Brauhaus Mitte
First we visited Brauhaus Mitte which is located close to the TV tower in the city centre. It is part of a large shopping mall and has seats for a couple of hundred people. We sat down for a quick refreshment and a bite to eat. There weren't many people there when we visited, and the table service was quite quick. I just had a tasting board, which came out with their three standard beers and their seasonal, complete with a little bowl of malt.
Tasting board at Brauhaus Mitte
From left to right are the Zwickel (which I later found out is like a Kellerbier), Dunkel, Pils and Hefe. All of the beers were very nice. The brewhouse itself was inside but wasn't operational when we visited.
After doing a little more research, I decided on a couple of other places to visit during our stay. Privatbrauerei am Rollberg was at the top of my list based on location and reviews I found on Beeradvocate. It's located in the middle of an industrial block next to an art gallery, go-kart track and paintball centre and was quite hard to find. After we found it, we grabbed a seat outside and asked the waitress if they had tasting glasses. She said 'yes' and then wandered inside, emerging a little while later with a small glass of each of the five beers they had on offer.
From left to right, Winterbock, Maibock, Hefe, Rot (red) and Hell.
Despite the industrial surroundings, it was a really nice place to sit for a couple of drinks and had a nice atmosphere. It seemed like a popular place for locals, a few of who rocked up while we were there and took advantage of the BBQ.
The terrace and BBQ at Privatbrauerei am Rollberg
After tasting all the beers I settled on a Rot, Britt on a Maibock and Anne on a Hell.
We also talked our way into getting a quick tour of the brewery. It's located in the basement of the old Berliner Kindl brewery which isn't operational anymore. Some of the old vessels still stick down through the ceiling, contrasting with the rows of smaller shiny fermentation and layering vessels.
The Rollberg brauhaus in the background. The bottom of the gaint old Berliner Kindl kettle sticking down from the roof.
Shiny fermentation and lagering vessels.
Later on that day in a beer garden, I tried my first 'proper' Berliner Weisse. Anne was kind enough to have put a few interesting beers in the fridge for me at home, which included a couple of bottles of Berliner Weisse which I had straight, but this was the first time I had it with syrup as the locals do. I had woodruff syrup, and it kind of tasted like rhubarb. The sweetness of the syrup almost totally hid the nice lactic sourness of the beer. It was quite refreshing, but a bit too sweet for my taste.
Berliner Weisse with woodruff
A keen German homebrewer that we met at Privatbrauerei am Rollberg had told me about a brewery nearby that claimed to be the smallest brewery in Germany. I wrote down the name of it and we decided to visit it a couple of days later.
Brauhaus Coepenick
Brauhaus Coepenick is a little glass structure in the middle of an old square in Koepnick, a suburb of Berlin. I'm not sure if it really is the smallest brewery in Germany, but it's pretty small, only producing 150 litre batches! The brewer said he brews two batches a day, usually finishing at around midnight! While we were there he finished the boiled of the first batch, and Anne and I were lucky enough to help him mash in the second batch! I'm lucky Anne was there to kindly translate for me as the brewer spoke no English at all.
Mashing in
The brewery makes a range of different beers in addition to the standard Hell and Dunkel. When we visited, they had a Buchweizen (buckwheat beer), Rauch-bock (strong smoked lager), Kirsch-chili (cherry / chilli) and also a beer inspired by the ancient brews of Babylonia. There was a list of other seasonals on the menu, which included Chicha! I tried all the beers and they were all pretty tasty, the Rauch-bock being my and Britt's pick of the bunch.
The tap range at Brauhaus Coepenick
From left to right, Kirsch-chili bier, Rauch-bock and Hell.
We had a great afternoon in the beer garden. They weren't serving food when we visited, but they said we were more than welcome to purchase food elsewhere and eat it in the beer garden, which we gladly did.
Another brewpub we visited was Brauhaus Südstern near Südstern station. It's a much larger place compared to Brauhaus Coepenick, with seats for a few hundred people and batch sizes of about 1000 litres. They had the usual Hell, Dunkel and Hefe on offer as well as a Kirsch (cherry) beer. The one from the menu I had to try was their XXL Bier, a 27.6% Eisbock. It was served in a shot glass ice cold. I let it warm up a bit and interestingly couldn't detect much alcohol in it at all. It tasted like lots of dark fruit and was quite nice.
XXL Bier at Brauhaus Sudstern
Overall I was pretty impressed with the micro brewed beers we had in Berlin. It would be nice to have a bit more of a variety of styles, but there are definitely some interesting breweries around!
P.S. We also brought home a few bottles of Gurkin Radler from Spreewald (see Britt's earlier post). It poured a clear, bright green and tasted very cucumbery! Not something I'd drink everyday but would definitely be refreshing quaffed cold on a hot, humid day.
Gurkin Radler
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