The Plan of Saint Gall Includes Three Bake-and-Brew Houses

Around 825 CE, the Plan of Saint Gall depicted an ideal Carolingian monastery containing three separate bake-and-brew houses. One served the monks’ quarters, another belonged to the accommodation for distinguished guests, and a third supplied the hospice for pilgrims and the poor. Each brewing area was paired with baking facilities and associated spaces for processing grain and preparing food and drink. The plan survives as Codex Sangallensis 1092 in the Abbey Library of Saint Gall. It was probably produced at the monastery of Reichenau and sent to Saint Gall, but the complete complex was never constructed as drawn. The document therefore does not prove that three breweries operated simultaneously at the abbey. It nevertheless shows that brewing was envisioned as a specialized and carefully organized part of monastic provisioning, with separate facilities serving different communities within an ideal Benedictine establishment.