact, you can even grab a beer at the bar upon entering and drink while you explore the exhibits. There’s also a bierstube / restaurant at the end.

This museum is located inside a very old building so getting around inside isn’t the easiest. You must climb a large staircase right off the bat; there are low ceilings and crooked floors; and it can get extremely crowded and claustrophobic. There’s also no discernible flow to where you’re supposed to go and I got seriously lost at the end. Like, so lost in this old wooden maze of a building that I started to panic a little – surprise, surprise.

I personally visited in April (i.e., not Oktoberfest season) and there were a handful of other people here at the same time as me. Even with only a few other couples there, it still felt cramped and in many places it was impossible to pass people. I can only imagine during Oktoberfest season how crowded and uncomfortable (and hot) it gets. Yikes.

The Beer & Oktoberfest Museum is fully self-guided; you even purchase your own tickets. I interacted with almost no one during my visit. (Except when I had to say ‘excuse me’ to try and squeeze past people.)

There are your standard informational panels as well as explanatory videos, photos, interactive exhibits, lots of artifacts, and even props for some silly photography. The information is presented in both German and English.

Where is the Beer & Oktoberfest Museum?

You can find Munich’s Beer and Oktoberfest Museum in the Old Town, just a 7-minute walk from the Marienplatz and the Glockenspiel. It’s located at Sterneckerstraße 2, inside one of the oldest buildings in Munich—the oldest parts of which date back to the mid-1300s!

Sterneckerstrasse is a narrow alleyway and you’ll know you’re in the right place when you see the blue and white checkered Bavarian flag. Enter through the brown wooden door under the word “Eingang.”

Beer & Oktoberfest Museum Hours

The Munich Beer and Oktoberfest Museum is (I believe) open Monday to Saturday from 1:00 pm to 7:00 pm / closed on Sundays and public holidays.

You’ll find varying information on the museum’s hours if you try to search for yourself. Since they don’t have any information on their official website for some reason (literally ANY), I’ve emailed them directly to confirm the above hours. I’m still waiting to hear back and will update this post ASAP.

If you’re interested, the Museum Stüberl (the museum’s restaurant) is open Monday to Saturday from 11:00 am to midnight / Closed on Sundays and public holidays. More info on the museum’s restaurant here.

Munich Beer & Oktoberfest Museum tickets and cost

As of April 2024, tickets to the Beer and Oktoberfest museum cost:

• Standard adult admission: €4
• Reduced admission: €2.5 (if you qualify for this, you already know)

Upon entering the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum, you’ll first encounter a small hallway with a ticket machine. This is where you’ll purchase your museums ticket(s). This machine takes both credit cards and cash. For whatever reason, the day I visited it was “cash only.” Whether or not that was actually true, I paid in cash anyway because that was not a battle I wanted to pick.

The machine will print your ticket(s) out and then you can enter the museum. There was a man sitting at the entrance who asked to see my ticket, checked it, and then waved me on. That was the only human interaction I had at the Oktoberfest museum and the only sign of anyone actually working there.

It doesn’t appear that they do any kind of timed ticket entry, so if you plan to visit during Oktoberfest season I would simply plan for a cramped experience inside the museum.

Is the Beer & Oktoberfest Museum worth visiting?

I’m glad I finally visited, but no, I don’t feel the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum is worth your time. I’m glad to have gone, if only to be able to pass on this info to you, but this museum turned out to be exactly what I expected—a super kitschy tourist trap.

What I didn’t like about the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum

The beer brewing and historical information is standard stuff you probably already know.

The historical “artifacts” are fake, and I’m not exactly sure about the authenticity of the others. Like do they actually expect us to believe this tiny, obscure, unguarded museum is actually displaying a real Cuneiform Babylonian tablet with brewing recipe, circa 2400 BCE? Or that the Egyptian beer brewing pots on display are genuine? I don’t think so. (Maybe I’m just a museum snob, but I prefer real artifacts, not replicas.)

The section of the museum actually about Oktoberfest is a joke. Other than the timeline, there isn’t any other information. You’ll find Oktoberfest-related displays and multimedia presentations, only about half of which were actually functional when I visited.

One whole room is just photos of celebrities that, I assume, have been to Oktoberfest. (Though, not all the photos were actually taken at Oktoberfest, so I don’t know. Maybe it’s just celebrities drinking beer?)

There are some Oktoberfest props to take pictures with but… just go to Oktoberfest instead! Actually, you don’t even need to go to Oktoberfest to get a photo with a giant pretzel.

The building the museum is in is neat, but it’s not great for a museum. It’s cramped and lacks flow so you often don’t have a clue where you’re supposed to go. It’s not accessible in the LEAST bit—it’s all stairs and uneven flooring. And, you’ll probably bonk your head a time or two.

To wrap up, other than going just “to go,” there’s not a whole lot you’ll probably gain from visiting the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum. It’s cheap to visit and won’t take up a lot of time, but don’t expect to learn or see anything mind-blowing here. Spend that hour and those 4 euros at a real Munich beer hall or Oktoberfest beer tent instead!

Like this post? Have more questions about the Beer & Oktoberfest Museum? Let me know in the comments below. Have a great time in Munich!

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