12 Best Craft Beer Bars in Tbilisi

Megobrebi Brewery makes the beer, and this is where it lands: the brewery's own taproom on Geronti Kikodze, in the middle of old Tbilisi. Sour is what it specialises in, by its own description, so the board runs smoothie sours, mixed fermentation sours, wine ales and the hoppy things in between. There are tables inside and out, doors open at 4 PM and close at 1 AM, 7 days a week. Come at the start of the night, while you can still read a beer list properly, and bring the dog if you have one.

Small enough that the pavement is part of the room. Hopa pours Georgian beer and nothing else, 12 kinds on draught and a fridge of bottles behind them, on a quiet stretch of Atoneli. One reviewer counts 3 stools inside and several tables out on the patio, which tells you where you'll be sitting for most of the year. It opens at noon, so it covers a beer in daylight as well as a last one before the 1 AM close. Google puts the range at 10 to 20 GEL, so working through the taps is the cheap kind of research.

The fridges are doing most of the work here. Process is a single room on Merab Kostava stocked with up to 50 craft beers and ciders from Georgian microbreweries, by the bar's own count, plus a few lines on tap. Board games and a jukebox both turn up in its review topics, and an hour turns into 3 without anyone deciding it should. It runs 5 PM to 2 AM every day. 2 reviewers flag the prices as higher than the bar down the street, which is the trade for cans you won't find in a supermarket.

Feels like home is the line Sma uses on itself, and the room backs it up: a small space on Lado Asatiani, a few tables out front and a piano that comes up in 13 reviews. The counter pours Georgian craft and the bar's own homebrews, with cider and stout among them. The burgers are the other reason people come, which is unusual for a beer bar and a good argument for arriving hungry. It pours from 4 PM to 12:30 AM daily.

Number 8 is the reason to stay uphill. It sits on Irakli Abashidze in Vake, well away from the Old Tbilisi cluster, and it is built for a long sit rather than a quick one, with sport on the screens and enough room at the bar that Google flags it for solo dining. The taps run house beers, cider and Guinness, and the kitchen goes past bar snacks into burgers, khinkali and grilled salmon. Noon opening, 1 AM close, every day of the week. One reviewer's advice is to call ahead on a busy night, and the bar takes reservations.

You get in through an arch off Nato Vachnadze and then a courtyard, and the courtyard is the point: an old Tbilisi yard near Freedom Square with 10 taps of draught craft beer in it. Beer, cider and mead at 10 to 20 GEL, and more beer in the fridge than on the board. It's shut on Mondays and runs 7 PM to 2 AM the rest of the week, finishing at midnight on Sunday. Saturday nights lean reggae and dub. There's a resident cat, and he decides how the introduction goes.

A cellar under Shalva Dadiani with rock on the speakers, darts, board games, a foosball table and a Cthulhu theme running through the decor. Local beer and cocktails both sit at the cheap end for Sololaki, and the food is snacks rather than dinner, so eat first. Something is on most nights: karaoke on Wednesday and Saturday, quiz nights, stand-up, live music roughly every other week. Doors at 7 PM, 2 AM on Friday and Saturday, a 6 PM start and midnight finish on Sunday, closed Monday.

Beer at 11 AM is a decision, and Old Time is where you make it. This Nadzaladevi beer garden opens at 9 AM and closes at 5 PM every day of the week, which makes it the daytime entry on a list of night places. It runs on self-service: you point at the tap, point at the pot of hot sausages and hold up fingers. It's small and plain inside, with stand-up tables and a 4.6 rating across 527 reviews behind it. Come for lunch and a draft, then go somewhere else for the evening.

Rudeboy brews its own beer and bakes its own pinza, and the reviews cannot decide which of the 2 is the reason to go. It sits on Shalva Dadiani just off Liberty Square, pouring house lager next to IPA, cider and guest taps, with Italian food and natural wine on the same menu. The room is lamplight, wood and graffiti, and cosy is the word its reviews keep reaching for. Come here when the plan is beer and dinner in one sitting rather than a crawl. It's closed on Mondays, opens at 5 PM and runs to 2 AM on Friday and Saturday.

Most of this list is a walk from Liberty Square. 2 Tona is not, and people go out to Mukhiani for it anyway. It's a brewery with a proper kitchen behind it, open 11 AM to 1 AM every day, and the khinkali gets talked about more than the beer does. Honey ale, mtsvadi, lobiani, chicken shashlik and burgers fill in the rest of the board. Come here when you want dinner built around the beer rather than crisps, with the family or a table of friends. Bookings go through its own reservation page.

You can tell what Beer Time is for by where everyone is looking. Screens go round the room, and the football pulls as hard here as the tap list does. It's on Alexander Kazbegi Avenue in Saburtalo, 4.5 across 1,000 Google reviews, with a kitchen turning out khinkali and burgers underneath it. Come here when the match is on and you want dinner with it, or when you're on this side of town and Old Tbilisi is too far to bother with. It takes bookings online, which is worth doing on a match night.

Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue is where dinner gets easy, and this is the beer garden doing the heavy lifting on it. There's an open terrace for the months that allow one, and a 4.5 rating from 530 reviews behind it. German beer goes out alongside a Georgian menu, and the sport goes on the screens. Come here with a group that wants a table outside and no argument about the menu. It runs 10 AM to midnight daily, and the parking, the seating and the restroom are all marked wheelchair accessible.