Beer Archives - Budapest Guide

Budapest Beer Week 2024

Are you in the mood for tasting and drinking beer with locals in Budapest? Budapest Beer Week is an annual festival that allows visitors to taste lots of beer combined with concerts and other cool activities.

If you come to this event, you can taste beer brewed worldwide. Many of the exhibitions are from abroad. As a result, you can taste Danish, Norwegian, French, Romanian, American, Hungarian, Swedish, Spanish, Belgian, and beer from even more countries as you visit the event.

The event’s highlight is the weekend tasting sessions in which you buy an entrance pass that will entitle you to unlimited beer consumption and allow you to meet the people brewing the beer. You will also get the event glass, and if you want to keep partying, you are also invited to the after-party starting at 22.00.

Budapest Beer Week 2024

May 20 – May 26
Location: Dürer Kert

Tickets: https://bpbw.hu/en/

How to get there?

If you travel by public transportation, the best options are bus 103 or 103E to Hengermalom út or tram 1 to Hengermalom/Szeremi.

The area normally opens around 14.00 on the festival days. It is free entrance on the weekdays, but during the weekends, the tasting ticket is required to enter the area.

Would you like to read more about other events and concerts in Budapest? Take a look at our Budapest calendar. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to share them in our Budapest forum.

How to visit a brewery in Budapest?

Posted on August 4, 2017January 14, 2020 by Budapest Guide

Would you like to visit a brewery while in Budapest? Does it sound good with some fresh beer, made on the spot? Here is the information you need.

Budapest is not known especially well for its beer production. When people travel to the Czech Republic, they all go to taste their local beer. When they come to Hungary and Budapest, most people rather think about Tokaj wines and maybe the Hungarian palinka. But, what’s up with Hungarian beer production?

Beer production in Hungary

Hungary might not be famous for its beer, but that doesn’t mean that the local beer is bad. It might be just as much a question of marketing. After all, the locals not only know how to produce beer, they are also terribly good at drinking it. As a result, you should do your uttermost to taste as much local beer as possible when you come to Budapest. But, where can you taste local beer? Which are the best places to do so? Are there any breweries you can visit?

The most famous breweries in Hungary

Dreher – They produce Dreher Classic, Arany Aszok and Kobanyai.
Borsodi – They produce all the different Borsodi beers.
Soproni – They produce the different Soproni beers and some smaller brands.

The Dreher, Arany Aszok, Soproni and Borsodi are the four most typical beers you will meet in a grocery store in Hungary. Heineken has a brewery in Hungary where they produce Heineken, Steffl, Amstel, Zlaty Bazant and some more beers under license (though these are not original Hungarian beers).

Visiting a brewery in Budapest

To visit a brewery can be a nice Budapest activity on any day of the year. It is a popular activity for stag parties, hen parties, but also for companies and friends who want to taste the local brew. The biggest and most famous brewery within the borders of Budapest is known as Dreher Sörgyár.

Visit the Dreher Sörgyár

The Dreher brewery is the only big brewery in Budapest that it is possible to visit. The trip lasts for about 1,5-2 hours. During the tour you get to learn more about the beer production, visit the beautiful Brew House, walk the Dreher museum, and taste two glasses of beer. The price for this program is 2500 HUF per person from September 1st, 2017. For a trip to be arranged a minimum of 15 participants are required. You can read more about the program, and register for a tour at the following site. The site is by default in Hungarian, but there is a little button where you can press English just where the article starts.

The address of the Dreher brewery is 1106 Budapest, Jászberényi út 7-11.

Travel to the Fóti brewery

Just 20km outside Budapest you can find the city of Fót. Here they have a long tradition of brewing beer, and at the Fóti brewery, they produce ale, dark ale, and lager beer. They also have specialties such as ginger-beer, and if you go there, you can also taste the unfiltered beer. The place is open Monday to Friday from 8.00 to 16.30. You can find the website of the brewery right here.

The address of the brewery is 2151 Fót, Fáy sétány 34.

Visit a micro-brewery

While it can feel kind of complicated to visit the Dreher brewery, it is much easier to visit a smaller brewery. In our Budapest Guide, we have a cooperation with a place name Kaltenberg, one of the few places that got a license to brew beer during Communism in Hungary. They still brew beer in their restaurant, and we offer programs here where you taste four beers brewed on the spot, combined with Hungarian fruit spirits and food. This can be done daily between 12.00 and 22.00, from Monday till Saturday. The only requirement is that there are four participants or more coming with your group. You can read more about our brewery visit in Budapest right here.

The micro-brewery you visit is located not from the Museum of Applied Arts, one block away from the restaurant street Raday utca, and a ten-minute walk from the Grand Market Hall (located in the shopping street Vaci utca).

Visit a ruin-pub

You can taste a nice mixture of famous Hungarian beers and beer from smaller breweries in the different ruin-pubs in Budapest. The most famous pubs are Szimpla Kert, Fogashaz, Instant, and Kuplung. The most famous of these are Szimpla Kert, a place worth visiting no matter if you like beer or not. It is kind of an attraction on the “must-see-in-Budapest” list. These ruin-pubs are all located within the seventh district of Budapest. That makes them easy to visit, and you can without much effort visit 2-3 of them within a few hours if you want to check out several of them.

Are you ready to visit a brewery in Budapest?

We hope this article has helped you out, and maybe you know more about what to do during your stay in Budapest right now. If you have further questions, comments or ideas, just use the comment field beneath.

Which is the best beer in Hungary?

Posted on December 1, 2014December 1, 2014 by Budapest Guide

Nowadays there are all kinds of, various types of beers available everywhere which might make the decision on a beer more difficult. So in this article you can read about the best Hungarian beers.

The most typical and well known Hungarian beer is Arany Ászok which was first produced in 1924. It is one of the cheapest beers you can get in the stores and in the pubs as well. Arany Ászok is a pilsener style lager, the colour of the beer is really clear and golden brown. The taste of the beer is a little bitter and it has a weak flavour and the alcohol content of the beer is 4.3%. The other famous Hungarian beer is Soproni which has different flavours (lemon, cherry so on). It is also a pilsener style beer and just like Arany Ászok it also has a golden brown colour but its alcohol content is 4.5%. Borsodi Világos is the third most popular Hungarian beer in Hungary. Borsodi was first produced in 1973 in the Northern part of the country. It is also a pilsner style light beer with 4.6% alcohol content like most of the beers produced in Hungary. Borsodi also comes in different flavours nowadays, the most popular flavour is lemon after the original taste. All of these beverages are typical Hungarian beers which you can easily buy any of the the stores or pubs in Hungary usually for really cheap.

Besides these three beer types Dreher is also a very famous and popular beer brand in Hungary. If you have tasted all these four types, you have tasted the four most popular and famous beers in Hungary!

If you want to taste beer directly in a brewery, why not join us on a brewery visit?

Beer and Blues festival in Budapest

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Budapest Guide

This weekened there will be a Beer and Blues festival arranged in Budapest. The area is the Corvin quarter (Corvin negyed) which can easily be reached using the blue metro.

This festival is arranged for the first time in Budapest this weekend and on both Saturday and Sunday there will be great concerts, competition and events in the festival area which is just next to the Corvin shopping mall. There will be quite some micro breweries represented at the festival, but people can also taste Hungarian wine, palinka and of course traditional food meanwhile listening to blues music at the festival.

Blue and Beer Festival 2013

Dates: September 26th and 27th

The official programs will take place between 16.00 and 22.00 on the two festival days. Entrance to the area is of course free!

The most famous artist performing is Big Daddy Wilson. Come and join this great initiative.

5 activities you must try while in Budapest

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Budapest Guide

There are lots of compilations about what tourists have to see while in the capital of Hungary, Budapest. This article would like to give advices about what you should do, try or taste in the most amazing city of Eastern Europe.

1. Hungarian gastronomy / Langos

First of all we would like to mention the Hungarian kitchen. I am sure everyone has heard about the Goulash soup. But you need to know that the Hungarian kitchen is not only about Goulash, there are better and better soups, main courses, desserts and snacks too. What you definitely should try is ‘lángos’. This traditional meal is the Hungarian pizza. Originally it is a circle shaped dough made in plenty of oil, they put garlic, sour cream and/or cheese on it. Nowadays there are lots of versions; you can get pizza lángos, gyros lángos, bacon lángos and more. If you are in Budapest and run into a buffet where they sell lángos, do not miss it, taste this delicious meal.

2. Danube Cruise

Another activity that will let you see the most basic sights of Budapest in a delightful way is a boat trip on the Danube. In Budapest there are a lot of fantastic attractions, and these are mostly located at the two sides of the Danube. Tourists can watch these walking on either the Buda side or on the Pest side, but there is a way that is much better, a Danube Cruise. You can read more about it on this website if you click here. From the famous international river there is fantastic view to both side of Budapest. The best time for this program is at the evening, when the sun goes down and Budapest’s light are on.

Like this article? Read about the Top five attractions in Budapest or read about five hidden treasures in Budapest.

3. Taste Hungarian drinks

Our third recommendation relates to gastronomy enjoyments again. As most people know, Hungary is famous for its drinking culture. The Hungarian beers, wines and short drinks have worldwide fame. Dutch young people usually come to Budapest from the home of Heineken, because they enjoy the Hungarian beers more than their own. Nowadays several pubs make their own home made beers, which are very delicious and not too expensive: you can buy half liter for a price between 200 Forint and 1000 Forint (check out our Brewery Tour if this sounds cool). We need to talk about Hungarian wines too. The closest wine area to Budapest is Etyek, and this is the youngest wine region too, moreover the home to the grapes behind the most famous Hungarian champagne, Törley. Those who like strong drinks, have to try the Hungarian national drink, pálinka. This short drink made from every fruit what you can imagine, Hungarian people usually used to say: “If you can make jam from a fruit, you can make pálinka too.”. Consume it with responsibility, because it is a strong drink.

4. Visit a ruin pub

If you want to find the best place for the third point, the fourth point can help a lot. In Budapest there is a special pub type, the ruin pub. The point is that they made safe night clubs from little bit ruined, old buildings, but they left the abandoned feeling of them. These are perfect places for a drink, a good chat with friends or maybe to meet up with new people. Most ruin pubs can be found in the seventh district of Budapest, close to the Synagogue (Zsinagóga). Moreover, you can read about some of them in our website, if you click here.

Ruin pub in Budapest — Picture from RomKert in Budapest, one of the famous ruin pubs

5. Do a wine trip to Etyek

The fifth and last recommendation, what you should try while in Budapest is wine tasting in Etyek. As we mentioned in third point, Hungarian wines are famous in the entire whole world and Etyek is a very upcoming region. If you contact us, you could have an unforgettable wine tasting experience in Etyek. On such an excursion you will meet a local wine maker, see the production area, get to know how it all started and the challenges they face in the every day life, and of course – taste the best wines from their production. Etyek is first of all a white wine area, so you will mostly taste whites, but do not be surprised if a rose or a red wine should be presented as well!

We hope you liked our compilation presenting five activities you must try while in Budapest. If you don’t want to spend your whole vacation in museums, choose one or more from the list and you won’t be disappointed! Have a great time!

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