The former Union brewery malt house, which stores a museum collection, was built in 1923 in a late baroque style. Until the 1970s the building was used for the production of malt, which was laborious work. Malt is one of the four basic ingredients for beer. A decade later the building was adapted into a worker’s canteen and then also into a brewing museum, which was opened in 1987. "The building is important because it is one of the oldest industrial buildings in Ljubljana, which is still well preserved and still in use - it no longer serves its initial purpose but its use has been modified," said Helena Jenko from the Pivovarna Union brewery.
Already last year the Municipality of Ljubljana declared the Pivovarna Union museum collection a cultural monument of local importance. The museum represents important industrial and technical heritage and at the same time strengthens the perception of Ljubljana as an industrial city. Brewery is in fact one of the oldest still functioning industries in Ljubljana.
The former malt house building was put up in a time when Pivovarna Union was the sole brewery from this region, after it took over most of the smaller breweries. In 1925 beer production exceeded the 100.000 hectolitre mark. The brewery was renovated in the second half of the 1920s. At that time the boiler house was also reconstructed and expanded with the addition of two new steam boilers.