Craft beer in Stockholm: the complete guide to breweries, bars and taprooms
Stockholm: Swedish beer tasting tour in Old Town pubs
Duration: 3–4 hours
Where can I drink craft beer in Stockholm?
Top addresses: Akkurat (Hornsgatan 18, Södermalm) for one of Stockholm's broadest beer and whisky selections; Mikkeller Södermalm for Danish craft on 20 taps; Omnipollos hatt (Hökens gata 1A, Södermalm) for the Stockholm brewery's own beers; Brewdog Kungsholmen for international craft. Sweden has a growing local craft brewery scene — Omnipollo, Nils Oscar, and Dugges are the main Stockholm-area names.
Stockholm’s craft beer scene
Sweden has one of Europe’s strongest craft beer cultures for its size. The rapid development from the late 2000s — driven partly by the Swedish homebrewing tradition, partly by the influence of American craft styles, and partly by the particular quality-consciousness of Swedish food culture — has produced a brewery scene disproportionate to the country’s population.
Stockholm is the centre. The city has taprooms, specialist bars, and brewpubs spread across several neighbourhoods, and the Systembolaget off-licence network gives access to a curated selection unavailable in most European cities.
This guide covers the essential stops.
| Where | Akkurat, Omnipollos hatt and Mikkeller (all Södermalm), Brewdog (Kungsholmen) |
| Cost | Bar: 90–200 SEK/beer, Systembolaget: 40–80 SEK/can |
| Time needed | 2–4 hours for a proper crawl |
| Getting there | T-bana to Slussen, Mariatorget or Medborgarplatsen (Södermalm) |
| Best time | Evenings; Systembolaget closes early and is shut Sundays |
The anchor bar: Akkurat
Hornsgatan 18, Södermalm. Open daily (from 11:00 Monday to Friday, 13:00 Saturday and 15:00 Sunday, according to the bar’s website).
Akkurat is the starting point for any discussion of craft beer in Stockholm. The bar has been operating since 1995 and has built one of Stockholm’s broadest beer and whisky selections, combining Belgian ales, Scandinavian craft, German traditional styles, and international selections.
The tap selection changes regularly and is posted on the chalkboard above the bar. The bottle and can list is available as a physical menu and covers Belgian Trappist (Westvleteren is sometimes in stock), Lambic and Gueuze, American craft, and the full range of Swedish craft brewing.
Akkurat also has an extensive whisky menu and runs a whisky club with monthly tastings. For a combined craft beer and whisky evening, Akkurat is self-contained.
Food: Good pub food — Swedish open sandwiches, herring plates, proper pub food rather than snacks.
Crowd: Mixed local and visitor, serious drinkers rather than casual party crowd. You can have a quiet conversation here.
Omnipollo: the Stockholm brewery taproom
Hökens gata 1A, Södermalm (the SoFo area). Open daily 12:00–01:00, no reservations.
Omnipollo is the most internationally recognised Stockholm craft brewery — founded 2011, known for creative recipes, striking label art, and technical precision. Their beers are available across Europe and North America, and Omnipollos hatt is a brew pub where you can drink them on tap.
The bar serves pizza and snacks alongside a rotating selection of draft beers. The brewery’s production taproom, Omnipollos kyrka, is in a former church in Sundbyberg, just outside central Stockholm.
Best beers to try: Zodiak Hazy IPA, Anagram (their flagship wheat ale), and any of the barrel-aged stout releases. Ask the bartender what is fresh and interesting on the day.
Location: SoFo in Södermalm, a short walk from Akkurat’s end of the island, which makes it an easy second stop on a Södermalm beer evening.
Mikkeller Södermalm
Södermalm. Check mikkeller.com for the current address and opening hours.
Mikkeller is the Copenhagen gypsy brewery — one of the world’s most recognised craft beer brands, brewing at facilities across Europe and releasing constantly changing one-off and seasonal beers. Mikkeller’s website describes the Södermalm bar as its second bar in Stockholm, with 20 taps and a small menu focused on Danish street food and sausages.
The interior design is a Mikkeller signature — graphic, clean, colourful. The atmosphere is younger and more fashionable than Akkurat.
For visitors who already know Mikkeller beers, this is a comfortable and reliable destination. For those new to craft beer, Akkurat’s wider and more eclectic selection may be more interesting.
Brewdog Kungsholmen
Kungsholmen. Check brewdog.com for the current address and opening hours.
The Stockholm outpost of the Scottish craft brewery franchise. Brewdog maintains a mix of its own core range (Punk IPA, Hazy Jane, Neon Overlord) and local and international guest taps. The bar has a good range in the approachable craft beer spectrum.
For visitors who are familiar with Brewdog elsewhere in Europe, the Stockholm bar provides the same quality and comfort. For craft beer explorers looking for something Stockholm-specific, Omnipollo and Akkurat are more distinctive.
The beer scene by neighbourhood
Södermalm: The natural centre. Akkurat is the anchor, with Omnipollos hatt and Mikkeller Södermalm nearby, and a cluster of bars with decent craft selections along Hornsgatan and in the SoFo area.
Kungsholmen: Brewdog and a few neighbourhood bars. Good for a beer near the City Hall or before the ferry to Ekerö.
Systembolaget: the off-licence option
For self-catering visitors, Systembolaget is a surprising resource. The state monopoly has invested in craft beer curation as part of its consumer-choice remit, and larger Stockholm branches stock a selection of Swedish and international craft beer that compares well with specialist bottle shops elsewhere.
The larger central Systembolaget branches have the widest selections; find the nearest store and its opening hours on systembolaget.se. A good strategy: visit Systembolaget in the afternoon, pick up a selection of Swedish craft cans (Omnipollo, Nils Oscar, Brekeriet), and pre-drink in the apartment before going out — cutting the bar spend significantly.
Practical note: Systembolaget is closed on Sundays and public holidays, and has reduced hours or is closed on some holiday eves (including Midsummer’s Eve, Christmas Eve, and Easter Saturday). Check the exact hours on systembolaget.se and plan ahead.
Swedish craft breweries worth knowing
Omnipollo (Stockholm): Creative adjunct styles, internationally recognised, fresh on tap at Omnipollos hatt in Södermalm.
Nils Oscar (Södermanland, distributed across Stockholm): Traditional Swedish lager and pilsner alongside craft ales. The God Lager is a genuine Swedish classic.
Dugges Ale & Porterbryggeri (Gothenburg): Scandinavian hazy IPAs and fruited sours. Widely distributed in Stockholm’s better bars.
Brekeriet (Landskrona, Skåne): Wild fermentation, Lambic-inspired sours, fruit beers. The best Swedish producer in the Lambic tradition.
Omaka (Stockholm, newer): A nano-brewery producing small-batch releases with interesting local ingredients. Available primarily through Systembolaget’s ordering service.
Beer and food pairings in Stockholm
Swedish food and craft beer pair well naturally — the saltiness and umami of pickled herring works with malty amber ales; smoked salmon with dry hopped IPAs; kanelbulle (cinnamon roll) with brown ales and sweet stouts. If you are eating Swedish food and drinking craft beer in the same evening, Akkurat’s food menu is designed with these pairings in mind.
Building a craft beer evening around Södermalm
Because Akkurat and the Hornsgatan cluster sit inside Södermalm, a craft beer evening naturally folds into the neighbourhood’s wider nightlife. The bar scene in Södermalm guide covers the non-beer-specific bars worth knowing, and the Södermalm neighbourhood deep dive is useful for planning the walk between stops — SoFo, Hornsgatan, and Mariatorget are all within 10–15 minutes of each other on foot.
A workable evening: start at Akkurat around 18:00–19:00 for the widest selection while it is quiet, walk to Omnipollos hatt in SoFo for pizza and fresh draft beer, then decide whether to continue into a broader night out. If a full pub crawl is more the plan than a focused craft beer evening, the Stockholm pub crawl guide covers organised options and the wider bar circuit.
Book an Old Town beer tasting through Gamla Stan’s pubsBudgeting a craft beer night
Craft beer is one of the more expensive categories of Stockholm nightlife spend, and it is worth planning for. A single evening of 3–4 bar beers at 90–150 SEK each runs 300–600 SEK per person before food. The Stockholm budget per day guide puts this in context against overall daily spend — for budget-conscious visitors, the Systembolaget pre-drink strategy described above is the single biggest lever, often cutting a night’s beer spend by half or more without sacrificing quality, since the same Omnipollo or Nils Oscar cans sold at the bar for 150 SEK cost 50–70 SEK off the shelf.
Other Swedish drinking traditions worth knowing
Craft beer is one strand of Stockholm’s drinking culture, not the whole of it. The Spritmuseum guide covers the Swedish spirits museum on Djurgården, useful context for understanding aquavit and the schnapps tradition that sits alongside beer at most Swedish social occasions, including the crayfish parties and Midsummer feasts where beer and snaps are drunk together rather than beer alone.
Pairing beer with a proper Swedish meal
A craft beer evening works better with food in the middle of it than at the end. Omnipollo’s taproom and Akkurat’s pub menu both take food seriously, but if you want to eat Swedish dishes before you start, the Swedish meatballs guide and the smörgåsbord guide point to sit-down places that make a sensible first stop. Amber ales and brown ales are the safest match for rich, savoury plates, while lighter, hoppier beers suit the herring and smoked fish end of the table.
If you would rather have someone else choose the stops, a guided format can combine food and drink in one route. The Stockholm food tour guide compares the options, and a Swedish food walking tour through the Old Town is a relaxed way to eat well before you head to the taprooms. For a sweeter finish, the kanelbulle guide and the fika culture guide explain the coffee-and-bun habit that many locals keep up even on a beer-focused day.
How to read a Swedish beer list
Beer lists in Stockholm bars are often long and written in a mix of Swedish and English, so a few habits help. Start with the tap board, because it shows what is freshest and what the bar is most proud of. Ask for a small taster before committing to a strong or unusual style; bartenders at serious beer bars are used to the request and generally glad to help. Names of styles are mostly the international ones — IPA, stout, sour, lager — so you will not need Swedish to find something you like.
Do not ignore the lower-alcohol end of the list. Many Swedish breweries make excellent lighter beers, and on a long evening they let you taste more without losing the thread of the night. Water is free or cheap in most bars, and alternating it with beer is the simplest way to keep a crawl enjoyable.
Getting between the bars
The beer stops in this guide sit in different parts of the city, so the route matters. Södermalm and Gamla Stan are close enough to walk between, and the Gamla Stan neighbourhood deep dive helps you plan the Old Town part of the evening. Vasastan and Kungsholmen are better treated as separate outings: the Vasastan district page and the Kungsholmen district page describe what else is nearby, which is useful if you want to pair a bar with a daytime walk. For the metro, buses and tickets that connect everything, the Stockholm public transport explained guide covers how the system works.
For the wider picture of the two central neighbourhoods, the Södermalm destination page and the Gamla Stan destination page give context on history and atmosphere, which makes the evening feel like part of a visit to the city and not only a drinking session.
Tips for visitors new to Swedish drinking culture
Swedes tend to drink at a measured pace, and the best bars reflect that: you are expected to linger over a glass and talk, not to rush. Bring ID, since staff check it as a matter of routine. Tipping is not an obligation, so pay what the bill says and round up only if the service stood out. Many bars take cards for everything, which is explained in the Swish and payments guide for tourists. And if your plans include a crayfish party or a Midsummer table, the crayfish party guide shows where beer and snaps fit into those meals.
Frequently asked questions about craft beer in Stockholm
Does Sweden have a craft beer tradition?
Yes — a strong and growing scene since the late 2000s. Omnipollo is internationally the most celebrated Swedish craft brewery. Nils Oscar, Dugges, and Brekeriet are other important names.
What is Systembolaget and can tourists use it?
Sweden’s state off-licence monopoly — the only legal retailer for alcohol above 3.5% ABV. You must be 20 or older to buy there, and you will be asked for ID. (The age limit is 18 in bars and restaurants.) Good craft beer selection in larger branches.
What is Omnipollo?
Stockholm-based craft brewery founded 2011, known for creative styles and visual identity. Its bar, Omnipollos hatt (Hökens gata 1A, Södermalm), serves its beers on tap.
What is a typical craft beer price in Stockholm?
Bar: 90–130 SEK for 330–400ml. Off-licence (Systembolaget): 40–80 SEK per can.
Is Belgian beer available in Stockholm?
Yes — Akkurat (Hornsgatan 18, Södermalm) has one of the best Belgian beer selections in Scandinavia, including Trappist ales, Lambic, and Gueuze.
