The Best Craft Beer Bars in Berlin

The craft beer bars in Berlin arrived late — Germany spent a long time being too confident about its existing beer culture to pay much attention to what was happening across the Atlantic — but they arrived with a seriousness that has produced some of the best taprooms in Europe. Berlin's craft beer scene is now old enough to have sorted itself into establishments that matter and establishments that are marketing exercises, and this list is about the ones that matter.

The Reinheitsgebot is the German purity law that restricted beer ingredients for centuries. Berlin's craft brewers have largely moved beyond it — and what they are producing now, alongside excellent imported taps, makes the city's craft beer bars worth planning a trip around.

The Best Craft Beer Bars in Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte

Prenzlauer Berg was one of the first Berlin neighbourhoods to take craft beer seriously, and the bars that established themselves here a decade ago have matured into some of the most consistent craft beer destinations in the city.

Mikkeller Bar Berlin

Prenzlauer Berg $$ 20 Taps / Danish-Style

The Berlin outpost of the Danish craft brewing empire runs twenty rotating taps with a focus on Mikkeller's own range plus carefully selected European guests. The tap list skews experimental — sour ales, barrel-aged stouts, session IPAs built for the German palate — and the staff know every beer well enough to make recommendations that hold up. The room is clean, Scandinavian in design, and the best place in Berlin to drink something you have never seen before.

Order: Whatever barrel-aged or sour ale is currently on — the rotating specials are always worth it

Vagabund Brauerei

Wedding $ Taproom / Own Brews

A three-American-expat-founded brewery in Wedding that has been producing some of the most interesting Berlin craft beer since 2013. Vagabund brews on site and pours directly in their taproom — a converted ground-floor space with communal tables and the informal atmosphere of a place that cares more about the beer than the branding. The IPA and Pale Ale are the anchors; the seasonals are what bring regulars back.

Order: The house IPA or the current seasonal release straight from the brewery

Protokoll

Mitte $$ Bottle Shop / Bar

A bottle shop and bar on Brunnenstrasse that stocks an impressive range of European and American craft beers alongside a rotating selection of local German producers rarely distributed outside Berlin. Buy to take away or drink in at the bar seating along the window. The staff are knowledgeable without being evangelical about it, and the prices for both bottle shop and poured drinks are fair by Berlin standards.

Order: A German Kellerbier from a small Berlin producer — ask what is local and seasonal

Craft Beer Bars in Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain

Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain have a different craft beer culture from the more polished north — the bars here are less curated but often more interesting, with a mix of local German brewers and obscure European imports that do not appear on any international distribution list.

BRLO Brwhouse

Gleisdreieck Park $$ Brewery / Beer Garden

A shipping container brewery and taproom in Gleisdreieck Park that brews Berlin's most consistently award-winning craft beers on site. BRLO makes everything from American-style IPAs to German-style Kellerbiers to experimental fruit sours, and their beer garden is one of the best outdoor drinking venues in the city. The food program is also worth staying for — smoked meats built for drinking alongside hoppy beers.

Order: The BRLO Pale Ale or the current experimental batch from the small-run series

Hops and Barley

Friedrichshain $ Microbrewery / Old Berlin

A converted butcher's shop on Wühlischstrasse that houses one of Berlin's oldest craft breweries. The brewing vessels are visible from the bar, the ceiling is the original tiled butcher's ceiling, and the lager and wheat beer produced on site are genuinely excellent examples of traditional styles brewed with more care than the industrial versions deserve. Go early in the evening for a seat; the place fills up with Friedrichshain locals by 8pm.

Order: House-brewed Zwickelbier, unfiltered and poured properly cloudy

Monarch

Kreuzberg $ Bar / Late Night / Rotating Taps

Above a Turkish supermarket on Skalitzer Strasse, Monarch is a Kreuzberg institution that added craft beer taps to its otherwise eclectic bar programme a few years ago and has not looked back. The views over the Kottbusser Tor intersection are unmatched, the crowd is as mixed as Kreuzberg itself, and the prices have somehow stayed within the range of what a Berlin local would actually pay. Opens late and stays open later.

Order: The rotating German craft tap — whatever Berlin brewery is on this month

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Berlin's Best Craft Breweries with Taprooms

Berlin now has enough active breweries to plan an entire week around brewery taprooms without visiting the same place twice. These are the ones worth prioritising.

Berliner Berg Brauerei

Neukölln $ Taproom / Neighbourhood Brewery

A Neukölln brewery that produces clean, well-made German craft beers without trying to reinvent anything. Their Pilsner is among the best in Berlin — properly lagered, properly cold, properly served — and the Kellerbier and Weizen are both worth the trip. The taproom is small, the prices are local, and the clientele is the Neukölln creative neighbourhood crowd who discovered the place when it first opened and never left.

Order: The house Pilsner, properly cold with a Seidel glass

Eschenbräu

Wedding $ Traditional Brewery / Beer Garden

A traditional Berlin brewery in a Wedding cellar that has been producing German-style lagers, weizens, and seasonal specialties since 1999 — making it one of the city's original craft operations. The cellar bar and outdoor beer garden fill with a neighbourhood crowd from Thursday through Sunday. The Schwarzbier is the standout: deep, roasty, and nothing like what Schweppes does with the word black.

Order: The Schwarzbier in a half-litre glass — best in the city

BrewDog Berlin

Mitte $$ 40 Taps / International

The Berlin BrewDog runs a proper forty-tap programme that goes well beyond the flagship range — you will find German craft breweries, Scandinavian imports, and rotating small-batch specials that the other Berlin locations do not stock. It is a chain, and it knows it, but the tap list and the knowledgeable staff make it worth including on any serious craft beer tour of the city. Good place to start an evening before heading somewhere more local.

Order: A small-batch German craft release that is not distributed outside Germany

Our Verdict on Berlin's Craft Beer Scene

Berlin's craft beer scene has reached maturity. The experimental phase is over and the city now has a stable of excellent breweries producing consistently good work alongside a layer of bars that take imported and local craft beer equally seriously. The Reinheitsgebot is not dead here — but it has been politely set aside in favour of making interesting beer.

Our picks for craft beer tourists: BRLO for the best overall taproom experience in a great outdoor setting, Vagabund for honest brewery-direct pours in a no-frills Wedding taproom, and Mikkeller Bar when you want the broadest possible rotating tap selection in the most comfortable room. Take the U-Bahn. Every one of these is walkable from a central station.