Argentina may be best known as the land of Malbec, but you’ll see as many people drinking beer as wine when you’re out in the evenings, especially among the younger crowd. The Argentina beer market is expected to top 25 billion in sales in 2023 and you could spend a few months exploring the Buenos Aires breweries and taprooms scattered around the city now.
In 2010 there were around 70 breweries in Argentina. Despite some pandemic setbacks, there are now estimated to be more than 1,000 scattered around the country.
On a recent trip in Calafate, El Chalten, and Buenos Aires, I had an easier time finding a good craft beer when I wanted than I’ve had anywhere in Latin America. The selection is good in nearly any store or pub and some of the breweries are putting out beers that can hold their own in international competitions. Argentina is now the epicenter of the South American craft beer scene.
Argentina Craft Beer in Stores and Bars
In most Latin American cities there’s one huge brand that dominates and over the years these dominant breweries have been swallowed up by the giant Anheuser-Busch InBev conglomerate that wants everyone to be satisfied with their local version of Corona or Budweiser. Fortunately, that main beer Quilmes is decent here at least and is less than $4 for a six-pack of tall boys. Even better, they make some non-lager versions with quite a bit more taste.
You also might see Schneider, Salta, or another lager brand that’s pretty much the same as Quilmes but made by another company. As with Quilmes though, they might have a stout or ale version available.
The same company that produces Quilmes owns the similar Brazilian brand Brahma, so in a lame bar you’ll find one of those two and not much else. Fortunately, there aren’t a whole lot of those kinds of bars around anymore in this country. Most bars will at least have a red ale and stout on tap in addition to a pale lager. Others will have a dozen taps or more with a rotating variety.
It’s super-easy to find an alternative in Argentina. I rarely went to a supermarket, airport kiosk, or convenience store where I didn’t find multiple other choices. Usually these are the widely distributed Argentinian craft beers that come in cans such as Patagonia, Antares, and Andes Cerveza Mendocina. All those are worth drinking and if you find one you love, you’ll probably be able to get it again and again.
Based on what I saw in my non-scientific survey, Antares seems to be the most popular craft beer brand in Buenos Aires (they’ve been around since 1994), while Patagonia wins out in Patagonia. Andes Mendocino was a close second. That Patagonia beer is kind of a fake-out though. Like Bud’s Goose Island in the USA, it’s really produced by the same conglomerate as Quilmes. So it won’t blow you away and the alcohol content is lower than with many competitors, but it’s still tasty, especially at the end of a hike.
I liked the selection Antares puts out: you can find a kölsch, several stouts and porters, a honey lager, a red ale I ended up coming back to a lot, and few hoppy IPA options. They’re not wimpy low-alcohol beers by any means. They also operate a chain of brewpubs around the country. Other brands with a good store selection include Rabieta, Peñon de Aguila, and Pampa.
In Patagonia, I got to try a few beers in German-style bottles that I never saw anywhere else, mostly pilsners and bocks. The small hikers’ town of El Chalten actually has its own brewery of the same name and they make surprisingly authentic bock and German pilsner styles in bottles and at a brewpub. Keep heading down to Ushuaia and you might see Beagle or Cape Horn, with nice references to the history.
A Long Brewing Tradition in Argentina
Way back in the dark ages of South American craft beer, Chile and Argentina were a different story. That’s no accident: more than a few of the Europeans who settled in the area, especially in Patagonia, came from Germany. So while the Italians were setting up vineyards, the Germans were brewing beer.
The result is that Argentina’s lagers and pilsners aren’t too bad, but they’ve also been putting out more interesting brews for quite a while. If you like European beers you’ll be quite happy here. One brewery in Bariloche is even called Berliner. Some other large ones are Kuntsmann, Isenbeck, and Schneider.
This heritage also means they’re not starting from scratch. Overall I found the beers I got in Argentina to be of a much higher quality than the hits and misses I’ve experienced elsewhere in Latin America. It helps a lot too that they can grow barley and hops in this part of the world. They have what they need in abundance and aren’t afraid to use those ingredients liberally.
This ability to produce quality craft beer in Argentina without a lot of importing also means that—for the moment anyway, this country has the cheapest craft beer in the world. I frequently paid the local equivalent of a dollar or less (at the cash “blue rate”) for a pint (473 ml) can in a store and the average brewpub price for that size was a shade more than $2. During happy hours it sometimes dropped down to $1.50.
Since the vampire locals are allergic to going out when the rest of the world would, happy hour can sometimes last until 9 or 10:00 at night. If you show up at a brewpub before 6:00 though, there’s a good chance they won’t even be open yet. At that time the citizens of Buenos Aires are drinking espresso and eating cake.
When I walked into one open door of one at 5:40, two people argued heatedly in Spanish about whether it was okay to serve me or not. Then four more people walked in and took a seat so the grumpy staffer who was saying I should go across the street instead gave up in a huff and exited to a back room.
The Buenos Aires Brewpubs and Taprooms of Palermo
When we rented an apartment in Buenos Aires at the end of a Patagonia trip, we wanted to be where the action was because we intended to eat, drink, and be merry with our fistful dollars that were worth a fortune locally. So we stayed in the Palermo neighborhood which has several sections: Palermo Hollywood, Palermo Chico, and Palermo Soho. They all blend into one another in a large area but you can walk most of it plus there’s a subway (local fares are the equivalent of 15 US cents). Uber rides are a few dollars and taxis are even cheaper.
Palermo also happens to be a great place to sample craft beer from around the country, with more brewpubs and taprooms than anywhere else outside of Bariloche. What’s below is not a comprehensive list of the places you can visit because I only had five days and one liver, but it’ll give you an array of them to check out if you’re headed that way I had very few beers here that I wouldn’t order again, so experiment and have fun—you can buy 3+ beers here for the price of one in the USA, 4+ for what you spend in Canada!
Santa Cebeda Craft Beer Bar
I’m starting with this one because it was the first craft beer stop I visited and the rest of them had a high bar to live up to after that. This is a beer pub that carries carefully curated options from others, not their own. They had artistic tap heads dispensing an impressive variety of beers, from a German-style pilsner to a 7% alcohol American pale ale. It took me a minute to figure out that the “NEIPA” was a New England IPA and it wasn’t a standout. The best I had was a red IPA from the same brewery though (Baba) and the Scottish ale from Mesta Nostra was true to form.
This place has a fun atmosphere, with indoor seating or outside high tables that feel like they’re in the middle of the crowds walking by. Going by their Facebook page, the burgers are awesome but I didn’t eat there. Santa Cebeda also had a bartender who was welcoming and smiled a lot, which is not always an easy thing to find in Buenos Aires…
Cerveceria Baum Palermo
The last thing I expected to find on my brewpub tour of Buenos Aires was a giant Day of the Dead Catrina mural that would take me back to Mexico. One of the partners at Cerveceria Baum is a Mexican from Sinoloa though, so it’s reflected in the decor, the menu, and even a few beer names.
Jose Carlos Flores Portillo filled me in on the history a bit. Like Antares, Baum was born in the seasonal beach town of Mar de Plata, a venture from several buddies who were interested in creating a brewing business. They wanted people from Argentina to pair food with beer instead of just wine, so each menu item has a suggested beer to try with it. They intended to branch out and try a lot of styles, so the name Baum came from the German word for tree. “It’s concise and easy to remember,” Jose says.
As I sampled different offerings, I was impressed with them all. If I closed my eyes I could have been in one of the top brewpubs in the hyper-competitive craft beer atmospheres of Portland, Denver, or Tampa Bay. The Resurrection Double IPA, weighing in at 7.5%, was one of the tastiest I remember and I also liked their porter. There are a few milder options like a blonde and a session ale. The one that seems perfect for the sweets-loving locals would be the Coffee Pastry Stout.
Prices are quite reasonable for the wall of in-house beers here and the pints are “certified 580 cc” servings starting at 440 pesos, about $2.20 at the blue rate when I was there, now even less.
Bronson Cerveceria
The interior of Bronson Cerveceria taproom feels more like a sandwich shop than a brewpub, but it does have some outdoor seating that’s more inviting. Maybe that’s because they want their terrific beer to be the star instead of the decor. They certainly know a thing or two about design: they have the coolest can art I saw anywhere in Argentina.
I wasn’t up for the cool cucumber IPA, but I tried four of their other ales and they were consistently good. The Slo-Mo American Pale Ale is the one with the sloth on the front, the Afrodita is a 6% American IPA, and the one with the jellyfish is a hazy IPA. The Novena Viente amber ale offers a great break from hops if you want something malty instead
Bronson is a real brewery, with tanks in the back, so what you’re getting is fresh. You can take a can home for 450 pesos. Side note: I met the badass actor Chuck Bronson once in New York City when I worked for RCA Records and was promoting Michael Penn’s second album. My dad really thought I’d made it in the big city after I told him that. Yes, Michael Penn is the brother of actor Sean Penn. It turned out that Mr. Bronson was their uncle.
Desarmadero Bar
This is another option that’s a taproom with various breweries featured rather than its own beer, but it wins the prize of having the most striking exterior, especially at night. That mural over the door changes colors. It’s in a neighborhood with several other craft beer bars and breweries, so it’s a good place to start or end a pub crawl. Baum and Bronson are a few blocks down.
This is kind of a hybrid spot though because they did have a couple of their own beers on the menu along with the rest. I tried their APA and it was a solid, middle-of-the-road ale. The Scottish ale I got next from Prinston Brewing was downright delicious though.
Desarmadero has a wide range of styles on tap, from imperial stouts and IPAs to Belgians, sours, and saisons. If you can’t find something you like here, then you clearly don’t like beer. This place gets packed late at night, so plan accordingly.
Temple Craft
This is one of the best-known names in the Buenos Aires breweries scene and one location was close to my Airbnb rental, but apart from the cool murals, Temple was underwhelming. The place felt grungy, not in a good way, including a tasting clue that the tap tubes hadn’t been cleaned for a while. The bartender gave off the vibe that she would love nothing better than to kick my ass and leave me crumpled in the alley out back.
Thankfully the Temple beers are easy to find in good Buenos Aires stores in tall boy cans and they’re consistently tasty. They have some lighter options that appeal to the masses, but also a Critical APA that’s extra hoppy and 6% alcohol, plus a Revolution NEIPA (there we go again) at 5.2%. They make a good Black Soul Stout and some seasonal options, including a pumpkin ale.
You can tour their brewery but you need to be dedicated: it’s on the northwestern edge of Buenos Aires in an area you’d have no reason to visit otherwise.
Tours of Buenos Aires Breweries and Beer Bars
I had interviewed someone who ran craft beer tours in Buenos Aires for my book A Better Life for Half the Price, for the Argentina chapter but his website was down when I visited, perhaps a pandemic casualty. There was a tour listed on Airbnb Experiences when I was there, but it was unavailable for every day of the week, so perhaps it is kaput too. I wrote to the company running one on Viator and never heard back. Perhaps you’ll have better luck.
Otherwise just use Google Maps and bounce around the Palermo area for your own self-made Buenos Aires breweries tour. It’ll cost you a fraction of the amount if you don’t mind winging it. There are also some brewpubs in Recoleta and San Telmo if you’re staying closer to those areas.
You’ll also notice that I haven’t linked to any websites in this article. That’s because small businesses in Latin America still haven’t figured out how the internet works and seldom seem to get around to creating a good website, especially if they’re a brewery or bar. If you’re lucky they’ll have a Facebook page with some kind of info on it. Otherwise they’re just throwing up photos of beer or food on Instagram and calling that marketing. The partner at Baum didn’t have a business card and he wrote down a Hotmail address.
But hey, the craft beer in Argentina is universally great and that’s what really matters, right? Whether you’re in Bolson, Buenos Aires, Mendoza, or elsewhere, you should be able to find something good to drink quite easily. Salut!
Pin it!
