Bucharest, Romania

It wasn't beer that brought me to Bucharest, but nonetheless I was pleased to find a fairly respectable array of bars, pubs and beer houses. My first time in Romania, I really wasn't sure what to expect of the place. I found a city clearly still recovering from the chaos and dreariness of communism but clearly vibrant and distinctive.

Visually, the city is divisive with large parks, wide streets and buildings grand, austere and ugly in equal parts. Clearly much has changed since the 1989 revolution although remnants remain. Service can be bad - I was told explicitly by a waiter that he didn't care that the pizza I ordered hadn't arrived. The tour of Ceaușescu's ridiculously overbuilt palace somehow manages to be boring (and booking it was a Kafkaesque nightmare of bureacracy).

That said, there's clearly much to recommend the place: plenty of interesting cafes, bars, pubs, nightlife. The food I found to be consistently decent. People (outside of restaurants) were generally very friendly and spoke impeccable English. So what about the beer?

Ever-present aroun the city are draft options: often Carlsberg (which I refused to subject myself to) but also varies varieties of Ursus (owned by Asahi but brewed in Romania), Kozel and other European macro lagers. Many of the restaurants we visited had house beer options (presumably produced by local breweries) which were drinkable and a good match for the warm weather. Unfiltered lager also seemed to be popular which was nice for a bit of variety. These were well paired with Romanian cuisine which (in my experience, at least) was thematically similar to German, Czech etc.

Craft beer options were about average given the size of the city. I found my favourite spot near the end of my trip at Hop Hooligans🍺. A calm but friendly ambience, pleasant outdoor courtyard and a very respectable selection of beers all of those I tried tasty and brewed to style. For short trips, I'd certainly recommend visiting here first.

I also enjoyed the beer at Ironic Taproom. If you can, I'd recommend coming here when it's quiet as the outdoor area seemed far nicer than the interior, which to me seemed a bit dinghy. That said, the beer was good. For some reason (unrelated to alcohol consumption), I managed to fluff up my order and ended up with a Beetroot sour. Happily and shockingly this was actually (just about) drinkable which I think is a badge of pride for the brewer. The selection was pretty huge so I didn't get much chance to sample everything but what I did was either drinkable or good.

Another good option I found was Ground Zero Beer. Situated just on the edge of the Old town, it has a large outdoor seating area and very friendly staff on the two occasions I visisted. Beer is available to takeaway (and was fairly priced with a bulk discount). It's a slight shame the beer isn't available in cans but hey ho. Again beers here were decent - I tried a few IPA styles as well as an orange beer. The food option looked like very typical beer food (Leberkasen, ribs etc) but was surprisingly good for what it was.

Finally, we went for a post-dinner drink (or two) at Zăganu. Whilst belonging to a Romanian brewery (named after a vulture), they did have a couple of other brewery's beers on tap and in fridge. Ambience wise it was big and bustling in the evening, reminding me a little bit of a large Brewdog. The beer was certainly not bad and somewhere I'd happily go again but probably not on my own.

Lastly, for something a bit different, there is a large water park and thermal spa complex near the airport. If you feel the need to continue the beer theme, you'll find a number of pools with swim up bars where you can enjoy a drink.