Vagabund Brauerei is the American craft beer pioneer of Berlin, now pouring from a former light bulb factory in Wedding. Show up thirsty, leave with a new favourite saison, and do not expect to pay London prices.
Vagabund started in 2013 as a crowdfunded nanobrewery on Antwerpener Strasse, three Americans brewing hoppy beer in a city that still ran on Pilsner. Slow Travel Berlin credits the founders with helping kick off the whole Berlin craft scene, and the beard-and-flannel crowd followed. The brewing has since moved to the Kesselhaus, the old boiler house of a 1902 Osram light bulb works on Oudenarder Strasse.
This is a brewery taproom, not a cocktail lounge, and it knows exactly what it is. The room is brick and steel, the tables are long, and the brewing kit sits in plain view behind the bar. You come for fresh beer poured by people who made it, and the value is honest. Anyone chasing a velvet rope should keep walking.
For a fuller picture of where this fits, see our Berlin craft beer guide and the wider Berlin bar guide. The taproom also features in our roundup of the best craft beer bars in Berlin, and it sits a short ride from the Mitte circuit covered in our Mitte neighbourhood guide.
What to order
- 01
House IPA
The reason most people walk in. Bright, citrus-forward, and poured fresh from the tank a few metres away. Around 5 euro a glass.
€5 - 02
Szechuan Saison
The beer that built the reputation. A peppery, dry saison that Untappd reviewers rate among the brewery's signature pours. Try it before the rotating taps tempt you.
€5 - 03
Seasonal Sour
Vagabund rotates sours and fruited beers through the calendar. Ask what is freshest rather than ordering by name.
€5.50 - 04
Tasting Flight
Four small pours if you cannot choose. The cheapest way to learn what the brewers are proud of this week.
€9 - 05
Bottle to Go
The taproom sells bottles and cans for the walk home. Better value than another round if you have an early start.
€4
The room and the crowd
The Kesselhaus keeps its factory bones, all exposed brick and high windows, with bench seating that pushes strangers together. It fills with an international, beer-literate crowd: locals, exchange students, and travellers who read the same forums you do.
Tripadvisor reviewers repeatedly praise the multilingual staff and the freshness of the pour, and the fotostrasse Berlin guide calls it a fixture of the city's American craft beer story. Weekends get busy after 8pm, but the long tables absorb the crowd better than most Berlin taprooms.
What regulars say
- 01
Staff who know the beer
Repeat reviewers on Yelp and Tripadvisor flag the bartenders as happy to talk you through every tap in English or German.
- 02
Go for the rotating taps
The fixed lineup is solid, but regulars say the limited seasonal pours are where Vagabund still surprises people.
- 03
Cash and card both work
A practical note for Berlin: this taproom takes cards, which not every neighbourhood beer spot does.
Who it is for
- 01
The beer traveller
If you plan trips around breweries, this is a required Berlin stop.
- 02
An honest, unpretentious session
Long tables, fair prices, fresh beer. No theatre.
- 03
Avoid if you want cocktails
This is a brewery. Go elsewhere for a Negroni.
Pair this bar with
Build a Berlin craft beer crawl with BRLO Brwhouse in Berlin, the long-running Brauhaus Lemke in Berlin, and the Friedrichshain favourite Hops and Barley in Berlin.
Sources: Vagabund's official site (vagabund.de, 2026); Slow Travel Berlin; fotostrasse Berlin guide; Untappd; Yelp reviews (n=34); Tripadvisor reviews.