Editorial
Vienna's craft beer scene is smaller than Berlin's or Prague's, and a lot of the lists floating around pad it out with rooftop cocktail bars and grill gardens that do not belong. The four below are the real thing: one deep tap list and three brewpubs that make their own. Sorted by what is in the glass, not the view. The names that got cut were either closed, mislabeled, or not craft beer at all.
Mel's runs the deepest beer list in Vienna, 27 rotating taps and north of 320 bottles on Wipplingerstrasse in the first district. The kitchen does American diner food, burgers and wings, to soak it up. Doors stay open to two in the morning. Go for the tap list, ask what is fresh that week, and grab a stool at the bar rather than a table.
1516 brews on site near the Ringstrasse, a few house beers plus rotating seasonals that lean new-world hoppy, which is still unusual in Vienna. Open from ten in the morning to two at night with a kitchen that does not close. Order the house IPA and whatever seasonal is on. Central, reliable, and the brewpub most worth a detour in the city core.
Beaver Brewing is an American-style microbrewery in the ninth district, house beers poured beside homemade US food at fair prices. The room is loose and the staff know their pours. Hours run shorter early in the week, so check before a Monday run. Go Friday or Saturday afternoon when the taps are fullest, order a flight, and stay for the burgers.
Siebensternbrau, the 7Stern, is a large modern brewpub in Neubau that has brewed its own range for years, including a hemp beer and a smoked Rauchbier locals rate. Open eleven to midnight daily, with a kitchen and a courtyard out back. It runs more brewpub than craft-bar, but the house beers are honest and the garden is the move in summer.
Start at Mel's for range, then work the brewpubs. 1516 is the central pick, Beaver the American outlier in the ninth, and Siebensternbrau the dependable Neubau standby. Vienna's styles lean more new-world hoppy than the old Austrian lager, which is the part worth chasing.
Most of these fill between seven and ten in the evening, so go earlier if you want the bar and the bartender's attention.
Morten Andersen writes about beer and the kind of bars that do not ask for attention. He clocks the pour, the crowd and the prices before the decor.