A drop of Irish Red Ale? A New England IPA? A light lager for summer? Just some of the options at a typical Vienna KRAFT Bier Fest: a beer festival that combines the joys of craft beer with a relaxing gastronomic ambience.
- Normally 15+ Austrian and international breweries
- Broad range of beers to try
- Hosted in the Gleis//Garten food hall
- So plenty of seating and good eating
- Next dates: Aug 1-2, 2025
- Book a guided craft beer tour* in Vienna
- See also:
Beer, blues & bonhomie
(The Vienna KRAFT on-site brewery)
Sometimes it pays to look beyond the borders of Vienna’s old town for a slice of local life.
The Gleis//Garten food hall, for example, is a large self-service gastronomic location where various eateries and restaurants occupy niches around a long hall filled with tables and natural décor. An outdoor area also has summer seating.
One end of that hall houses the Vienna KRAFT brewery premises, serving beer direct from the tanks. That same brewery also organised the first Vienna KRAFT Bier Fest in August 2024 in what has become a regular event.
The beer festival differs a little (in a good way) from other hop-filled events I’ve visited.
(Me hard at work)
Around 15 guest craft breweries each set up a table and beer dispenser within the Gleis//Garten location, which carries on its normal business. This means:
- Plenty of seating for comparing notes with companions or casual conversation between glasses
- A wide choice of food to go with your drink: from traditional Austrian fare to international offerings
- A far more pleasant ambience and aesthetic than you get in large venues that only host events
Rather than buy tokens or pay each brewery separately, a Bier Fest ticket entitles you to an identifying wristband and a small tasting glass you hand over (responsibly, of course) for filling as often as you liked.
My initial scepticism at the “pay once” approach soon fled on my first visit. It seems to take away the stress of choice for the visitor and the stress of “token gathering” for the breweries.
Combine that with the surrounds, and everything feels remarkably relaxed, mannerly, and friendly…with brewery staff happy to take time to chat.
Live music adds another enjoyable touch: during our first festival visit, an excellent solo blues singer and guitarist played with skill, energy and remarkable authenticity.
And by taking smaller measures of beer, you’re able to try more varieties than might otherwise be possible.
(The Gleis//Garten food hall)
I tend to avoid the more inventive craft beers, though an intriguing blackcurrant beer from the Czech Nachmelená Opice brewery and a Mango Madness IPA from host Vienna KRAFT have found their way into my tasting glass.
(Not the kind of beers I ever anticipated enjoying back when supping a pint of 6X bitter in the misspent days of my Wiltshire youth.)
Nevertheless, I largely stick to various IPAs and lagers from among the 60+ craft beers available. My personal favourites being the lighter Session IPA (also from Vienna KRAFT) and the Gartenzwickl from BrauSchneider; a Zwickl is a full-bodied, unfiltered beer.
Of course, one of the joys of craft beer is the inexhaustible variety and choice. So we must return next time. It’s a tough assignment, but someone has to do it.
Dates, tickets & tips
The next (third) edition is slated for August 1st and 2nd, 2025.
Tickets should become available online through the event website (see below).
Vienna has other beer festivals through the year. See, for example, the Super Bier Fest (Beer Culture Days), Ottakringer Bierfest and Wiener Bierfest, though none of those are purely craft beer festivals like the Vienna KRAFT version.
And, should you wish to explore the local craft beer scene in more detail, try these suggestions.
How to get there
Although outside the old town, public transport gets you to the Gleis//Garten quickly. It’s around 20 minutes door-to-door from Stephansplatz in the very centre, for example.
Tram: lines 6 and 18 serve the nearby Eichenstraße stop. Both leave from Westbahnhof railway station on the U3 subway line. Catch the 18 from the Hauptbahnhof railway station, too, which is just a couple of stops on the U1 subway line from the town centre.
Address: Eichenstraße 2, 1120 Vienna | Website (for the event)