Turkish Beers: 14 Best Beer Brands and Craft Beers in Turkey

Despite conservative attitudes toward alcohol and tightened laws, beer is one of the most popular drinks in Turkey, and Turkish brewers are getting more adventurous with craft beer and microbreweries. The history of beer here goes back to Ottoman times, so this is less a new trend than a revival.

In the post-war years, the government had a monopoly on beer with the historic Bomonti brand, yet the market nowadays is dominated by two players: the Danish Tuborg/Carlsberg and the variety under the Turkish beer brand Efes group.

Craft beer is newer here, with the trend starting in 2011 at Gara Guzu brewery. Turkish brewers are getting experimental after heavy influence from international styles, and the results are worth seeking out.

This is part of our wider Istanbul food guide, and pairs well with our companion pieces on Turkish drinks, rakı, and Turkish wines.

Turkish beers at a glance

Beer	Type	Owner / origin	Notes from this guide
Efes Pilsen	Mass-market lager	Anadolu (Efes) group, est. 1969	Top seller; barley and hops forward but not very bitter; range from 3 to 9% ABV
Bomonti	Mass-market lager	Same group as Efes; began 1890s Istanbul	Historic name; balanced, light; 4.3 to 5.8% ABV
Tuborg	Mass-market lager	Carlsberg-linked, Turkey since 1967	Brewed to the German Purity Law; brews local and distributes imports
Marmara	Mass-market lager	Anadolu Efes group	Lighter, pale, slightly bitter; works better with food
Gara Guzu	Craft	Family brewery, Muğla, est. 2011	First Turkish microbrewery; blondes, ambers, stouts, beetroot beers; exports widely
Pablo Bira	Craft	Boutique brewery, Bodrum, est. 2017	Mediterranean-style, refreshing, summery
Feliz Kulpa	Craft	High-class producer	Smyrna Ale at 5% ABV; spiced winter ales; lingering aftertaste
3 Kafadar (Graf)	Craft	Brewed on their behalf for now	Citrus or chocolatey three-malt blends
Trokya Bira (2 Köprü)	Craft	Istanbul market focus	New flavor every few months; pineapple, marmalade, pine
Das Bira	Craft	Nano-brewery, Kırklareli	Unfiltered, unpasteurized; Das Dies’ale amber at 6.6% ABV
Bosphorus Brewing Co.	Craft	Istanbul, English expat founders	IPA = Istanbul Pale Ale; Norfolk hops; pub in Gayrettepe
Torch (The Populist)	Craft	Former Bomonti Brewery, est. 2014	12-plus taps; anise-flavored beer in homage to rakı
Pera Bira (Zıkkım)	Craft	Park Gıda	Big capacity but hard to find; dark, spiced, or nutty styles
Cunda Bira	Craft	Low-key microbrewery	Cunda Sour blonde ale at 7% ABV; Caribbean feel

Famous beer brands in Turkey:

Efes Pilsen

Founded in 1969, the parent group (Anadolu group) is a holding company that has dominated the Turkish market since the 1980s. Anadolu Group is the 6th largest brewery in Europe and the 11th largest in the world, and the star of their show is the Efes and Pilsen range. They’re the highest seller, perhaps because while the taste of barley malt and hops is dominant, their beers are not very bitter. With an extensive range, you may be able to find beers from 3-9ABV.

Frequent patrons of Wetherspoon may have tasted Efes before as they export to over 50 markets, and their holding company has breweries in various countries.

Favorites may be the classic Efes Pilsen with its iconic bottle, Efes Dark Brown, which has a coffee and chocolate aroma, Efes Draft with its fresh flavor, and Efes Dark with caramel aromas and at 6.5%.

Bomonti

Owned by the same group that produces Efes, Bomonti used to be the oldest beer in Turkey. The balanced alcohol and the light formula make this a favorite among young people and new drinkers. The 4.3-5.8% ABV range does include a variety with intense foam.

Bomonti beer began life in Istanbul in the 1890s. Created to rival beer imported from Munich at an affordable price, a beer garden was quickly established near the brewery with views of the Bosphorous, and the streets and neighborhood were named after the brewery.

This beer even became an official supplier to the imperial court. After World War I, this company was forced to sell to a Turkish company for the next ten years, after which the Turkish state took control. Unfortunately, the old brewery and beer garden was demolished after it ceased production. Some parts of the original site were preserved, and the Torch microbrewery now operates there alongside The Populist bar, which opened in 2016 (see below).

Tuborg

With a close relationship with Carlsberg for over 17 years, this is another major player in the Turkish beer market. Established in 1967 in Turkey, the Tuborg brewery started life in the 1870s in Denmark. That may explain why the Turkish ‘leg’ of Tuborg brews their own beer in Turkey and distributes imported beer.

Capable of producing over 36 tons of malt and 579 million liters of beer, this is one of the larger breweries. Highly focused on quality, they produce their beers according to the German Purity Law and approved by the Technical University of Munich.

Marmara

Another brand from the Anadolu Efes group, the Marmara range is a lighter option for newer beer drinkers. A touch bitter, this pale drink usually works better paired with a meal.

Craft Beers in Turkey:

Efes, unlike many conglomerates, is happy to share center stage with the microbreweries of Turkey. In order to help with the Turkish breweries, they funded Brewstival, a festival that had beer experts judge the home-brewing competition. Efes took a step back to let the smaller breweries show off their goods.

Another reality is that some restaurants and alcohol shops carry only a few brands because of restrictive distribution agreements, so the Turkish craft beers below can be hard to find in everyday spots. The craft sector is very much alive, with passionate producers and experimental flavors.

Gara Guzu

Escaping the city life, a couple moved to the Aegean city of Muğla, laid the foundations for a brewery in 2011, and created the first Turkish microbrewery.

Named with the region’s dialect, this “Black Sheep” brewery is always mentioned in all guides about beer in Turkey. With a variety ranging from blonde and amber ales to Irish-inspired stouts to beetroot beers, this family-owned business has something to whet everyone’s appetite. Whether it’s their collaboration with Irish company Jameson or whether it’s their dedication to forego preservatives, chemicals, artificial sweeteners, colors, and flavors, this dedicated company always seems to find itself invited to international beer conferences, beer festivals, and even exports around the world.

Pablo Bira

International styles with a Mediterranean twist, this company is inspired by the warm, sunny beaches of its home: Bodrum. With a variety of well-balanced, refreshing drinks, there seems to be a concentration of that exotic, summery taste.

Founded in 2017, this boutique brewery seems to love to recreate the invigorating tastes of abroad blended with a Turkish, summery vibe. You may be amused to find that the bakery that experiments with flavors such as chestnuts, tart fruit, and dry finishes has been named after the owner’s dog.

Feliz Kulpa

A high-class craft beer producer, this brewery has hardly automated its bottling/labeling, and they don’t keg. Their ASF Ale’Ya is wonderful during the winter due to their Christmassy spices, and their lovely red Smyrna Ale has 5% ABV with good malt, hop, and fruity palate. Their beers tend to have a lingering aftertaste that’ll have you reminiscing long after tasting.

3 Kafadar - Graf

3 Kafadar does tend to open their plant in the future but, at the moment, their carefully designed recipes are brewed on their behalf. Whether you want a citrus hit or a chocolatey taste with three roasted malts and two different types of hops, these harmonious blends may be up your alley. Sometimes referred to as a ‘postmodern take,’ you may wish to give Graf a try before you leave Turkey.

Trokya Bira - 2 Köprü

Trokya Bira is founded on the ideology of introducing boutique beer culture to the Turks. Every three or four months, this brewery introduces a new flavor of the beer. Flooding into the Istanbul market, these adventurous beers can boast flavors like pineapple, marmalade, pine, dried fruit, and a variety of buttery notes. Yep, you read right: pineapple flavors in an amber beer. Pleasantly surprising, you can find beer for all seasons: the sweet summery kind and ones with a hint of fall inside.

Das Bira

Dasbira, a nano-brewery located in Kırklareli is the brainchild of a young couple that once home-brewed themselves.

Their beers are produced without any filtration and pasteurization, waiting 6 weeks for fermentation and maturation. They use only the main ingredients, malt, hops, yeast, and water. The first beer of this brand is Das Dies’ale, a strong amber ale with a medium body, and 6.6% alcohol by volume. The beer’s name is inspired by diesel fuel, and they added ‘ale at the end because of the beer’s type.

The beer is malty, with notes of caramel and balanced by the hop aromas and bitterness. You can enjoy a Das Dies’ale in many shops, restaurants, and pubs in both bottle and draft forms.

Das Bira has a map on their website that lists all the places you can find their beer in Istanbul and Turkey; dasbira.com

Knidos Brewery and Bosphorus Brewing Company

A bit of a trek to get to in Gayrettepe, near Zincirlikuyu, their English-styled pub contains at least eight different taps of their own brewed beers. Based in Istanbul, their main brand is an IPA which, ironically, stands for Istanbul Pale Ale. However, with their brewery and restaurant run by two English expats from Doncaster, the IPA distinction seems more of an in-joke than anything. Established after Philip Hall began missing the beers back home, he began home-brewing. After teaming with Turkish businessman Sedat Zincirkıran, they started brewing up to 5,000 liters of beer.

If you can taste the Britishness in the beer, that’s because they import their hops from Norfolk. From ten days to sixty, this brewery is so focussed on innovation that they’re even working with a historian to brew an ancient Turkish wheat varietal to recreate tradition as well as using Turkish herbs.

Torch Brewery and The Populist Bar

Located in the former Bomonti Brewery, now an entertainment complex, the Torch brewing company was established in 2014 and poured its first batch in November of that year, with The Populist bar following in 2016. Utilizing custom-sized equipment and a floor plan that’s a little outdated, there were many hurdles to jump in order to brew their impressive range in such a historic location.

The Populist bar was built with a glass wall between itself and the Torch brewery so as to avoid any legal issues, and this place has at least 12 taps. The Populist has since opened a second Istanbul branch at Galataport. In homage to the rakı, the brewers have even created a beer with an anise flavoring. An experimental spot that has to be visited by any beer lover.

Pera Bira - Zıkkımm

If you anger a Turk, they may tell you “Zıkkımın kökünü ye” translated as “go eat the roots of the oleander plant” (Zakkum or Zıkkım) – which is extremely toxic. With its skull design, Zıkkım’s humorous play-on-words is a fun take on branding from a company owned by Park Gıda alongside its sister range, Pera Bira. Not a small company by any measure, considering they do have a facility capable of producing 52million liters of beer a year, they are hard to find as they don’t possess the same distribution networks of Efes and Tuborg.

Whether you like your beers dark – with a cardamon, spicy, deeply roasted grain, and dark fruits – or pales with banana aromas or a nutty, toffee/butterscotch beer, this brant has a long-lasting, bittersweet flavor for you.

Cunda Bira

A lowkey microbrewery, their blonde ale (“Cunda Sour”) is inspired by the island breeze. There’s a wonderful harmony and taste with 7% ABV. They have a summery, Caribbean feel.

Istanbul’s Best Craft Beer Bars and Pubs

For more places to drink, see our guide to the best bars in Istanbul. Several of these pubs sit in lively nightlife districts like Beyoğlu and across the water in Kadıköy.

Corner Irish Pub

Populist

Craft Beer Lab

Bosphorus Brewing Co.

Taps Bebek

Muhit Kadıköy (No.30)

Sanayi1A

Final words:

That covers the 4 main Turkish beer brands and 10 craft breweries. With this list you will know what to order whether you walk into a corner shop, a tourist restaurant, or a dedicated taproom.

If you want to pair the drinking with eating, our evening food tour runs through some of the best food neighborhoods in Istanbul with an expert local guide. We have been running tours since 2013, keep groups to a maximum of 10 guests, and hold a 4.95/5 rating from more than 7,800 reviews. Spaces are limited, so book ahead.