Best International Breweries
So far in the Best… in the World we’ve been to the best restaurants in the world, relived some of the best meals in the world, and partied it up at some of the best bars in the world. This week kicks-off the portion of the series that I’ve been most anticipating – the Best Breweries in the World. This stretch will be divided into two parts. This week, some of the top travel and beer bloggers discuss their favorite breweries to visit around the globe. There’s no surprise that the journey takes us from Bavaria and Belgium to Australia with a strange stop in Croatia along the way. Next week, we’ll focus on he United States’ exploding craft beer scene.
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Braumanufaktur in Potsdam, Germany – Fitzmagic Travels
Germans don’t joke about beer. It’s a fine art. The best aspect of German beer lies in their locality. 1300 Breweries produce over 5000 brands in the country. Almost every city or town contains a brewery, but the best brewery in the world sits along Templiner Strasse just outside of Potsdam, Germany.
“Geld allein macht nicht glucklich, trinkt Bier!”
“Money alone does not make you happy, Drink Beer!”
Welcome to Braumanufaktur Potsdam.
The brewery houses a restaurant and biergarten in addition to the producing the only organic beer in the Berlin and Brandenburg states. On any given weekend you’ll find this remote location bustling with folks from all over. If the weather is nice, don’t expect to find any seats.
Braumanufaktur in Potsdam, Germany – Photo Courtesy of Fitzmagic Travels
There’s several mainstay and seasonal brews but the entire selection is produced organically with raw ingredients from the surrounding area. This gives them the full bodied flavors you won’t find in other mass produced beers – I’m talking about you Budweiser.
While you can’t go wrong with a Braumanufaktur brew, my personal favorite is their Dunkel bier. Relax in the biergarten on a warm, sunny afternoon and try telling me this isn’t paradise.
James writes and manages Fitzmagic Travels. He has drank his way through 20 countries and countless cities in the last two years. He shows people how to live the travel lifestyle in their daily lives. For more stories and discussions you can sign up for his updates here.
Braumanufaktur in Potsdam, Germany – Photo Courtesy of Fitzmagic Travels
De Struise Brouwers in Oostvleteren, Belgium – Our Tasty Travels
One of my favorite breweries to visit is De Struise Brouwers in Oostvleteren, Belgium. De Struise is one of the best breweries in Belgium, and in fact, was rated the number 1 in Belgium for 2014 on RateBeer! They’re one of the few breweries in Belgium that are more like the American craft breweries where they are constantly experimenting with new beers and new styles, but what sets them apart from others is that they do this with a distinctly Belgian flavor. While they have their IPA’s and their stouts, they are just as well known for the Belgian Strong Dark Ales and Belgian Sour Ales.
De Struise doesn’t have big, fancy facilities. If you want to visit De Struise, their tasting room is only open on Saturday afternoons, from 2-6. The brewery is a former school, and the tasting room is one of the old classrooms, and they have a great setup inside taking advantage of this. They have 30 beers on tap, usually with around 3/4 of the taps dedicated to Struise beers, with the remainder handed over to “friend brewers” such as Alvinne. They feature a wide variety from their whole range of beers, including a few offerings from their famed “Black Damnation” series of stouts and from their Pannepot line of Belgian Strong Dark Ales.
De Struise Brouwers in Oostvleteren, Belgium – Photo Courtesy of Our Tasty Travels
De Struise doesn’t offer food, but during the summer, the courtyard is set up with picnic tables and they have a grill running where you can bring your own foods to barbecue. A great perk of visiting De Struise in Oostvleteren is that it’s also very close by to Sint-Sixtus Abbey, where the famed Trappist beer Westvleteren is made, and where you can sample and sometimes buy the beers at the In De Vrede café.
De Struise Brouwers in Oostvleteren, Belgium – Photo Courtesy of Our Tasty Travels
Pivnica Medvedgrad Ilica in Zagreb, Croatia – Living the Dream
Our favorite brewery was one we discovered in Zagreb, Croatia, at the recommendation of our hostel. It is Pivnica Medvedgrad Ilica and has all of the features we look for in a great brewery: a unique vibe (in this case rustic Eastern European), an array of delicious and cheap beers, and great food. As beer drinkers we have our preferred favorites and tend to not stray away (hops is forbidden), but we found that every single beer we tried here was beyond compare- even the ones with more hops than we normally drink. You must go here!
Jeremy is the owner of Living the Dream, a long-term travel blog that inspires others to get out and explore the world for months or years on end. Since founding the site he has been on two long-term trips, visited 67 countries, and focuses on adventure and culinary activities around the world.
Pivnica Medvedgrad Ilica in Zagreb, Croatia – Photo Courtesy of Living the Dream
White Rabbit Brewery in Healesville, Australia – No Ordinary Nomad
One of the best breweries in the world in my opinion is the White Rabbit Brewery, situated in Healesville, about an hour’s drive outside Melbourne in Australia. What’s great about it is not just their delicious beers, but the knowledgeable staff, funky atmosphere and delicious wood fired pizzas if you’re keen for a snack!
You can tell the staff working there are truly passionate about their beer, and as part of a tasting they’ll take you through each of the brews on offer in great detail, describing all of the various hops and grains that go into each individual beer. If you’re just keen to go there for a lazy afternoon with mates, they definitely welcome that as well, and the funky retro op shop vibe makes you feel right at home, drinking brews in the sunshine amongst the huge fermentation tanks.
White Rabbit Brewery in Healesville, Australia – Photo Courtesy of No Ordinary Nomad
They’re open 7 days a week from 11am to 5pm (open later until 9pm on Fridays), and it’s recommended that you book if you’d like to do a tasting as they’re very popular. We have visited several times as part of a winery tour of the Yarra Valley, and the White Rabbit Brewery is a great way to break up a day of wineries!
Erin is a travel and adventure blogger who fell in love with Asia six years ago and has travelled every chance she gets since! She has canoed through limestone karsts in Phang Nga Bay, stayed with a local Indian family in Varanasi and watched the sun rise over Mt Everest from the summit of Kala Patthar. You can read about Erin’s adventures on her blog No Ordinary Nomad.
Augustiner Bräu in Salzburg, Austria – The Wandering Gourmand
You’d think that after heavily touring beer halls and gardens in Munich and Bamberg that my answer to the best international brewery would be in one of those two cities that are so famous for beer and not Salzburg, Austria. Isn’t Austria the land of schnapps and wine after all? But no, my favorite international brewery is Augustiner Bräu on the slopes of the Mönchsberg just outside of Salzburg. Because when you find perfection, you just can’t pass it up.
Augustiner is a must visit on your itinerary in Salzburg. I’d even go as far as to say it’s a reason for visiting Salzburg. The monks keep the ancient art of brewing and drinking alive from following the laws of 1516 to serving out of wooden barrels into stone mugs. Their Marzen is one of the best in the world. The head is white and frothy and the lager is bready, and oh so crisp. It’s the perfect beer for a Spring afternoon under a canopy of chestnut trees. Or any afternoon for that matter.
Augustiner Bräu in Salzburg, Austria
The experience doesn’t stop with the beer though. The brewery is a center of the community. As it’s not exactly on the tourist path, you’re more likely to run into locals sipping the nectar of the Gods (an appropriate term given that the brewery is in a monastery) with many of them sitting at nightly reserved tables.
The brewery itself is very self-service orientated. You purchase tokens from a cashier, pick your mug, and the carry it over to the beer man who will fill it from a wooden barrel before sliding it back to you across a copper bar. When you’re ready for a refill, they even have spigots to rinse out your mug! It kind of reminded me of a high school cafeteria, but with beer.
Bryan manages The Wandering Gourmand travel blog and has traveled to five continents, 19 countries, and 70 cities over the past eight years, all while holding down a full-time job. He also has a passion for exploring regional foods and drinking craft beer. He wants to help you travel, too. Click here for instant access to his free guide 8 Steps to Going on Your Dream Vacation.
These are all very cool.
I want to visit White Rabbit just because of the name.
De Struise is so great. The flavor of each beer develops in your mouth and travels across your palate. Solid every time!
Thanks for your comment!. De Struise definitely deserves a place on the list. I like the classroom look to the brewery. If only we had beer in school…