I just returned from four days in Budapest, Hungary. I was there attending the annual conference of the International Geographic Union Commission on the Dynamics of Economic Spaces. I served as Chair of the Commission between 2010 and 2014, and so enjoy going to their annual conference to catch up with old friends, and even perhaps make some new ones. Trips such as this also provide me with an opportunity to explore the local beer scene. I had last visited Budapest in 2015, so I was curious to see how the craft beer scene there had evolved since then.

The first written record of brewing in Hungary dates to the twelfth century. During the sixteenth-century, manor houses and monasteries had their own on-site breweries; but it was not until the seventeenth century that what might be considered the first industrial scale breweries were established. By 1910 four brewing companies (Dreher Antal Brewery, First Hungarian Brewery, Kobánya Civil Brewery, and Haggenmacher Breweries) produced over ninety percent of beer consumed domestically. Despite the dominance of the Big Four, the Hungarian market supported an additional eighty-six smaller breweries. In 1948, the Hungarian brewing industry was nationalized. It remained that way until 1983. Between 1948 and 1983, a single state-owned brewing company (the Hungary Brewery, and its successor the Trust of Hungarian Beer Breweries) was responsible for producing all of the beer brewed in Hungary. Budapest was the main center of production during this period, – producing seventy-six percent of the country’s Beer.

Hungarians consume approximately sixty-three liters of beer per capita annually (2017 data). This placed them sixteenth out of twenty-eight European countries listed in a Brewers of Europe report. Like many other European countries, Lager is the most popular type of beer in Hungary, accounting for between eighty and ninety percent of beer consumed. Most Hungarian beer is produced by three breweries – Dreher Breweries (owned by Asahai Breweries of Japan), Borsodi Brewery (owned by Molson Coors) and Heineken Hungaria.

In recent years, craft beer has grown in popularity in Hungary. Modern day microbreweries made their appearance starting in the 1990s. According to a report by The Brewers of Europe the country was home to sixty microbreweries in 2017, up from twenty in 2011.

In addition to craft breweries, craft beer bars are also becoming increasingly common, particularly In Budapest. Indeed in an August 2019 piece CNN listed Budapest among the fifteen best beer cities in the world. While wandering around the center of Hungary’s capital city, I came across Beer Brothers Craft Beer Bar. It had fourteen Hungarian craft beers on tap. I visited Brothers twice during my short four-day stay in Budapest, trying a total of three different beers. The first was Stroman, a New England IPA from Ugar Brewery. Ugar is located in the town of Törökszentmiklós (population 23,000), eighty miles southwest of Budapest The second and third were both from Mad Scientist Brewery – Madhouse, a New England IPA and Lumber Sexual, a Brut IPA. Mad Scientist Brewery is located in Budapest.

The second craft beer bar I visited was Neked Csak Dezso!. Although the sign on the outside said that it was a Brewpub and bistro, there was no brewing done on site. It was, quite simply, a craft beer bar. Although the service left a lot to be desired, this is a really impressive craft beer bar. First it is quite large. Second it has thirty-two craft beers on draft, over twenty-five of which were from Hungarian breweries. There were also a nice selection of craft beers that could be purchased to go. I arrived at the bar near closing time, so I only had time for one brew. I opted for Fruit Works, a Raspberry Gose from Brew Your Mind Brewery. The brewery is located in Szekszárd, a town of thirty-two thousand people, ninety miles south of Budapest.

The third and final craft beer bar I visited was First Craft Beer & BBQ, located in Budapest’s Jewish Quarter. The brewery has two locations in Budapest – a brewery/taproom and taproom/restaurant. It was the latter I visited. There were twenty beers on tap, nine of which were their own creations. I opted for their Belgian Cherry Fruit Beer.

This was my second visit to Budapest. My last visit was in 2015. My sense is that the craft beer scene has grown since then. There are certainly more craft breweries in the country. As noted above, there were sixty in craft breweries in 2017 (the most recent year for which I have data), compared to forty-six in 2015. From casual observation, it seems to me that the craft beer scene in Budapest is more vibrant than it was four years ago. There do appear to be more craft beer bars, and craft beer does seem more readily available in cafes and regular bars. I like Budapest. It is a vibrant city. I look forward to returning some day.

Further Reading:

Fertő, Imre, József Fogarasi, Anita Major, and Szilárd Podruzsik. 2018. The emergence and survival of microbreweries in Hungary. In Christian Caravaglia and Johan Swinnen (Eds.). Economic Perspectives on Craft Beer: A Revolution in the Global Beer Industry. London: Palgrave McMillen, pp. 211-228.