The Best Craft Beer Bars in Prague

A working micro-brewery on Seifertova Street with 14 taps of house beer and a tap room that fills with Žižkov residents from 5pm on weekday evenings. Žižkovský Pivovar produces eight core beers in the Czech tradition — tank lager, svetlý ležák, tmavý ležák — alongside four rotating IPAs and pale ales that show clear American influence without abandoning Czech brewing identity. The tank lager poured direct from the conditioning tank is the best pint of Czech beer in Prague outside the classic U Fleků.

Order: Tank lager, unpasteurised, half litre. This is why you came to Prague.

The most design-conscious craft beer bar in Prague occupies a converted bakery on Mánesova Street with 20 taps and a bottle list of 80 Czech and European craft beers. Vinohrady Tap Room has built one of the strongest selections of Czech new-wave craft in the city: small producers from Moravia, Bohemia, and Prague itself who are making beer outside the established macro brands. The staff speak four languages and know every beer on the list in all of them.

Order: Czech new-wave IPA or pale ale from a Moravian producer you do not recognise.

Set in a 19th-century industrial building in Holešovice, Prague's art district, with 30 taps, a stage for live music on Thursdays and Fridays, and a 300-person capacity that manages to feel intimate when the industrial heating is running. Holešovice Craft House is the best large-format craft beer bar in Prague: the tap list covers Czech craft, German imports, and a rotating selection of Belgian ales, all at prices that make the Old Town bars feel criminal.

Order: Czech craft pale ale alongside a German-import lager. The contrast shows you exactly where Czech brewing is going.

A basement bar 200 metres from Old Town Square that stocks 85 Czech beers, 12 on draught and 73 by the bottle. Staré Město Pivnice charges tourist-area prices but the selection is genuinely excellent: every significant Czech regional brewery is represented, and the staff conduct regular vertical tastings of the same brewery across multiple vintages. The physical space is vaulted medieval brick and completely correct for drinking Czech beer in.

Order: Regional Czech pale lager from a brewery you have not encountered before. The staff will suggest three options immediately.

A walled courtyard beer garden behind a 17th-century building on Karmelitská Street that operates from April to October and has 16 taps of Czech craft and a view of the Petrin hill above. Malá Strana Tap Garden is peak-Prague in the best possible sense: good beer, impossible surroundings, and a crowd of locals, expats, and visitors who have all found the same secret simultaneously. The kitchen closes at 9pm. Arrive earlier and eat.

Order: Whatever seasonal Czech lager is on. Garden table. Extended visit.

In the former Jewish Quarter, Josefov Beerworks runs 24 taps with a focus on international craft that is unusual for Prague: alongside Czech classics, you will find Scandinavian craft lagers, British real ale on cask, and rotating selections from Belgian lambic producers. It is the most internationally focused bar on this list and serves a clientele that comes to Prague specifically for the beer. Prices are high. The import selection earns them.

Order: Czech tank lager alongside a British cask real ale. Two brewing traditions, two completely different philosophies about what beer should be.

A small fermentory in Nusle, south of Vinohrady, run by two former commercial brewers who left to make wild-fermented ales on a scale of 100 barrels per year. Nusle Fermentory is the only Czech producer focusing seriously on spontaneous fermentation using local Prague wild yeasts, and the results are unlike any other Czech beer: complex, unpredictable, and occasionally extraordinary. The tap room opens Thursday through Saturday only. Come with patience and an open palate.

Order: Current wild ale, whatever batch they are pouring. Ask about the fermentation timeline.

A genuine Czech beer hall in a working-class neighbourhood that has not changed its approach in 30 years. Smíchov Beer Hall serves tank Pilsner Urquell alongside eight rotating Czech craft beers from a central bar that seats 80 people on wooden benches. The food is Czech: svíčková, goulash, pork knuckle. The prices are the lowest on this list. The beer is perfectly kept and served with the technique that Czech barmen train for years to develop.

Order: Tank Pilsner Urquell. Then order whatever Czech craft pale ale has just arrived. Then eat something.

A neighbourhood tap room in Dejvice, northwest of the centre, that serves the local residential population with a 20-tap list of Czech craft and German imports. Dejvice Tap Room is the bar on this list that is least visited by tourists, which makes it the most honest representation of how Prague's craft beer scene actually operates: quietly, confidently, and without any need for external validation. The Czech tmavý on draught is exceptional.

Order: Czech dark lager on draught. Two glasses minimum. This style deserves time.

A small bottle shop with six bar stools in Karlín, the gentrifying district northeast of the centre. Karlín Bottle Shop stocks 200 Czech and Central European craft beers for retail and opens four of them for tasting at the bar each day. The owner selects what is open based on what he has just received, which means the bar changes completely every 48 hours. Come back twice and have a completely different experience both times.

Order: Ask which four bottles are open today. Start with the Czech craft, move to whatever Central European guest is most interesting.