The 5 Craft Beer Local Brewery Bar You Can’t Miss in Hamburg
Hamburg’s beer culture runs on more than Astra cans and Reeperbahn souvenir shirts. The city is home to
Ratsherrn, one of Germany’s most recognisable modern craft breweries, and to a scattered handful of bars and
brewpubs that treat beer as the point rather than the backdrop — some brewing it themselves in former harbor
cellars, some just stocking it seriously and building a room worth sitting in around it. We went through every
bar, pub and brewery-restaurant with a Google Business listing across the city’s beer-forward stretches —
Sternschanze, St. Pauli’s Fischmarkt, the Neustadt strip around the Esplanade, and the Altstadt lanes near the
Rathaus — and weighted each one’s rating against how many people actually left it, because a 4.8 from 677 votes
and a 4.3 from 7,385 are not making the same claim. Seventeen venues qualified; five came out clearly ahead, and
between them they cover most of what “craft beer” means in this city: an actual working brewery’s own taproom, a
former harbor-warehouse microbrewery with its own wood oven, a forty-year-old neighbourhood pub built around beer
and live music, an award-winning Irish sports bar with a serious whiskey following, and a small Neustadt bar that
out-rates all four of them.
Altes Mädchen Ratsherrn Braugasthaus, Sternschanze
Start with the one that is a brewery first and a restaurant second: Altes
Mädchen is Ratsherrn’s own Braugasthaus, tucked into the Schanzenhöfe courtyards in Sternschanze, and by
far the most-reviewed name on this list at 7,385 Google reviews (4.3★). The name comes from a Freddy
Quinn song about Hamburg, and the beer list backs up the setting: around 30 handcrafted beers on tap plus more
than 50 bottled varieties from breweries worldwide, with staff trained as beer sommeliers who pair Ratsherrn’s
own house brews to specific dishes on a menu built around regional and modern Northern German cooking. Beyond
the dining room, the venue runs tastings, brewing courses and tours of the working brewery itself, plus its own
Christmas market and bakery. Open Monday to Thursday, noon to midnight, and Sunday morning through 10:00 PM;
closed Friday, with Saturday running from 3:00 PM into the small hours — the one place on this list dark on a
weekday rather than a weekend.
ÜberQuell Restaurant & Brauerei, St. Pauli
The second genuine brewery on this list, and the one built into the harbor itself. ÜberQuell occupies the old Riverkasematten — brick harbor-warehouse cellars right on
St. Pauli’s Fischmarkt — and runs as a working microbrewery, wood-fired Neapolitan pizzeria and beer garden at
once, an unusual combination it leans into with a self-described “Norddeutsche Coolness” mix of rock-and-roll
aesthetic, street art and urban gardening. Its house beers are brewed to traditional standards on site, and
visitors can book interactive brewing courses run by the venue’s own master brewer; in winter (November to
February) the beer garden switches over to ice stock shooting. 4.4★ from 1,394 reviews. Open from 5:00 PM
Monday to Thursday, from 2:00 PM Friday through Sunday, closing latest — midnight — on Saturday.
Klimperkiste, Neustadt
The one on this list that isn’t chasing the word “craft” at all, and earns its place anyway. Klimperkiste has run on the Esplanade in Neustadt for more than 40 years as a
deliberately unpretentious neighbourhood pub — what its own description calls “urige Atmosphäre,” a rustic
refuge from the more polished nightlife a few streets over. The draft list runs to Jever, Lübzer, Holsten and
Franziskaner Hefeweizen, served in 1.5-litre pitchers alongside bottled beers, a genuinely long cocktail menu,
and simple food — baguettes, open-faced Stullen, soups, flatbreads, gratins — built to soak up a long evening
rather than headline one. 4.6★ from 1,685 reviews, the highest rating of the three non-brewery venues here.
Open Tuesday to Friday, 4:00 PM until 4:00 AM, and Saturday from 6:00 PM — the latest closing time on this list
— closed Sunday and Monday.
Irish Pub in the Fleetenkieker, Altstadt
The specialist import on this list, and the one with actual awards to show for it: Irish Pub in the Fleetenkieker, on Börsenbrücke near the Rathaus and the old Fleet
canals, has picked up “Best Sports Experience GLOBAL 2019” and “Best Community Pub EUROPE 2018,” and leans on
both halves of that reputation — live sports broadcasts and a genuinely deep Irish beer and whiskey selection,
alongside pub quiz nights and regular live music. 4.4★ from 2,342 reviews, the second-most-reviewed venue
on this list after Altes Mädchen. Open daily — 4:00 PM to midnight Monday through Thursday, until 2:00 AM Friday
and Saturday, and from noon on the weekend, the closest thing on this list to always-open.
Tipsy Baker Bar, Neustadt
The highest-rated name on this entire list, by a wide margin, is also the smallest and hardest to research
from a desk: Tipsy Baker Bar, a short walk from Klimperkiste on the same Esplanade
strip in Neustadt, holds 4.8★ from 677 Google reviews — comfortably ahead of every brewery on this list on
rating alone, even with the smallest review base of the five. Its own web presence runs through Facebook rather
than an independent site, so take this one on Google’s numbers rather than a house story: it’s logged as a Bar
rather than a restaurant or brewpub, which tracks with the shortest, latest-leaning hours here. Open every
evening from 5:00 or 6:00 PM, closed Sundays, with the latest last call — 2:00 AM — on Friday and Saturday.
All five, on the map
The interactive map has all 17 qualifying craft beer bars, pubs and breweries we
found across Sternschanze, St. Pauli, Neustadt and the Altstadt, these five marked and numbered, and a button
that hands the walking-and-transit route between them straight to Google Maps on your phone.
Getting the most out of a craft beer crawl in Hamburg
These five are spread across four different districts, so a proper crawl means real cross-town movement —
Sternschanze to St. Pauli’s Fischmarkt is a straightforward walk along the harbor, but getting from there to the
Altstadt or the Neustadt bars near the Esplanade is a genuine U-Bahn or S-Bahn trip, not a stroll. If you’re
flying into Hamburg Airport (HAM) rather than living here, a local eSIM from Airalo means Google Maps and the S1 into town work the moment you land, and a
booked transfer from Welcome Pickups takes the guesswork out of that
first ride. A round of Ratsherrn on tap, a Neapolitan pizza at ÜberQuell and a pitcher at Klimperkiste adds up in
foreign-transaction fees fast if you’re paying on a home card — a Wise card in
euros is the simplest fix for that across a full night out. And if the beer crawl is one stop on a longer Hamburg
trip, Tiqets covers skip-the-line tickets for the harbor and Speicherstadt
attractions that sit between several of these venues.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the best craft beer bar in Hamburg?
By rating alone, Tipsy Baker Bar in Neustadt leads at 4.8★ from 677 reviews. But “best” depends on what
you actually want: for an operating brewery you can tour, Altes Mädchen (Ratsherrn’s own taproom, 4.3★ from
7,385 reviews) or ÜberQuell (a harbor-cellar microbrewery, 4.4★) are the real answer; Tipsy Baker Bar is a
bar, not a brewery.
Which of these venues actually brews its own beer?
Two of the five: Altes Mädchen is Ratsherrn’s own Braugasthaus, and ÜberQuell runs its own microbrewery on
site with a master brewer and bookable brewing courses. Klimperkiste, Irish Pub in the Fleetenkieker and Tipsy
Baker Bar are bars and pubs with strong beer selections, not breweries.
Which Hamburg neighbourhood has the most craft beer venues on this list?
Neustadt, around the Esplanade — Klimperkiste and Tipsy Baker Bar are a short walk apart on the same street,
though they’re different in almost every other respect. The other three sit in Sternschanze, St. Pauli and the
Altstadt, one each.
Are any of these open on Sundays?
Three are: Altes Mädchen (10:00 AM–10:00 PM), ÜberQuell (2:00–10:00 PM) and Irish Pub in the Fleetenkieker
(noon–midnight). Klimperkiste and Tipsy Baker Bar both close on Sundays.
Is there a good spot for live sports or live music?
Irish Pub in the Fleetenkieker is the sports destination — it holds “Best Sports Experience GLOBAL 2019” and
runs regular broadcasts and pub quiz nights. Klimperkiste is the music-and-conversation pub, built around
drinking, eating and live music together rather than screens.
- 1. Altes Mädchen Ratsherrn Braugasthaus — Lagerstraße 28b, 20357 Hamburg
- 2. ÜberQuell Restaurant & Brauerei — St. Pauli Fischmarkt 28-32, 20359 Hamburg-Altona
- 3. Klimperkiste — Esplanade 18, 20354 Hamburg
- 4. Irish Pub in the Fleetenkieker — Börsenbrücke 10, 20457 Hamburg
- 5. Tipsy Baker Bar — Esplanade 29/30, 20354 Hamburg
