Helka Sörfőzde

I visited Helka Sörfőzde a couple of weeks ago; it's about 90 minutes on the train from Budapest, right by the shore of Lake Balaton. The brewery is in a former railway building right across the tracks from the Balatonföldvár station, and the building has been thoroughly renovated and looks great. There's a big outdoor patio (and you can see the lake from part of it), plus a smaller area inside that's down in the basement so it stays cool in the summer. The service was friendly; you just order at the bar and take your beer up to the terrace.

They only had 5 beers on tap, with a focus on their flagships: an IPA, a kölsch, a dark kölsch, a cherry beer, and a hefeweizen. Everything also packaged in cans. I liked the kölsch and the cherry beer, although the IPA wasn't my favorite. Helka is worth stopping by if you're vacationing on the south side of the lake; it's super easy to get to and the terrace really is lovely.