Budapest Craft Beer: HOPS Beer Bar, Beer Brothers and First Craft Beer & BBQ
Two stops on a Budapest Friday night — one for the atmosphere, one for the quiet. Both serve good craft beer; one also serves Metallica.
HOPS Beer Bar Budapest
The dive bar that earned it
A Friday night in Budapest, and we stumbled into HOPS Beer Bar Budapest — what you’d call, in American English, a dive bar. Not in a bad way. In the way that means nothing is polished, everything is stuck to the walls, and nobody is pretending otherwise.
Beer mats covered the walls. Graffiti on surfaces that weren’t covered in beer mats. A fridge full of beers. The kind of place where the decor is every beer ever served here, roughly chronologically, in no particular order. Upstairs, a group of heavy metal fans had claimed the space and were singing along to Metallica — the actual Metallica played Budapest the following day, which explained the crowd. The music system was good: loud enough to feel it, not so loud you couldn’t have a conversation at the bar on the second floor where we sat.
The bar staff were helpful and knowledgeable, and — crucially — offered samples before I even asked. About ten beers on tap; not just local but a genuine international selection including brews from the UK and Denmark. All good quality. The crowd that night ranged from roughly eighteen to seventy, and everyone was there for the same reason: rock music and good beer. That mix of ages doing exactly the same thing is something you mostly only see at live music venues, and here.
We’d tried to visit once before, on a Sunday afternoon. Google said it was quiet, and it was. This is a place that comes alive at night — do not visit during the day expecting the same experience. On a Friday evening, it was absolutely packed.
Verdict: if you like rock music and you like craft beer, this is your place. It doesn’t try to be anything it isn’t, the beer is good, and the atmosphere is the real draw. Go at night.
Beer Brothers
A quiet pint done properly
Same Friday evening, same neighbourhood, different register entirely.
Beer Brothers is the antidote to the ruin bar: two floors, no theme beyond “good beer and somewhere to sit”, background music at a volume that allows a conversation without leaning in. Outside was full when we arrived — good weather, warm evening — but upstairs had plenty of tables, maybe a third of them occupied. Clean, comfortable, simply decorated, which turns out to be exactly what you want after a day of wandering.
Around twenty beers on tap, and the staff were immediately helpful — samples before you commit, every time. The range ran from standard lagers and IPAs through to cherry beers and at least one cider. Mostly local, I’d say, though a few internationals were in there. Nothing I recognised from the UK, which suggests Hungarian breweries across the board. Quality was consistently good.
Prices: 1,400 to 2,000 HUF for a standard IPA, up to 3,000 HUF for the stronger options. For central Budapest, that’s reasonable — you’re not being charged for the address.
Verdict: exactly what it says it is — a good selection of Hungarian craft beer, friendly staff, and a quiet enough atmosphere to actually enjoy it. Go here if you want to drink well and talk at normal volume.
First Craft Beer & BBQ
Opening time is not negotiable
We were there because of the goulash. Our daughter wanted goulash in a bread bowl from the tourist restaurant across the road — the Goulash Museum — which is precisely the kind of place we’d spent the entire trip carefully avoiding. You can’t argue with that sort of logic when it’s the last day and she’s made up her mind, so we didn’t.
The portion was enormous. This is relevant because our next stop was First Craft Beer & BBQ, directly across the street, and we arrived at noon — the first customers of the day, walking through the door as the waiter was still unlocking it. It’s lunchtime somewhere in the world, which seemed like a reasonable basis for ordering beer.
The interior stopped us. Industrial style done properly: exposed brick barrel-vault ceiling, copper and amber pendant lights, a long wooden bar running the length of the room. Not the shabby industrial that most places use to justify exposed pipework — this is industrial as an actual design language, executed with care. Spacious, quiet at noon, and clearly well-run.
Nineteen beers on tap, all brewed in-house under the First Brewery label: wheat beers, pale ales, IPAs, sours, fruit beers, lagers, ciders, a mead. Prices from 1,890 HUF for session-strength beers to 2,990 HUF for the stronger options — fair for the quality and the neighbourhood. Everyone in our group found something without difficulty, which takes some doing with a mixed crowd.
We didn’t eat — we’d just come from a bread bowl of goulash that could have sustained a small expedition — but the BBQ platter is consistently praised in reviews, and what we saw coming out of the kitchen looked the part. Next time.
The exit was not our finest hour. We were so thoroughly relaxed by the time we needed to leave for the hotel that we simply walked out. One hundred metres down the street before a waiter appeared behind us at pace, with questions about the bill. Ian’s habit of jokingly suggesting shall we run? at the end of expensive meals chose this particular moment to look plausible. We had not run. We had just entirely forgotten. We went back, paid, apologised, and experienced the specific discomfort of being caught doing something you were not, in fact, trying to do.
Verdict: must-visit. The interior alone is worth the stop, the beer range is the best of the trip for variety, and the BBQ comes well recommended. Just remember to pay before you leave.
More Budapest Taps
Building a Budapest beer itinerary? Skip the Tourist Ruin Bars covers Szimpla Kert, Élesztő and KEG Sörművász. More Budapest Craft Beer adds Mixát Udvar, Rizmajer Beerhouse and the Time Out Market piano bar.
Addresses
HOPS Beer Bar Budapest
Wesselényi utca 13, 1077 Budapest
facebook.com/hopsbeerbar
Open: Mon–Thu 17:00–02:00 · Fri–Sat 17:00–03:00 · Sun 17:00–00:00
Beer Brothers
Kossuth Lajos utca 20, 1053 Budapest
beerbrothers.hu
Open: Mon–Thu 13:00–23:00 · Fri–Sat 13:00–00:00 · Sun 15:00–23:00
