Editorial
Buenos Aires turned to craft beer fast over the past decade, and the city now rivals its wine list for variety. The eight below run from the brewpub that started it all in Recoleta to the homegrown chains that brought local IPAs to every barrio. Most cluster in Palermo and San Telmo, and most pour cheaply by world standards. Happy hour is the local ritual.
On Tap opened its first bar in 2015 and now runs six locations across Buenos Aires, built around 20-plus rotating taps of Argentine microbreweries. The pours range from IPAs to Belgian dark ales and stouts, and the prices stay among the city's most affordable. The Palermo and Belgrano rooms draw a young, local crowd. Order a flight to sample the small breweries. Best early evening before the after-office rush.
Antares started in Mar del Plata and grew into Argentina's largest craft chain, with a Palermo Soho brew pub and outposts across the city. Around eight house beers pour at once, from the Honey to the Barley Wine, alongside the brewer's rotating picks. The rooms open at 6pm and fill fast at happy hour. Order the Scotch ale with a picada. Best as a reliable first stop on a Palermo crawl.
Buller is Buenos Aires' first brewery, pouring six beers brewed on-site at its industrial Recoleta room across from the cemetery since 1999. The stout, IPA, Hefeweizen and honey beer come with a big snack and sandwich menu and a patio out front. A second location runs in Villa Crespo. Order the honey beer on the terrace. Best in the afternoon after walking the Recoleta cemetery next door.
Strange Brewing is a Norwegian-Argentine brewpub with an adventurous tap list of hoppy, funky and sour beers and creative bar food. The original sits in Colegiales on Delgado, with a second room opened in Chacarita in 2024. The beers change constantly and lean experimental. Order whatever sour or hazy is freshest and a plate to share. Best for drinkers who want the city's most unusual pours.
Jerome brought Mendoza's mountain beer to Buenos Aires, the first franchise outside the province for a brewery the Maccari family started in 1985. The Palermo corner room on Malabia pours its lineup at accessible prices, with a free second beer between 6 and 9pm. It is named for a German shepherd who kept the brewer company. Order the Scotch or the IPA. Best at happy hour.
Breoghan is San Telmo's craft beer refuge, a rustic room on Bolívar with wine-barrel tables, exposed brick and the brewing kit in plain sight. The house beers pour cheap and well, alongside burgers, wraps and the bar's famous Breoghan potatoes. Happy hour runs 6 to 10pm. Order a house pint and the potatoes. Best late, since it stays open past 2am and to 4am on weekends.
The Temple Bar opened in the microcentro in 1999 as an Irish-style brewery and grew into one of Argentina's biggest craft chains, now more than twenty locations. The house Temple Beer is the signature, but the Wolf IPA is the crowd favorite. The rooms run loud and social, more pub than tasting bar. Order a Wolf IPA with a burger. Best with a group on a weekend night.
Baum is a Mar del Plata brewery that began in 2009 and now runs more than twenty franchises nationwide, with a German name meaning tree and a Mexican partner whose touch shows in the menu. Nine fixed styles pour alongside rotating specials. The rooms are casual and food-friendly. Order a flight to taste across the range. Best for a relaxed dinner-and-beer night rather than a quiet tasting.
The city drinks craft late and cheap. Palermo strings together On Tap, Antares and Jerome in a few blocks, while San Telmo and Recoleta hold Breoghan and Buller. Most rooms open at 6pm for happy hour and run past midnight, with the chains keeping prices low enough to bar-hop without thinking too hard about the bill.
Priya Nair covers craft beer bars and rooftops from Bangkok to Buenos Aires for barsforKings, with a travel writer's eye for cultural context over cocktail tourism.
On Tap, with six locations and 20-plus rotating taps of Argentine microbreweries, is the easiest first stop, while Antares is the largest homegrown chain. For a brewpub, Buller has poured beer brewed on-site in Recoleta since 1999.
Palermo holds the densest cluster, with On Tap, Antares and Jerome within reach, while San Telmo has Breoghan and Recoleta has Buller. Colegiales and Chacarita are worth the trip for Strange Brewing.
Buller, Strange Brewing, Breoghan, Antares, Jerome, Baum and Temple all brew their own, while On Tap curates rotating taps from independent Argentine microbreweries. Most pair the beer with burgers or shared plates.
Buller opened the city's first brewery in 1999 and The Temple Bar followed the same year, but the scene scaled fast through the 2010s as On Tap, Strange and the Mar del Plata chains Antares and Baum expanded.