Hofbräuhaus Munich Pours a Litre for €11.60, About €4 Less Than an Oktoberfest Mass

Oktoberfest closed a week ago with a Mass costing up to €15.90 in the tents. A twenty-minute walk away, the Hofbräuhaus on Platzl serves the same litre of Hofbräu all year for €11.60. That's from the city's own survey of centre beer halls, done every May. The alcohol-free version costs €12.20, which tells you something about where the margin sits.

The survey puts the city-centre average at about €10.88 a litre. The cheapest was €7.70 at the Augustiner Bräustuben. The dearest was €13.40 at the Pschorr on the Viktualienmarkt. The Hofbräuhaus sits a little above the middle, and you're paying partly for the name.

Platzl at dusk, shot wide. The outdoor tables run right along the front of the building, every bench taken, the lamps just coming on. Inside it's louder.

The hall

Duke Wilhelm V founded the brewery in 1589. King Ludwig I opened it to the public in 1828, and the building you walk into opened in 1897. It seats about 3,000 across three floors, plus around 400 in the beer garden. The ground-floor Schwemme, the big vaulted hall with the brass band, takes up to 1,500 and you can't book it. You find a seat, or you share one. The Bräustüberl upstairs takes some bookings for groups.

It opens daily from 11:00 and the kitchen runs until 22:00.

Is it a tourist trap?

Partly, and it doesn't hide it. Half the tables are visitors. The songs are the same every night. But the beer is fresh, the litre price is the same for everyone, and nobody hurries you out. For the cheaper and quieter version, the Augustiner halls are a few streets away.

One thing Munich won't add to your bill is a tourist tax. Bavaria's law bans local overnight taxes. Munich wanted to charge 5% of the room price, took the ban to the Bavarian Constitutional Court with Bamberg and Günzburg, and lost. In February 2026 the mayor proposed going to the Federal Constitutional Court. For now, a hotel night in Munich comes without a levy.

The city still drew a record 9.3 million arrivals in 2025. A good number of them ended up on these benches.