Plzen Brewery Museum – on the trail of the history of brewing

The Brewery Museum in Plzen is one of the city’s most popular museums. Here, visitors are introduced to the origins of Plzen beer and embark on a journey through hundreds of years of beer.

The museum is located in the old town of Plzen in a house where beer was brewed as early as the 15th century. At that time, there were many “brewing houses” and beer was what water is to us today. At that time, the water was often too unhealthy. It was only through the heating process during the brewing process that people were able to drink it safely. It is therefore not surprising that many families brewed their own beer. However, this was usually only for personal consumption. You also needed a license to serve beer if you wanted to run a pub.

Medieval cellars

Under the house, or to be more precise, under almost the entire old town of Plzen, run the cellars of the city. Some of these were built by the inhabitants of Plzen as early as the Middle Ages and for many years served as storage space for the residents of the houses above.

The cellars below the house belong to the Brewery Museum in Plzen. If you feel like it, you can take part in guided tours here. These are offered in several languages and I also found them very interesting the second time around.

Information about the tour through the cellars and some of our impressions can be found in the article “Guided tour through the historical underground of Plzen”.

The tour of the cellars can be booked independently of a visit to the Brewery Museum or as a combined ticket with a visit to the museum.

Visit to the Plzen Brewery Museum

The museum extends over several floors. The individual areas are arranged thematically and offer an insight into the secrets of beer production, serving and drinking beer in times long past. For example, I didn’t know that beer was drunk from a reed in Plzen in the Middle Ages. I wonder if it was the same in other regions?

Right at the beginning of the exhibition, you enter a beer hall as it would have looked in the early 20th century. I really like the fact that the furniture isn’t just put there, but that life-size dolls are used to try and capture the atmosphere. I would have sat down right away with a freshly tapped beer.

The brewing process is then explained. I could have stood at a large model of an old brewing plant forever. The pipe connections, the brewing kettles and so many small details that are shown here, I found it super exciting. Just like a brewing laboratory, in which the scientific aspects of brewing are explained very well. It’s a good thing that the descriptions were also in German, otherwise I wouldn’t have understood so much.

In one room there is a late Gothic malt house. Here you will find historical equipment that was used to produce malt and also explains the malting process.

I found the barrel production process particularly exciting. In a recreated scene, you can see several stages in the production process. The barrels are still largely produced in this way today.

But the beer museum in Plzen is not just about beer production. Here you can see a large collection of beer mugs in almost all sizes. I have read that the largest jug comes from Siberia. Lifting this jug filled with beer and drinking from it – I think that’s almost impossible.

I don’t actually find the bottle collection itself that exciting. But the idea of illuminating the colorful bottles from behind is a great styling tip.

Beer shop

The beer store is actually located in front of the entrance to the museum. But since you certainly don’t want to walk through the museum with a bag full of beer, you should definitely stop by there at the end of your visit. There are around 140 types of beer from over 25 Czech microbreweries on the shelves and in the fridges. There was one or two very interesting beers there!

Is it worth a visit?

I really liked the Plzen Brewery Museum. The exhibition is varied and certainly not only interesting for beer lovers. I would combine the visit with a tour of the medieval cellars.

Tips for other sights in Plzen

Ethnographic Museum
Loos interior
Pilsner Urquell Brewery
Patton Memorial Plzen

Plzen

Good to know

Informations

Address

Veleslavínova 6,
301 00 Plzen

The visit to the Pilsen Brewery Museum was part of the program of a press trip to Plzen.