Just round the corner from my gaff, at the quieter, non-pedestrianised end of Ráday utca there is a pizzeria which I sometimes use. It has been there for a year or two at least, which makes it quite well established round here, as I have seen several other pizza places come and go. The pizza is good - thin and crispy, with a good range of toppings, few of which would be recognised in Naples, but hey. The beer, until now, has not been worth bothering about. It started off selling Fosters, and was one of the few places I have seen in Budapest with a Fosters sign outside. This did not attract me, however, as Fosters is rubbish everywhere A few months ago it changed to Borsodi - even less exciting. A week or two back, though I was delighted to see that the sign now read "Osterbrau -Az Élő Sör." (No sign of this momentous change on the pizzeria's website though.)
At first I thought it was the same Osterbrau brewery (based in the small town of Fót) which has a small bar on Veres Pálné utca, where they do a hoppy, tasty, unfiltered brew which is supposed to be an IPA (India Pale Ale), a rather odd ginger beer and a quaffable "Bájor" ("Bavarian") blonde lager. The IPA they do there is one of my favourite Hungarian beers, so I thought my luck was in, but on closer inspection it turned out that my local pizzeria was now serving beer from the "other" Osterbrau, the one from Domony, which I have tried only once before.
The domony Osterbrau, with its catchy slogan "Az Élő Sör" - (The Living Beer) has a pub/restaurant on Tölgyfa utca, over in Buda. I went there once with a fellow beer scout, and our conclusion was that it was not bad, but not as good as the other Osterbrau. I kept meaning to go back there, and have something to eat, but as it is not on my way anywhere I have yet to get round to it.
Osterbrau (Domony) has a few typical characterisitcs of brewers of Hungarian "házi sör" - (home-made beer). The Germanic name apparently is supposed to add gravitas - see also Corvinburg, Petersbrau, Kaltenberg, Brandecker etc etc. As there are hundreds of extremely naff industrially brewed budget beers trying the same trick - (Adambrau et al, )some more recently established breweries are sensibly now giving themselves more believably Hungarian names. Osterbrau is one of the most long established though, so it is stuck with its teutonic tag.
I didn't sample the basic, világos (light) beer this time, but have tried it at Tölgyfa utca and it was not particularly memorable. Refreshing on a hot day, and at least there is no cornmeal in it. And of course, it is cheap - most small brewers in Hungary try to compete with the multinationals on price, at least for their basic beer - and as that seems to be the main consideration for 99% of Hungarian drinkers, I don't think that will change soon.
I opted this time for the Vörös - (red) and was pleasantly surprised. When I tried it last time in Buda it had seemed a bit watery, and I had the suspicion it was just their light beer with a few caramely additives. Trying it this time round, I wasn't struck by any wateriness, and the flavour was pleasnatly complex. Not too coffee like, not too sickly - really rather good. I'll certainly try it again - while they bake me a pizza.
I also tried a half of the fekete (black) beer, and that actually tasted much the same as the vörös, so perhaps the waitress just got my order wrong...
The very simple, or uninspired, names are also rather typical of Hungarian small brewers - Light, Red, Black. Not exactly informed by marketing nous, are they? However, this seems to be changing, as newer (and more ambitious) Hungarian micro-beers have more imaginative Keserű Méz ("Bitter Honey") and Grabanc IPA. I wonder if the Domony branch of Osterbrau will evolve similarly. Somehow I doubt it - but you never know. At least the fact that they have non-mainstream beer is actually advertised here, as a selling point. There is a sign and everything. I have noticed that many pubs with házi sör almost seem to be ashamed of it - as if it is not a "professional" proper beer like Dréher, Soproni or Borsodi. Most drinkers in Budapest also seem to turn their noses up at the suspiciously anonymous "házi sör". I don't know, perhaps they have got used to the taste of cornmeal.
The Nana eszpresszó on Királyi Pál utca is a good example of this "modesty" - without peering at the menu you'd never know that this is one of the few places in the capital which sells Kárpi Sör. Even when you look at the menu it is only described as "házi sör" - and is extremely cheap - wich hardly suggests that it is worth trying, when in fact it is rather good. The unfiltered version of Kárpi sör really impressed me, but I have only found it once, at a festival.
In a way, though, the lack of advertising makes finding Hungarian indie beers more fun. It almost seems like small scale brewing is an underground movement, which has to stay beneath the radar of the corporate beer police. But perhaps it is coming to the surface now, and hopefuly will slowly learn not to fight price wars with the majors, but instead go for a quality, niche market. Until then it can be a laugh ordering the no-name cheap stuff, and finding that it is generally more drinkable than the pricier slop with the big advertising budget.
Anyway - enough of this musing. There is a new Osterbrau outlet, and they do a tasty pizza too. And, if you are me, it is round the corner. Which is handy.
UPDATE: I noticed the other day that they also do beer to take away, which is cheaper than buying it to drink in. I got a bottle of the "Irish black" today, and found out that the red beer is just a half and half mix of the light and the black beers. I think I must have been served the black stuff when I was last in. On second tasting it was still good, but to be brutally, errrr objective not a patch on a proper English bitter, or Scottish heavy...as for Irsh black I wouldn't know - it certainly isnt a stout...
At first I thought it was the same Osterbrau brewery (based in the small town of Fót) which has a small bar on Veres Pálné utca, where they do a hoppy, tasty, unfiltered brew which is supposed to be an IPA (India Pale Ale), a rather odd ginger beer and a quaffable "Bájor" ("Bavarian") blonde lager. The IPA they do there is one of my favourite Hungarian beers, so I thought my luck was in, but on closer inspection it turned out that my local pizzeria was now serving beer from the "other" Osterbrau, the one from Domony, which I have tried only once before.
The domony Osterbrau, with its catchy slogan "Az Élő Sör" - (The Living Beer) has a pub/restaurant on Tölgyfa utca, over in Buda. I went there once with a fellow beer scout, and our conclusion was that it was not bad, but not as good as the other Osterbrau. I kept meaning to go back there, and have something to eat, but as it is not on my way anywhere I have yet to get round to it.
Osterbrau (Domony) has a few typical characterisitcs of brewers of Hungarian "házi sör" - (home-made beer). The Germanic name apparently is supposed to add gravitas - see also Corvinburg, Petersbrau, Kaltenberg, Brandecker etc etc. As there are hundreds of extremely naff industrially brewed budget beers trying the same trick - (Adambrau et al, )some more recently established breweries are sensibly now giving themselves more believably Hungarian names. Osterbrau is one of the most long established though, so it is stuck with its teutonic tag.
I didn't sample the basic, világos (light) beer this time, but have tried it at Tölgyfa utca and it was not particularly memorable. Refreshing on a hot day, and at least there is no cornmeal in it. And of course, it is cheap - most small brewers in Hungary try to compete with the multinationals on price, at least for their basic beer - and as that seems to be the main consideration for 99% of Hungarian drinkers, I don't think that will change soon.
I opted this time for the Vörös - (red) and was pleasantly surprised. When I tried it last time in Buda it had seemed a bit watery, and I had the suspicion it was just their light beer with a few caramely additives. Trying it this time round, I wasn't struck by any wateriness, and the flavour was pleasnatly complex. Not too coffee like, not too sickly - really rather good. I'll certainly try it again - while they bake me a pizza.
I also tried a half of the fekete (black) beer, and that actually tasted much the same as the vörös, so perhaps the waitress just got my order wrong...
The very simple, or uninspired, names are also rather typical of Hungarian small brewers - Light, Red, Black. Not exactly informed by marketing nous, are they? However, this seems to be changing, as newer (and more ambitious) Hungarian micro-beers have more imaginative Keserű Méz ("Bitter Honey") and Grabanc IPA. I wonder if the Domony branch of Osterbrau will evolve similarly. Somehow I doubt it - but you never know. At least the fact that they have non-mainstream beer is actually advertised here, as a selling point. There is a sign and everything. I have noticed that many pubs with házi sör almost seem to be ashamed of it - as if it is not a "professional" proper beer like Dréher, Soproni or Borsodi. Most drinkers in Budapest also seem to turn their noses up at the suspiciously anonymous "házi sör". I don't know, perhaps they have got used to the taste of cornmeal.
The Nana eszpresszó on Királyi Pál utca is a good example of this "modesty" - without peering at the menu you'd never know that this is one of the few places in the capital which sells Kárpi Sör. Even when you look at the menu it is only described as "házi sör" - and is extremely cheap - wich hardly suggests that it is worth trying, when in fact it is rather good. The unfiltered version of Kárpi sör really impressed me, but I have only found it once, at a festival.
In a way, though, the lack of advertising makes finding Hungarian indie beers more fun. It almost seems like small scale brewing is an underground movement, which has to stay beneath the radar of the corporate beer police. But perhaps it is coming to the surface now, and hopefuly will slowly learn not to fight price wars with the majors, but instead go for a quality, niche market. Until then it can be a laugh ordering the no-name cheap stuff, and finding that it is generally more drinkable than the pricier slop with the big advertising budget.
Anyway - enough of this musing. There is a new Osterbrau outlet, and they do a tasty pizza too. And, if you are me, it is round the corner. Which is handy.
UPDATE: I noticed the other day that they also do beer to take away, which is cheaper than buying it to drink in. I got a bottle of the "Irish black" today, and found out that the red beer is just a half and half mix of the light and the black beers. I think I must have been served the black stuff when I was last in. On second tasting it was still good, but to be brutally, errrr objective not a patch on a proper English bitter, or Scottish heavy...as for Irsh black I wouldn't know - it certainly isnt a stout...
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