Fränkisches Brauereimuseum, Brewery museum in Bamberg, Germany

The Franconian Beer Museum occupies the former Benedictine monastery brewery on the Michelsberg, where beer was brewed from 1122 until 1969. Its 900 m² of exhibition space holds over 1,400 objects, arranged by production stage: brewhouse, cooling house, fermentation cellar, storage and filter cellars, bottle and barrel filling, ice cellar, malting and cooperage sections, and a hop cellar.

The brewery began operations in 1122 as a monastic enterprise and continued under monastic management for more than eight centuries. Production finally ended in 1969, allowing the facility and its equipment to be preserved intact for this museum.

The museum occupies the former Benedictine monastery brewery of St. Michael's, where monks brewed beer from 1122 until the monastery was dissolved in 1804. The exhibits are set directly in the old brewhouse, fermentation cellar and malting rooms, so the working rooms themselves are part of the display. The collection was assembled by the non-profit association founded on 1 June 1979, which still runs the museum.

Visitors should be prepared for multiple flights of stairs between the five levels, which requires good mobility and stamina to navigate fully. The spaces remain cool year-round given the cellar setting, so appropriate clothing for cooler temperatures is advisable.

The museum is run by a volunteer association founded on 1 June 1979 by 32 members; it rented the former brewery rooms on 1 May 1981 and partially opened on 3 May 1986 with a special exhibition on beer and philately. Today the association has around 400 members.