“Look. You know that there’s no keg underneath the table?”
“Oh, that’s why my glass is empty.”
“I only tell you because I did the same thing already.”
The first rule of Budapest Beer Week 2019: never go full craft. When they started taking the kegs away at 8pm on Saturday, clearly I had broken that rule. Most of the remaining brewers and visitors had too.
I missed the first Budapest Beer Week 2018. I had heard only good things, and that it had grown significantly in only one year. This year there were 400 tickets on sale for Saturday, and 400 tickets for Friday. In the final week before the festival, despite a price increase from 55 to 75 Euros, they all sold out.
If you want the festival facts, skip to the bottom.
Belgrade To Budapest Beer Week 2019
Friday, immediately after work, my Serbian friend, Srki, and I made the 4 hour drive from Belgrade to Budapest. We went to Budapest Beer Week 2019 (known as BPBW 2019) on its second day, a Saturday, after 2pm. The festival was in a large, wooded courtyard called Durer Kert. A shady, enclosed garden led up to an interior, multi-use concert venue. Breweries had their stands set up both in the fenced garden and inside the venue’s halls.
First, what stood out was the absence of lines. Over 60 breweries represented from all over Europe and the USA, but no particular stand looked congested. It felt relaxed. While the employees manned their taps, they had time to chat and fill up visitors’ tasting glasses. Underneath the shade of the trees people gathered at tables, listened to a live band, or watched their children at a small outdoor nursery. The smell of burgers and fries drifted from food trucks in another section of the festival grounds.
I expected to have a short chat and interview with Greg, an American expat who was a brewer for Hungary’s Gravity Brewing. He was debuting a big collaboration brew with another Hungarian brewery, Balkezes. He was not at the Gravity/Balkezes stand, so Srki and I went to find a few low ABV, sessionable beers to start the long tasting day.
This was difficult.
The international breweries wanted to show Hungary their big guns: barrel-aged everything, porters, stouts, super sours. Finding a “starter” beer under 5% ABV was near impossible. Rather than wander around with an empty glass, we went to the nearest beer we recognized, Russia’s Bakunin Brewery. (Being American, I have a certain affinity for Russia.) I took their Amphiprion, a kettle sour with an odd combination of Sea Buckthorn and lactose. Really, I don’t know what Sea Buckthorn is (it’s not indigenous to the Americas,) but it was pleasantly fruity and tart. The lactose, on the other hand…
For my whole drinking life, I have tried to enjoy lactose in beers that aren’t Milk Stouts. I still can’t.
Searching For Pivoslavija In Old Austro-Hungary
The Serb and wanted beer from our own Pivoslavija. Soon. we came across a familiar brewery, Bevog from Slovenia (technically, Austria.) Janos, who we had previously met, served us Brut Fruit. It was a dry sour with a complex mix of mango, raspberries and vanilla, emphasis on the mango. We chatted of the Slavic mythology on their bottle labels, and he invited us to Bevog’s own festival, Who Cares For Beer, held at the brewery in August.
There were a large number of Scandinavian breweries at BPBW 2019. The few APAs and IPAs I’d had from Swedish, Norwegian and Danish breweries had been exceptional. Here was a chance to try their big heavy brews.
Sweden’s O/O Brewery had an Anniversary Baltic Porter on tap. It clocked in at 10% ABV. Still the coffee and leather taste was well-balanced, while being fairly dry and not cloyingly sweet. The server, who looked like a Hungarian Jesus, gave us a full pour under one condition: “You must now compare this to our own Baltic Porter, aged in our nation’s Gemenc Red Whiskey Barrels.”
Thank you, Magyar Messiah.
It was an easy request. That Baltic Porter came from Balkezes, the brewery just next to Gravity Brewing. We returned to the Balkezes/Gravity stand to find Greg there, ready to talk.
Gemenc Barrels, Gravity Brewing, Hungarian Beer
Greg poured us the Hungarian Baltic Porter. For me, it turned out better than the Swedish offering. The Gemenc Red barrels gave it a very dry, red wine tartness, and a considerably low whiskey burn for the alcohol content.
He indicated the other tap, his collaboration from Gravity with Balkezes, a Barrel-Aged Imperial Red Ale named Nuke It From Orbit. It was a dizzying 15.5% ABV. Let’s save that for later. I was four samples deep, and anticipated no light beer in the near future.
Greg, Srki and I and chatted about Gravity Brewing, the Budapest Beer Week 2019 and life in Hungary. He has been living for about 8 years in Hungary and had been homebrewing before that. He started Gravity a year ago with a small staff in an underground bunker, and now has a nano brewery spot at the craft beer bar Neked Csak Dezso. They focused on weekly releases of small, high-quality batches. Particularly, they model their beer after California’s Lost Abbey brewery. Although they only have bottles now, the taproom will open by 2020.
Already, the big porters were making it difficult to write. Fortunately, Greg knew of one sessionable beer available that day. It was from another Slovenian brewery, Pelicon. Appropriately, the beer was named Relax, due to the hops in it. At just 2.8%, it was the lowest ABV beer at the festival. It was refreshing in the warm late May sun.
After our chat, it was time to leave the courtyard and try some new beers in the cool interior of the Durer Kert halls. Srki and I left Greg, and stepped inside the large garage entrance. Here, another dozen or so brewery stands and event merchandise were arranged around the venue’s bar.
Scandinavia By Southeast Europe
We found Sweden’s brewery, Poppel, and inquired after one of their employees, Oscar. He had represented Poppel the previous week at Belgrade’s largest craft (only) beer festival, Vrteska. Srki and I had shown him proper Serbian hospitality, which resulted in unlimited pours of Poppel’s great sour. This lead to a rough, all-night afterparty at one of our favorite local spots, Brkati Pub.
We chatted with Oscar’s colleague, and ended getting more shots of said great sour.
Things are getting interesting. Next to Poppels was a brewery I had never seen at any beer shop or on Internet social media #beerporn. It was Tanker, the first Estonian brewery I’d encountered. Their two beers were Hydrated and Dehydrated, which lived up to their names.
Have you noticed Northern Europe keeps showing up?
Along with the brewers and reps, a large number of Scandinavian and Baltic beer geeks had traveled to Budapest for the festival. During that afternoon, we drank and made friends with visiting Finns, Estonians and Swedes. Many were at the previous BPBW 2018. They say this Hungarian beer festival is more relaxed, friendly and enjoyable than the festivals in their own countries (cheaper, too.) Along with craft beer, our conversations revolved around other common Northern Europe topics: hockey, black metal and funny languages. Example: Terviseks!
Balkan Beer Brates Of BPBW 2019
Of course, the Serb and I found other Balkan beer drinkers. We joined a table of Croats, Bosnians and an Albanian over a dinner of hamburgers and fries from the food trucks. After eating, we listened to the festival entertainment, a local kick-ass rockabilly duo named the Dynamite Dudes. Later, our Balkan crew had more beers with the Croatian brewer of Zagreb’s The Garden Brewery.
It was 8 o’clock. The sun was setting and the crowds were thinning. As well, the beer was getting scarce. The kegs that weren’t already empty were being stored away for the final (paid) afterparty on Sunday afternoon. Srki and I made our way back to Gravity Brewing’s keg of Nuke It Into Orbit.
I checked with Greg: “So you still have some of that Nuke It Into Orbit, I see. But when is this whole Tasting Session day actually over?” He chuckled, “It’s over when it’s empty.” Indeed. We finished the 15.5% bomber, all maple, boozy and barrel-aged, but there were still more beers to drink.
It’s over when it’s empty.
Next to the Balkezes stand was another familiar Balkan brewery, Bereta Brewing, from Timisoara, Romania. I asked for their brewer, Silvu, to find out about the Timisoara Craft Beer Festival happening in two weeks. He was “somewhere away drinking.” Against my better judgement, I had Bereta’s Imperial Stout with, “chimney cakes, marshmallows, vanilla cacao nibs, coconut, almond, walnut and the kitchen sink.”
Bereta Brewing knows of the beer geek jokes about overdone, adjunct-filled pastry stouts. They call this big sugary bomb Diabeetus.
Never Go Full Craft?
Finally, all of the kegs in the garden were gone. I had lost Srki. But a new Finnish friend and I made a mad dash back into Durer Kert. We ran from stand to stand searching for any unmanned taps to grab some dregs for our tasting glasses.
So that’s how I tapped a keg which did not exist.
Fortunatelly, the brewers were prepared for this emergency. They had bottles of beer stored away, and fancy, portable mini-beer kegs. We continued to indulge after the kegs disappeared. Some people wandered to the Durer Kert concert venue to watch the metal bands play. Most of us stayed in the main hall to drink.
We had people, speaking many languages, gathering from all over Europe to close down Budapest Beer Week 2019. Thanks to craft beer though, we all found one song to sing (drunkenly) together.
We went full craft.
What To Know For Budapest Beer Week
- Buy Tickets Early – For Budapest Beer Week 2019, buying tasting session tickets at least 3 months in advance only costs 55 Euro. This price increases to 65 and finally to 75 Euro in the week before the festival. Expect the same for BPBW 2020. The price includes: beer session tasting, cute glass, an event-wide discount and the live bands
- Visit Budapest Early – Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the Beer Tasting Sessions. But BPBW starts the Monday before. There are tap takeovers, brewer meetings and other events at craft beer bars during the whole week. Plus, of course, you need time to visit and sight-see beautiful Budapest.
- Festival Location – BPBW takes place in Durer Kert, (Ajtosi Durer Sor 19-21) a well-known concert venue located by Heroes Park. Uber and other rideshares are not yet well-known in Budapest. As well, taxis are not reliable, so it is best to take public buses 979, 94 or 95 to the Zechy Geza Utca stop.
- 60+ International Breweries – BPBW 2019 had exactly 60 breweries from Hungary, Europe and the USA, so expect more for 2020. On the Friday and Saturday Tasting Sessions each brewery debuted 2 new beers. Whatever was left over went for sale on Sunday at their all-access afterparty.
- Live Music – BPBW features live concerts. The bands on stage at the BPBW afterparties were local punk and metal bands and a few international groups. During the day, live rock and jazz bands entertain in the courtyard.
After Budapest, come to Belgrade for a craft beer tour: here
