Like craft coffee, the craft beer movement is spreading ever deeper into the Budapest mainstream as new microbreweries pop up at a head-spinning pace. At the bars below, you can sample everything from crispy lagers to hop-forward double IPAs and sour beers sourced from small Hungarian and international breweries.
Head to Élesztő if you're curious about Hungarian craft beers and what Budapest outside the city center looks like. Élesztő serves a rotating set of 25 beers on tap, ranging from light crowd-pleasers to sour IPAs. The former glass manufacturing plant is an ideal venue for a craft beer bar: the century-old brick walls and the exposed fermentation tanks exude a sense of artisanship and give the (false) impression that an actual brewery is on the premises. Butcher's Kitchen, a food stall inside the courtyard, serves excellent pastrami and pulled pork sandwiches to help slow the rise in blood alcohol levels. (Trafó, the building next door, is Budapest's leading contemporary arts center with regular dance, music, and English-language theater performances.)